Wisconsin vs. Milwaukee
December 9, 2015 - Kohl Center
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On getting a better look on the last possession: "We just hit the jumper before and when you're down you have to get it up, you can't wait till two seconds on the clock for one. So [Bronson Koenig] knew in his head what he had to do and if nothing else was open after he came off the bounce, and he set himself up, and that's a jumper he makes. You're going to tell me (that) he's going to go 2-for-10 (field goals) in the second half? I thought he had some really good looks. That's a jump shot he shoots pretty consistently. Maybe not tonight."
On not being as sharp in the second half:
"They threw a couple lobs into the post and hit a 3. You've got seven points early not because it's like we handed it to them, but we didn't knock down some shots. They left Vitto (Brown) wide open. Vitto (went) 1-for-9. Sharp would mean he had open looks. He hits a couple of shots then you call it sharp, but we didn't hit the open shots early. Then once we hit a couple we got back into the lead and then we couldn't buy a basket again for a long stretch. I think it was 13 possessions without a score or something like that and it's a one-point game. You get a guy like (Austin) Arians to shoot what he shot and (J.J.) Panoske, (we) got him in foul trouble. There are some good things we did in that game, but there wasn't enough."
On what the team could have improved on:
"I just thought there was a couple of times we let a shooter get too wide open, where we approached him but we had the hand down, but it's 24 points on 27 shots. From [3-point range] we knew they were going to take some and they had streaks too where they couldn't buy one. Without Nigel (Hayes), he was the one who was getting it done offensively. Again, just a great effort on his part."On Milwaukee's start to the second half:
"We made sure to say in the locker room at halftime that the first minutes would determine the rest of the game. We didn't come out with enough sense of urgency and as I told you yesterday you always know with these in-state games that teams will find a little extra to bring. We didn't match that or exceed that, so this is what we get."
On what they can take away from the loss:
"Listening to the scouting report and executing it. For instance, if I go down the line, we got the two bigs that can shoot and we gave them three or four 3-pointers, but we knew they could shoot. With (Austin) Arians, he got a good 3 and a good look for that. (Jordan) Johnson, we know that he goes all right hand, yet the entire game each screen he set was so that he could go to his right hand. We didn't do anything to make him go back to his other hand. As you go down the list, with the main bulk of the guys we did not do our job well enough. Our coaches work extremely hard to give us the recipes for wins and when you don't execute this is what happens."
On his career high in scoring:
"Points are irrelevant when you lose."
On the final play:
"We knew we were going to run the high ball screen and just kind of feel it out. They switch-timed me and we were in double bonus, so we probably should have drove and got some contact to get to the line."
On if the team's ability to move the ball in the second half was off:
"Not at all. I thought I moved the ball pretty well in the second half. I thought we just missed a lot of shots, me in particular. Our offense wasn't so much a problem, it was just listening to the scouting report and getting up on some of those bigs that could shoot that hit a couple of daggers on us and just not letting that ball get up in the post. They hit those free shots, which was the dagger."
On his shot selection in the second half:
"It's not a confidence thing at all. I would rather have Nigel (Hayes) and Bronson (Koenig) taking those shots, definitely. I tried to grab some rebounds, but it just didn't bounce my way as much in the second half. I did take only six shots and I could've taken a little more, but I'm not mad about the shot selection in the second half."
Milwaukee Head Coach Rob Jeter
Opening Statement:
"I don't know where to start. I guess the first thing is I'm really happy for our seniors, J.J. Panoske, Matt Tiby and J.R. Lyle. We've had some tough nights here in the Kohl Center, pretty similar to the first half. But through it all we kept ourselves in range. I'm not going to say we were in position to win, but we were in range. And then the 10-0 run to start the second half gave us a belief that we have a chance to do something special. But when it came down to it, it was just some basic plays, some ordinary plays, as coach talks about all the time, 'To do something extraordinary you have to do something ordinary.' The charge by Tiby, a couple post touches, I think there was a nine-minute stretch where they didn't make any field goals and we made free throws, which leads me to the key stat to me which is that for the first time we were able to get to the free throw line. We shot 27 free throws in the Kohl Center. That was the difference. That's what got us the win. I'm really proud of my guys, because in order to get to the free throw line you have to attack the rim and get it into the post and that's who we want to be and that's who we were tonight."
On Jordan Johnson:
"He was fabulous tonight. He might be 5-foot-9, I'm not sure. But tonight he played like he was 7 feet. He really attacked the rim and aligned the giants and really made some plays for us. I can't say enough about him. Here's a guys who just a few months ago was playing junior college basketball and now, like you said, he's here in the Kohl Center playing against the team that was in the national title game (last season) and he just didn't seem to be phased by that. I think that had a lot to do with our team. We had a lot of respect for Wisconsin, for the tradition, for that team. And we knew that we just had to try to do the most basic things to the best of our abilities to give ourselves a chance. I'm very proud of our team because we did that. I mean, Jordan was the epitome of that, that extra dribble to get to the body of those bigger guys, those extra passes, he was phenomenal."
On what it means at a personal level with Bo Ryan to come out with a win:
"Well, I've said on many occasions that the best way you can repay a mentor, a father figure, an uncle, a brother, a friend like Bo, is just try and put a team on the floor that plays well and plays the way he taught me to play the game. Tonight we played the game the way he taught me to play it. Our guys played the only way we had a chance to win a game like this. It's more of a compliment to him and everything he's accomplished and everywhere he's been. He's a winner, and like I said, another father to me. It's bitter sweet, there's no doubt about it. I mean, it's hard for me to really celebrate other than to just say thank you to Bo for all the things he's done for me and my family."
