HD Video: Bo Ryan reacts to win over Indiana
Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan met with the media following the Badgers’ 64-59 win over Indiana on Tuesday night at Assembly Hall.
Watch and listen to his comments in the embedded media player below:
Quotes after the jump.
On taking away IU’s transition offense:
“Well I’m still extremely upset about the three points that they got in transition. They got those three points at the end of the first half after we took a bad shot and then (Christian) Watford got a kick-out for a wide-open three. It’s just what we normally do. We try to take away giving up easy baskets. I think everybody in the country says that and then you’ve got to do it and our guys have bought into that, especially tonight because Indiana is that good. They can run it right down your throat. They can get 100 on you. They have the potential to do that.”
On holding Cody Zeller without a field goal in the second half:
“I’d like to say that there was some coaching strategy. We just didn’t move out feet and get into the spots and the angles that we normally do and Zeller is that much better this year and he just destroyed (Jared) Berggren and (Frank Kaminsky). It’s one of those things where footwork is so important in this game but I thought we did a much better job moving our feet and getting defensive angles in the second half and then he had a tougher time maybe getting his looks. It was all about our feet and we got some help to him and the fact that they weren’t exactly shooting it that well from outside. We know what that’s like. We’ve had games like that where we can’t buy a basket from the outside so it doesn’t open up the inside but Zeller is a better player this year and he showed that. And if it took 20 minutes to show our guys that he’s that good so be it but we really didn’t change anything with our positioning, we just did it better.”
On how a win like this will help his team:
“Yeah, it sure is. If you’re going to beat a team like this, you have to have a lot of things go well and I thought we took pretty good care of the ball considering their pressure and athletic as Indiana is. Yeah, the thing is though in this league, like I told our guys `let’s enjoy for 24 hours and then we know we got to get ready for Iowa at Iowa’. But I really liked how hard our guys played and the adjustments that the guys made on the court. I thought our assistants did a good job at practice for getting us ready for this game because the head coach is a little under the weather and I don’t how many of you guys have missed where you’re going around from but it’s like `whoa’ I feel like someone just took me in the corner and worked me over.”
On how taking care of the ball led to not allowing transition baskets:
“Yeah well we knew that if they got it going in transition they can score in bunches because all you have to do is look at their game films. So our goal was not to let that happen but saying it and doing it, having it as a plan, are two different things. It just so happened to work today.”
On making key free throws down the stretch:
“You know if you just play the game and have the right attitude about it, you make good things. If you’re a nervous nelly or whatever term you use, you can’t antagonize about every little thing when you play. Players have to play.”
On Yogi Ferrell’s three to cut the game late, which brought the crowd back into it:
“That was something else. Now why did we leave him? We’re not going to leave a guy wide open. I’ll have to get that one when I go to the film. I think it was (Mike) Bruesewitz went to take Watford or somebody inside and he left. That was a huge shot for them because that could have been the turning point. Fortunately our guys didn’t wilt.”
Filed to: Bo Ryan, Wisconsin Badgers