Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Green Bay
Dec. 14, 2016
Kohl Center – Madison, Wis.

Opening Statement:
"Well, obviously for our players, happy again because it's not an easy game to come off the Marquette game and then play another in-state school. (We're) Going into finals, Green Bay's going into theirs too, but I thought we were solid enough and consistent enough for the most part. Specifically, defensively, I thought we were very good at times and made life hard for, specifically, Cooper and Anderson, two guys that we tried to bottle up as much as possible. (Zak) Showalter was really good on Anderson, for the most part, and just team-wise I think we did a pretty good job defensively. Then offensively, once we got in synch, specifically in the second half, we got to the bonus really quick before the first media timeout. I think that really set the tone for the second half of what we wanted to do of touching the paint and trying to get to the rim as much as possible and get to the free throw line and take advantage of what we had inside."
 
On keeping turnovers into single digits:
"We don't get too wound up in the quantity, it's what caused it, what we were trying to do that created the turnover. For example, Nigel's (Hayes) backdoor pass to (Khalil) Iverson in the first half, right decision, we just bounced it a little too hard ahead of him. But, that was the right pass, so that's the type of turnover you've got to live with and execute a little bit better. There were some others (turnovers) where we dribbled into areas that we didn't belong or the ball got too high or we dribbled when we shouldn't be dribbling. Those are the [turnovers] we got to continue to improve. But yes, nine, nine with the type of pressure that we're going to put on and, obviously, I don't know what a difference a year can make, but happy for our guys for that because that's been talked about probably for a year as well."

Ethan Happ
On hitting a jump shot and the crowd's reaction:
"Bronson (Koenig) said in the locker room that was the loudest the Kohl Center's been all year. It's nice, it gave me a little bit of a chill feeling, but I want to get to the point where they don't have to do that every time that I make a shot. Hopefully down the road it's just a normal clap."
 
Zak Showalter
On getting some open 3-point shots:
"They doubled down off of me pretty much every time Ethan caught it, so obviously looking at his stats, six assists and one turnover, it's just good to see the ball go through. It really felt good tonight."
 
On his success defensively:
"We've been working, just getting in gaps ad nauseam in practice pretty much for the last three months, so that's something coach Gard's really stressed. I've tried to work on that and just be able to get my hands on the ball as much as possible. Some nights you're able to do it. Some nights you get called for ticky-tack fouls, so tonight I was able to do it so I'll take it."

Head Coach Linc Darner
Opening statement:
"I thought we tried to come out with a game plan, trying to jab at a few guys and try to get them to hesitate to shoot. That didn't work too well. Zak (Showalter) came out and hit three 3s. (We) Kind of had to go away from our game plan, but I think Wisconsin's really good. They're hard to guard, (so many) mismatches they can go to and I think we struggled a little bit with that. I think they exploited a few of our guys. I think that was pretty evident there down the stretch. I thought our guys did a decent job there at the end battling back and making it a little bit respectable." 
 
On if Zak Showalter's shooting was surprising:
"No. He was, I think, 10-for-29 on the year; made less than one a game. I think with playing them you've got to pick your poison. What are you going to give up? We didn't want to give him wide open 3s and he hit them. He came out almost like he knew. I'm wondering like the Wake Forest thing right now if somebody called and told him what we were going to do there, because it was almost like he knew we weren't going to come out and guard him and he just caught it in a rhythm. Our thing was we wanted to jab at guys. Try to get guys to think, are we coming are we not. It's probably something we haven't worked on enough or haven't done enough of to be able to do to go from pressuring to all the sudden now we're not supposed to go out and guard him. That's probably my fault, I probably made it too difficult. We wanted to try and play the percentages."