Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Idaho State
Dec. 7, 2016
Kohl Center – Madison, Wis.

Wisconsin Head Coach Greg Gard
Opening Statement:
"I'm happy for our guys, to be able to find a way to continue to get better in some areas, specifically defensively. I thought we were pretty sharp for quite a bit of that game. There were a few breakdowns here and there that we will look at on film, but I thought for the most part defensively, we were in position, we were attentive to detail and really did a pretty good job of making life difficult for them, specifically (Ethan) Telfair, who has been scoring at a high rate. Offensively, once we got into a groove and got the ball inside, we were able to get some things going. I never felt we were quite in sync, some of that was due to foul trouble, but like I said, I'm just happy for our guys. We were able to get a lot of guys some experience throughout the course of the game, and we will move on to the next one."
 
On giving the bench more minutes:
"You're trying to continue to work on the things that you've been working on for X-number of months. But I think defensively, we've started to see some things come together. Around the floor, whether it's post defense – I thought Ethan (Happ) did a really good job of making it hard on (Novak) Topalovic to catch the ball early – and I thought (Zak) Showalter did a really job on Telfair and other guys as well. We were really active off the ball, we really closed gaps pretty well, it was hard for them to get anything into the paint. We broke down a few times, but for the most part, we were pretty active in areas that we've been concentrating on. You want to try and play sharp, we understand that the level of competition, plus we're coming off two pretty high-end games, that there's going to be a little bit of a squeaking of gears so to speak. That happens, specifically when we get to this time of the year. As we enter, with what is coming next week with finals. So to be able to have guys on the bench that we can go to, to provide a little bit of a spark here and there, that obviously helps."
 
On Showalter's defense on Telfair:
"I thought we really steered him toward other defenders. I thought we knew that we couldn't defend him one-on-one, we wanted to try and wall off as much as possible, to use some of our terminology, really make it hard for him to get into any gaps, any separation, and I thought for the most part we did a pretty good job of wherever he turned, he obviously had a guy with him. But there was always presence in the gaps, so it minimized his angles that he could get with dribble penetration and I think that affected him. I think we discouraged him pretty early and knew that we were going to be pretty aggressive in those positions."

Zak Showalter
On whether it was nice getting a blowout win:
"Yeah it's nice. It kind of took a while to get going. Kind of a little dead but we came together I think at halftime and really played off of each other better in the second half and took care of business."
 
On what the key was to slowing down Idaho State's Ethan Telfair:
"I just didn't want to let him get comfortable, make him make some tough 2s and I think we did a good job as a unit tonight. We switched a lot of dribble hand offs so other guys were kind of matched up on him so that kind of helped but I think we all kept him taking tough shots and didn't let him get comfortable like I said."
 
On how the guys play in a low-energy environment:
"We've just got to create out own energy sometimes. It's games like this where you kind of get tested and you've just got to be ready to go every game. So I think we responded well and the offense wasn't always hitting all the time, but I think defensively we played better tonight."
 
On almost keeping Telfair scoreless:
"Yeah I didn't want him to get one obviously, I wanted to keep him to zero but he hit a tough one at the end and like I said, we played pretty good defense tonight."
 
On whether it's hard to focus on school and basketball this time of the year:
"Yeah I'm old so I've kind of got it all figured out by now, but we're all looking forward to Christmas break and it will kind of give us some time to just focus on strictly basketball."
 
Ethan Happ
On how much easier his job is when guards penetrate the lane:
"Much easier. When our guys up front are doing the job that they did tonight and they started to do a better job against Oklahoma in the second half, I don't have to come up and help so much off my guy which leaves drop down for him. So basically I only had a few times where I had to step up and help a little bit and other than that I just had to stay in front of the big guy."
 
On when his teammates draw defenders to leave him open under the basket:
"I mean, I'm a big fan of that I guess you could say. It's pretty simple when they're attacking like they do and they find the gap and they take that. I mean it'd be a pretty sad story if I was messing those ones up. I mean obviously it's nice to get those easy buckets going."
 
On whether it's hard to focus on school and basketball this time of the year:
"Maybe my true freshman year it was (tough) for me, but having a few years under my belt, I'm sure Showy can say the same thing, you learn how to manage your time. When you're doing school work you're not thinking about basketball and when you're on the court you want to have your school work handled so that's not kind of over your head thinking about it. So as long as you take care of your business outside of basketball, school doesn't become a distraction."

Idaho State Head Coach Bill Evans
Opening statement:
"Bad thing about coming to play a team like Wisconsin is you have to do this. Sometimes you go on the road and you get spanked a little bit and you talk to your radio guy and no one sees your face and you go home. Having to come in and see all of your smiling faces after getting beat by 40 is not all that appealing. All jokes aside, Wisconsin is a really good team – really good defensively. They are big and strong. They are well coached. They shoot it good enough. They can score the ball around the basket. I think they are really good defensively and that's why they're ranked in the top 15 in the country, because they are able to do those things. My team is better than it showed tonight, but Wisconsin had a lot to do with that. They have a good team and I take my hat off to them."
 
On UW's defense shutting down Idaho State's Ethan Telfair:
"I think they did a really good job at helping and I think that they know if you can stop him (Telfair), there's a good chance we're going to have a hard time scoring the ball. We tried to ball screen a little bit and everybody standing right there, he wasn't able to get in the lane like he usually does, and we probably didn't get enough ball movement. I think that's about as good a job anyone has done on him in two years. They had a good plan going in and they executed the plan."