Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Northwestern
Feb. 12, 2017
Madison, Wis. -- Kohl Center

Wisconsin Head Coach Greg Gard
Opening statement:
"First of all, I knew Northwestern had a good team coming in and they played really well tonight. Some of it was to our undoing, but they defended us in certain areas very well. We weren't able to capitalize on it in other areas, whether it's things out of the double team or other areas in the paint, to be able to capitalize on what they were doing. Chris (Collins) has a good team. I think, for us, we're getting everybody's best shot. Knowing that we're marked is good for us and we'll continue to learn and grow and get better. Nothing that happened in this game is surprising in terms of areas that we can improve upon. Now we'll have another challenge ahead of us Thursday night at Michigan to see if we can improve."

On issues carrying over from the previous game against Nebraska:
"I think specifically taking care of the ball ignited them in the first half. We had a lead when it was 19-12 and they go on a 16-0 run in six possessions. That was obviously a big part of it. We were a bit better in the second half. I think we need to improve on finishing in the paint. I thought we did a decent job, but they got timely rebounds. There were times when it was nip and tuck, back and forth, and we were able to force them into a tough shot or one time it was an air ball that went over the rim. It was more so timely rebounds than anything else, but I think we did a good job of keeping them off the glass."  

On if the players were frustrated when shots weren't falling:
"I don't know if it was so much the frustration thing of shots not dropping, because I think the thing that was most frustrating was the turnovers and then the transition points we gave up as a result of the turnovers. I think that's more frustrating than the ball not going in consistently. I think guys, other than Bronson (Koenig), knocked down some 3s with Vitto (Brown), (Zak) Showalter, Meech (D'Mitrik Trice) hit one, Charlie (Thomas) hit his. Maybe the shot selection at times, when we made our run, we really touched the post and we were really making a point to get inside. I think we had three stops in a row around 52-51 and we went two possessions where we didn't go inside with ill-advised 3s quick in the possession."

Wisconsin Senior Nigel Hayes
On the team's feelings after the loss:
"Frustration. Frustration is the worst feeling. We've had this same conversation and we've been telling you the same things, but for some reason unfortunately people listen more, listen to each other and coaches when we lose a game. It's similar to experience being a great teacher. Like a rat in a box, you can push it and food comes and that teaches you a lot. Or like if you put your hand on a hot stove, same reaction, but for some reason you really don't touch the stove anymore. Apparently we have to lose in order to learn the things that we've already been saying. I've felt like we've lost the last six games in a row that we've been playing, but we won them. We kept doing those mistakes and it finally caught up to us…Hopefully now that we were unfortunate enough to lose a game, we'll start to take that step and that direction from going from a mediocre/good team to a great team."

Northwestern Head Coach Chris Collins
Opening Statement: 
"Just really proud of my team tonight. The other night we had a tough loss at home with the lead with about three minutes to go and we knew when you lose a home game in this league you got to go on the road and you got to get it back somewhere. We knew the challenge that was ahead of us with this team. We know how good they are and they've won about eight or nine in a row and just really proud of our effort tonight. I thought our defense was the story of the game, certainly Bryant's (McIntosh) play was magnificent, but I was really proud of our team defense. They put you in so many tough spots with their posts offensively and their shooting and their passing and their big guys, you can't guard either of those guys one-on-one. I thought we did a pretty good job in communicating with our double teams and getting out the shooters and the thing I was really proud of was how we responded after the run to start the second half. We knew they were going to go on a run. They're too good, they never lose here, so I didn't know they were going to score the first 10 points of the second half, but we called a timeout, we regrouped, Derek got fouled there, made one out of two free throws and I thought it kind of just steadied us. We were able to take back control of the game, so it was a great effort, terrific win against a great team and I'm really proud of our guys."
 
On double teaming Ethan Happ defensively:
"So many of the coaches in this league are really good. They're really smart, they're really good, the gameplans are always very good, so I think when you watch film, you try to study what other teams did. With us being a little bit under-manned right now, we would have doubled, we have been the last couple games because also we've been playing against really good big guys. We played against Purdue. We played Maverick Morgan who we respected as a big for Illinois. So, I think through tape you see some things maybe, and then also too though, you got to get some help. You're going to give up some open shots, so if you're going to try to get it out of Ethan's hands and out of Nigel's (Hayes) hands, you're probably going to live with Vitto (Brown) shooting some open shots, (Zak) Showalter getting some open ones, (Bronson) Koenig and you just maybe hope that they're not hitting them all. We were a little bit fortunate with that where they made some shots, but especially Bronson, he's a terrific player, we got a little fortunate that he was missing tonight."
 
On how this win felt in comparison to the win in the Kohl Center three years ago:
"I talked about that game a couple of years ago because about a month before that, it was my first Big ten game as a rookie coach and we were losing 40-14 at halftime at Welsh Ryan and I thought that game my first year was kind of the start of our program. We played really well here, we got a big win. I thought it kind of jumpstarted what we were going to become. Tonight, I'm just so proud of our guys. Especially after the last two games, we were trying to figure out how to play without having Scotty, how to reinvent ourselves quite a bit. There's more on these guys' shoulders. It's who you're playing against too. This is one of the truly elite teams in the country and against guys that I greatly admire and respect and a program that I respect and have for a long time as someone who loves basketball. So anytime you get a chance to win against a program like this, it feels really special."