February 17, 2017
Wisconsin vs. Michigan State
UW Field House - Madison, Wis.

MAT TALK

Junior Ricky Robertson
On the team's performance overall:
"Overall, I'd say we did pretty good. Obviously, we won eight out of 10 matches so that's always good. Obviously, we're always looking to go 10-for-10 so not quite where we want to be at, but it's something to improve on and we're looking forward to Sunday. Hopefully we can capitalize on the matches that we didn't today and get big wins against a good team with Central Michigan."

On how tonight's win propels the team forward:
"For myself specifically, I mean it's always good to get a win confidence-wise. Coming off a tough run back in January and a little bit in February, it's good to get on, I guess a two-match win streak in a sense. So, hopefully, these two matches and then also the Central Michigan match can propel us all in the Big Tens and Nationals."

Redshirt Junior Andrew Crone
On how things went for the team tonight:
"I thought our wrestling was alright. I need to be a little more offensive that's for sure, but I got another chance Sunday so I just have to get a little bit back on track."

On how he reversed his comeback history tonight to get the first takedown:
"Yeah, actually, I told my coach before the match that I'm going to make sure I don't give up the first takedown. It's kind of been a little bit of a problem, starting kind of slow and I can always put some pace up at the end because I'm in pretty good shape, but it was definitely good to get out to a good start this match and not really have to come back for a third."

On how tonight's win propels him going into Sunday's dual:
"It's good. Just good getting your weight down, getting in the swing of things, and then getting ready to go again on Sunday."

On what he'll work on going into Sunday:
"Not much to change. Just try and make sure I'm clicking and really stand on the offense on Sunday, that's for sure."  

Associate Head Coach Trevor Brandvold
On what he saw from the team today:
"We beat a Big Ten team. We won eight out of 10 weight classes. I felt like we saw a lot of the things we've been working on in practice and there's things that are recurrent issues that stopped us from maybe building on our leads or finishing matches the right way, things we've been talking about for a month now. So it's time to straighten those out. We're going to talk about it tonight, talk about it tomorrow and come out ready Sunday against Central Michigan."

On how it was to see Andrew Crone come out and take the first takedown:
"Yeah, that's been a huge focus with Andrew Crone. He doesn't like the nickname 'Comeback Crone' because he doesn't want to give up points. He doesn't want to give up the first takedown, so it's been a huge emphasis of ours to go out and get that first takedown and that's what he did tonight so that was great to see. It was a great step. He knows that if he gets down, he can come back, but in order to reach his goals this year, in order to get on the stand, he needs to build leads and know that he can win the close one but come out firing right away and get to his offense."

On who he saw as tonight's standout performance:
"I mean we take what Connor Medbery does for granted because he's done it for so long, but it's just phenomenal watching him wrestle and knowing the hard work that he puts in, in the room to make it look easy out here. Eli Stickley had a breakthrough win. That was a great win, a tough opponent and Eli won the match how he's going to win matches, by getting to a takedown, defending shots and riding hard and that's what he did tonight."

On how tonight's match propels the team forward for Sunday:
"I think there's a little bit of not looking ahead towards Sunday, but knowing that there's some really big matchups Sunday. Central Michigan has a really good dual team. They're solid from 125 to heavyweight, so the big thing with them is going to be making sure that we win the fight on Sunday. It's going to be a fight. They come. They're a tough team, they don't give up points easy, so it's going to be a fight and we have to be ready for that Sunday."

On what the main correction will be for Sunday's dual:
"I think coming out and keeping guys off of our heads. Sometimes we make wrestling too complicated. It's refereed street fight out there, so when you have a guy that's just pulling on your head that's going to wear you out, it stops you from getting your offense and it's letting that guy control the action. We need to go out and keep guys off our heads, move, and that will help us create square opportunities to score more points on Sunday."