Nov. 30, 2009

MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin is 4-1 after going 2-1 in the Maui Invitational last week. The Badgers host No. Duke on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. as part of the annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge, which will be televised by ESPN. UW also hosts Grambling State at noon on Saturday. Head coach Bo Ryan visited with media Monday to talk about upcoming opponent Duke and what the team learned from their experience in Maui. Below is the transcript.

Watch video of the press conference

QUESTION #1: How have you game-planned defensively in order to deal with Duke's ability to stretch the floor with their great three-point shooters?

Bo Ryan: Well, let's see. We've faced a lot of teams with good three-point shooters, and you can't make up a defense just for one game. You know, you get your matchups, you get your tendencies, just like we do against every other team, and you play it from there. That's not their only strength. They also can attack. They find people. They're basketball players. So we have a lot more to deal with than just Duke's three-point shooting, believe me.

QUESTION #2: What's the lowest shooting percentage you've had as a team and won? Do you remember what it is? Is it 31 percent, something like that? Duke . . . beat UConn with 28.4 percent. Can you just talk about how difficult that is to do?

RYAN: Well, it is hard. You got to be playing pretty good defense. As a coach, it happened against Stevens Point when I was at Platteville, 29 percent I believe it was, and the reason was because they blocked about 15 shots, but we fouled their big guys out. So we took it at them, and they fouled out. And if I'm not mistaken, I think a couple of Connecticut's bigs were on the bench quite a bit. So you know, you can shoot that percentage and get away with it if you're getting to the free throw line and if defensively you're making sure you get your stops.

QUESTION #3: Bo, as you look back at that game two years ago, what do you think happened in that game?

RYAN: You know, I really haven't looked at that one that much because this is a different team. We got into a foul trouble. They shot lights out. One of the guys that shot lights out left the team, I guess because he couldn't play against Wisconsin every night. He's at--where is he now? Villanova, yeah. The cheesesteaks and hoagies lured him there, I guess.
But you know, they hit shots that were there. You look at, and you can't; if you overreact to one game or under-play a game, it's probably not very good for the overall psyche of your players. And you know, we took a couple bumps early in the year that year and learned from them and got better, but we just got out of sync. And when it got away from us, trying to play down there in a place we're not familiar with, to play from behind is hard.

QUESTION #4: The defense that Duke's been showing so far has been pretty much different than what you faced two years ago. Can you just talk about the difference and what you might see based on what they've shown you so far?

RYAN: Well, they do a lot of different. They can extend if they want, or they can give a lot of help. So we prepare for everything. We prepare for zone. We're not going to go into a game not running in our practices, which is all you can do, a little bit of everything. So that's what we've done the past couple days and we'll do today and tomorrow.

QUESTION #5: Are you happy to get an ACC/Big Ten Challenge game here, first of all, and with Duke, secondly?

RYAN: Well, if I have one more person ask me, well, how did you guys get Duke, because everybody is saying you're not very good. I said, I don't know. Duke's picked to win the league or one-two with Carolina, whatever it is, and, well, we get a home game. And I think you have to look at who needs to go on the road. I think Purdue is getting a second home game in a row, where we're going to get another home game next year too. We're just happy to be getting a quality opponent for our preparation, for our fans, for our players.
    Marcus (Landry) and Joe (Krabbenhoft), Kevin (Gullikson) and Mo (Morris Cain)--that sounds like a little memory thing here, those four guys leave playing three out of four games on the road, correct? I believe they did. So you know, all I did when I petitioned the Big Ten to petition to ESPN and everybody else that supposedly puts this together, I think it would be fair, if you go through it, every once in a while there might be one team that falls out of the average. But for us, that's just not right, and they agreed. They actually agreed and said, okay, we'll send you Duke, and that's who we got.

QUESTION #6: They've gone into some pretty good Big Ten gyms in the last couple years and won easily. Is this where the even keel thing that you stress so much is so important, that you don't try to make it into a crusade or whatever so that they can take advantage of that?

RYAN: We've won in Big Ten places easily? Oh, oh, I thought you said we did. I was going to have you bring up those games. Aren't very many, easily, in this league. Yeah, well, you know, (Purdue head coach) Matt Painter's a guy who came out in the comment saying if I had something to say to Wisconsin, it would be to not put everything in. Matt should know me. I'll be 62 in another week or so, or couple weeks, whatever it is. I'm not saying I've seen everything, but the guys that have played for me will tell you that no matter who we're playing, let's get to work and let's prepare and let's do it. There aren't any changes for this from my standpoint.
I think the players hear a lot of stuff, and rightfully so, in any sport. There are teams that have earned the right to be a powerhouse, and Duke has earned that right on the court with what they've done. But I think our players have earned the right to have some things said about them too, and the teams here, especially since going to the NCAA tournament in 1994, Wisconsin's been a player nationally. I mean, our students will probably mention it to our players, "Oh, yeah, you got Duke on Wednesday." Okay. But from this guy, it's, "Okay, on this drill, you need to be here, you got to rotate there." What's the difference no matter who we were playing?

QUESTION #7: When you look through the Duke stats, one of the things that really jumps out, to me anyway, was Scheyer's assist-to-turnover ratio. I think it's at 32 assists, four turnovers in the games. Just talk a little bit about what that good senior does for Duke.

RYAN: You really think I need to explain what you just said? You just said it. I mean, that's a great ratio. You need that at that point. And if you have that, your chances of being successful are greatly increased, and he's doing it. He's getting it done.

QUESTION #8: What did your experience in the Maui Invitational tell you about your team at this stage in the season?

RYAN: That they want to compete, that they're tough, that they can bounce back, and that they can handle a little adversity, foul trouble, the ball not going in. You know, you find out about people in the struggle, so to speak. And it's always about the struggle. That's where the joy lies, as they say, in the struggle and not so much in the victory or whatever else happens. It's the idea that what you go through and what it does for you. So hopefully it will help us be more competitive in our next games. I didn't just make that up. Gandhi, I think, said it a long time ago, and a few other people.

QUESTION #9: Bo, in what way is this Duke team different from two years ago, and what about Duke is almost always the same when you play them?

RYAN: Well, you know what they say that about the programs that have been traditionally successful. There's something they hang their hat on. Defensively, being in the right spots, helping one another, committing and giving up of yourself a little bit for the team. On offense: good shots, good reads, don't beat yourself, just the things that when they ask you to talk at clinics, and you start with 101.
Now getting your teams to do it, year in and year out, there's the challenge, and Duke's been able to, for the most part. Some years are tougher than others, but he's got the right mix right now. People always want to keep looking at flaws, potentially, on paper or lack of this, lack of that, but their team still does a lot of good things together.

QUESTION #10: Could you talk about the growth you saw in Mike Bruesewitz and Jordan Taylor in Maui?

RYAN: Are you related, by any chance? Am I going to be held to this? How about Mike? That look on his face when we were in foul trouble, we're scratching, we're searching, and coaches make eye contact. I'll never forget in a game in the Eastern finals that we were playing in high school, and this guy fouls out, and our coach is looking down the bench, and it's so funny the way he describes the guys on the bench. One guy did one of these. I know people listening out there can't see that.
And another guy reached for a towel . . . here, and another guy, he said he looked like he was going to get sick, and finally he got down to this guy who was looking him right in the eye. "Okay, Larry, you go in." And the guy that went in did a great job for us. We ended up losing the game in overtime, but, boy, he did a great job. He ended up being the head of the hospital system for the state of Michigan or University of Michigan hospital system and did very well for himself, and all because he sat there on the bench and was like, "Put me in."
I look at the bench, have you ever seen Mike Bruesewitz up close? You know, he's been called Opie by a few. "Mike, go." And Mike went in there, and, boy, that's why you coach, one of the many reasons, but him going in there and getting something done defensively. He doesn't have to score a lot of points. He obviously passed the ball a lot better than he did against Oakland when we put him in. He was a little too excited against Oakland. But the lift he gave us, we don't come back 2-1 without his contributions.

QUESTION #11: What was the key to shooting better from the outside in that last game out in Maui, and can you that continue?

RYAN: Well, we looked at shots, but we always look at shots. Boy, it's not like they were clanking the front or whacking the bracket in the back on the ones that missed. Double-rimming out on so many of Jason's (Bohannon), Keaton's (Nankivil). Very few of them were what you would call clankers. So if you're shooting clankers, then that would be more of an issue. But Gonzaga was definitely fresher than us. To their credit, they must have used that extra rest pretty well, because they had a little more bounce, they had a little more.  
And again, a team that travels like that, I mean, you look at all the class days that a Gonzaga player misses with their travel schedule, I don't know how they do it, because we can't do it here. There's a limit of six class days that you can miss, but they're used to traveling. So for them to bounce back that next day, I think, I think that was an advantage for them. But it helped us for Wednesday's game to play a team like Gonzaga.

QUESTION #12: You applaud Keaton's effort trying to dunk the way he did in Maui. Kind of a bad shooting percentage there for him. Just talk a little bit about what you talked to him about maybe during the film session.

RYAN: Well, sometimes you need to go up with two hands strong. Plus, if you get bumped or if there's a slight, if there's somebody underneath you, whatever, your chances are better grabbing the rim, and that's why they allow these players to grab the rim when you're aggressive to it, sometimes you might have to grab it. I don't know how many in the room here have ever had that issue...
    When I was in . . . league they didn't have collapsible rims then. They were eight and a half feet. And if you took it, you wanted to take it strong, and you have a better chance with two hands of not getting hurt and coming away with a successful throwdown. But he's been aggressive to the rim. We like that. That's a definite improvement from last year, when he was timid.

QUESTION #13: How about Jordan Taylor's game offensively, seeing it come alive against Gonzaga, is that something you see quite a bit in practice that maybe doesn't translate into games very often, that we've seen of him so far?

RYAN: "Well, it's called getting in the gym on your own. He's been, I'm sure, in the gym, taking extra shots, those types of things, on his own. You might have to ask him, or with a coach when he can, making sure we stay within the 20 hours and all that. But he's been putting in some extra time. He wants to be a player. And there's another guy that's definitely improved from last year."