March 11, 2012
? Ryan's Press Conference 
? |? Players' Press Conference
MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin men's basketball coach Bo Ryan and player Jordan Taylor and Jared Berggren met with the media Sunday after the Badgers' selection to the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Archived video of their appearances can be found above, while complete transcripts can be found below.
MODERATOR: Hello, everybody. Well, we'll break up this press conference into two portions. We'll have Jordan Taylor and Jared Berggren first, then Coach [Bo] Ryan will join us in a little bit. As you no doubt saw, Wisconsin earned a No. 4 seed and will play in Albuquerque, N.M. against No. 13 Montana.
This is the 18th time Wisconsin has been selected for the NCAA Tournament and the 14th consecutive year. That is the third longest streak of consecutive NCAA appearances in Big Ten history. And we can dive right into questions for Jordan [Taylor] and Jared [Berggren].
QUESTION #1: Do either of you guys know much about Montana? Have you seen the play at all?
Jared Berggren: I have not seen them play. Pretty much the only thing I know, I guess, is I know Freddie Owens is an assistant there, which is kind of cool, having a former player, someone that obviously knows a lot about our program and what Coach [Bo] Ryan likes to do. But other than that, I haven't seen a whole lot about them. I know they're a good team. Every team that makes this tournament is good, and I'm sure the coaches will do a great job of getting us prepared in the next few days and have us ready to go by Thursday.
Jordan Taylor: Yeah, same thing. I think I've actually them once maybe. I know they've got a guard that won like Defensive Player of the Year out there or something, or was in the running for it, something like that. They've got, obviously, a good team. They're in the tournament for a reason.
QUESTION #2: Jordan, last year during the run, you talked a lot about, you know, what it meant to get the wins in the tournament for the seniors. And now, as you being a senior yourself, have you thought about, you know, what this opportunity means to you in your last year here?
TAYLOR: Yeah. It's kind of the last run and it's one and done, so you've got to leave it all out there. It's really your last time to get to, anytime could be your last time to get to put on a Wisconsin uniform, so I'm going to go out there and play hard and give it my all. I mean, I always do, but, just especially now with it being NCAA Tournament.
QUESTION #3: Both Jordan and Jared. Do you guys draw, can you draw anything from last year? You didn't play well in your only game at the Big Ten Tournament. Played well in those first two games out in Tucson, and I know you guys didn't think you played as well as you can against Michigan State. Is there anything you can draw from that experience?
TAYLOR: It's obviously different years, but you've just got to come out, and like I said, play hard every possession and every minute you get. You kind of leave it all out there and see what happens.
We feel like we're going to come out and play well. That's the only mindset you can go into a game with. Obviously, we lost to a really good Michigan State team, but we feel confident. We feel like we've been playing well over the past month and a half, couple months, so just go out there and play hard and leave it all out there.
BERGGREN: He pretty much said it. Every time you play, there's something you can learn. Especially when you take a loss and you made some more mistakes that you can learn from and always something to improve on that we'll work on in the next few days, like I said, try to get prepared. Try to learn as much as we can about our upcoming opponent by Thursday and try to move on and try to get a new streak going.
QUESTION #4: For both you guys, when you look at who's in your region and all that kind of thing, you're sitting up there, what do you think? Do you think, ooh, that's a tough region, or it's not a tough, or, I guess, or don't you think about that? What were you thinking when you saw the teams that you got placed with in general?
TAYLOR: Yeah. I mean when you see everybody getting placed, the teams, you have a reaction to certain teams. But every team that's in this tournament is capable of winning. There are teams that you look at and you might say if you played them early in the year, ?Man, we'll beat them by 20 at home.? But that's definitely not the case. Everybody has earned their right to be in the tournament, and everybody's going to play hard. No game is an easy one, so we're just coming in, trying to find ways to beat good teams.
BERGGREN: I mean, pretty much said. You try to take it one game at a time, too. You can't look at the whole region, expect to walk through it and expect to get to the Sweet 16 and play, I think it's Syracuse, is that the No. 1 seed in our region? I mean, or whoever. You have no idea who you're going to get matched up with.
But it doesn't matter. All we're focused on is our game one, Montana on Thursday, and that's going to be our focus. Hopefully we can survive and advance and move onto the next one after that.
QUESTION #5: Jared, what stands out for you, both from the team perspective and individually, about the loss to Michigan State on, down in Indianapolis?
BERGGREN: I think for myself, I didn't do nearly as good of a job as I could've have keeping the ball out of the post. There were a couple of times where I maybe took some gambles trying to deflect a pass away that I ended up missing, ended up giving up easy buckets and didn't do a great job of rebounding; things that you can always work to improve on. It's something that I'll have to do a better job of no matter who we're playing.
Michigan State's a good team. They kind of took us out of what we were successful with in the past, and a lot of credit has to go to them. They're a very good team. They earned a No. 1 seed in the tournament for a reason.
Some of that's on them, and some of it's on us, too, of just not executing our stuff, not taking care of the ball and sticking to our defensive principles; things that help us be successful. So there's room for improvement. We try to learn from our mistakes and do better next time.
QUESTION #6: You guys have a lot of tournament experience, obviously, going every year that, you know, you guys have been here. How much can you draw from that experience of being there, and especially last year, you know, winning a couple of games, getting into the Sweet 16, is that something you can draw from as you, you know, go at it this year?
TAYLOR: Yeah. You definitely can do that. You know how tough it is to win every game. Like I said earlier, no team is an easy game. But then like Jared said, you can't look past anyone, any one opponent. You've just got to take it game by game and things will take care of themselves.
BERGGREN: Yeah. It?s always a little bit different, the environment and feeling in the tournament. You know everybody's kind of playing with their backs against the wall with the one and done. The tournament, it's do or die for everyone.
Everyone plays with a little extra sense of urgency. You've got to be hungry, and you've got to want it more than your opponents. Everyone's going to be playing their hearts out, so you've got to leave it all on the floor and just do what you've been successful with all season. Try to stick with what got you there, and try to impose your will on your opponents.
QUESTION #7: I guess we'll start with Jordan on this one, but for a lot of fans out there, this time of year doesn't get beat as far as sports go. Do you guys get caught up in that emotion, or are you forced to, you know, kind of focus with one game at a time? I mean, are you guys more excited this time of year, I guess, is what I'm getting at?
TAYLOR: It's a little bit of both. You're focused, obviously, on your opponent, or the opponent at hand. But we've all been fans before too, everybody on our team. We were freshmen in high school watching this, fifth graders looking up to guys, the Jay Williams' of the world and stuff like that.
We definitely love playing in the tournament and hold March Madness in high prestige in terms of sporting events. We just have to go out there, and like I said, take it one game at a time and focus on our opponent. But it's still fun.
BERGGREN: Yeah, for me it's the most exciting time of the year. As a basketball fan growing up, and now to be a part of it, is definitely something special that not many people get to experience firsthand like we do. So you try to appreciate the moment and try to make the best of it every day that we're blessed with this opportunity. Just try to take advantage of it and try to keep it going as long as possible.
QUESTION #8: Jordan, you've played in a lot of NCAA Tournament games. In your mind, is it, is seeding important, is it matchups, or is it something else? What do you think's the most important?
TAYLOR: That's hard to say. I think it can change for every region every year. Some teams get the right matchups. Some people just get hot at the right time, and I feel like that's generally the most important thing, a team can get hot. But we just try to come in and just try to stick to the things that got us here that made us successful throughout the year.
QUESTION #9: For both guys. You guys have talked about battling back from that 1-3 start, playing well down the stretch. Even though your last game was a loss, what do you like about this team going into the tournament?
BERGGREN: We've done a lot of things, like you said. We've battled back from a 1-3 start. But, look now, none of that stuff really matters. That part of the season's over, and now it's one game at a time. It's do or die now, and I think we've shown a lot of stuff that can help us be successful. We've had games where a lot of different guys have chipped in and helped us be successful.
At the Indiana game, for example, Rob [Wilson] coming off the bench, having a huge game. We've had plenty of other games. Guys like Ben [Brust] and Josh [Gasser] and Mike [Bruesewitz], Ryan [Evans], myself, Jordan. It doesn't matter who it is. If guys are out looking to be aggressive and playing with confidence, looking for their shot, and sticking to our rules defensively, we feel like we can be a tough team to beat.
TAYLOR: Yeah. He pretty much covered it. I really can't say much else.
QUESTION #1: Bo, I mean, this might be off, you know, the game a little bit, but with Freddie Owens being an assistant coach, can you just take us back to your memories of him, you know, in particular out in Spokane that year?
Bo Ryan: Well, a lot happened before Spokane. Freddie's also the one that broke the 50-some game win streak, his bucket at Michigan State in 2002. But Freddie's more known for his defense, really a tough defensive player, played guys a lot bigger than him. That expression, it's not the size of the dog in the fight but the fight in the dog, and Freddie, he'd be the poster guy for that saying. Tough. Played hard.
He interviewed for the position that Lamont Paris is in right now, and Freddie just didn't have the years of experience yet. He needs to keep doing that. But I?m sure he's going to move up on a lot of radar screens on assistant coaching jobs. In fact, Freddie might be heading after a head job here pretty soon.
Hard worker, always did what we asked. Probably changed his hairstyle more so than most players that I've ever had. Unfortunately, one time I accused him of having his hair so tight it affected the way he was thinking on the basketball court. I didn't tell him he had to change his hair. The next day, he looked differently. We still laugh about it. But just a guy that bought in. ?Okay, what do I need to do??
And he did it for three years, and now he's working his way in the coaching profession. I'm really happy for him, and I'm not surprised. I actually made a mental note of ?Montana, now this could be a team that we could end up playing.? I did say that about some other teams, but it always sounds better if you say, ?Oh, yeah, I did.? But I did say this is a team that we could be playing.
QUESTION #2: Bo, did you encourage [Freddie Owens] to go to coaching at all? Did you have a discussion with him . . .
RYAN: Yeah, yeah, we talked about it. And I think his heart and his mind are in the right place for the profession. He's a guy that had to work extremely hard to get his degree. Now when I say that, first of all, student athlete, you've got to work hard anyhow to get your degree, but Freddie was challenged, accepted the challenge, and got it done. I'm proud for him and his family.
QUESTION #3: Coach, you've had a lot of great leaders over the years. Can you just touch a little bit on the senior leadership that Jordan brings to the table as you guys approach the Tournament?
RYAN: Well, numbers are one thing. Guidance and inspiration and leadership, those things fall under another category, and that's always been his strength. Sometimes his numbers will look one way, and maybe this isn't the same, or that isn't the same. But what has never changed is how he believes in his teammates, and how his teammates believe in him, and that's a great sign of a leader.
QUESTION #4: Bo, you mentioned you thought maybe Montana could be one of those teams that you wound up playing. What do you know about Montana's team just generally?
RYAN: [Assistant coach Greg Gard] Gardo's 9-1 [in Wisconsin?s opening round games], and he'll have all those answers for me later, and I'm hoping he's 10-1.
QUESTION #5: Does it at all concern you that they've got a guy in Freddie [Owens] that knows your system in and out?
RYAN: Well, let's go back a little bit. It's funny you say that, because on the way down ? my mind is so bizarre to you. You have no idea what runs through my head. I told Coach [Greg] Gard, who does the scheduling, which is the worst job in America, and he makes it the best job, is we never play anybody in between two Big Ten [games], absolutely, positively it will never happen.
One day [North Dakota State?s Saul Phillips] asked if we could break that tradition. I said, ?What are you talking about? I don't want to play between Ohio State, a road game at Ohio State, and I think somebody here or whatever.? So there's an assistant coach who had played for me at UW=Platteville and coached with me. He talks Coach Gard into talking me into playing. How'd that work out? I mean, we didn't shoot it well. It was just a bad game.
But it didn't hurt, and Saul knew an awful lot about us. But in the league, look at the Big Ten, how much we know about each other. But you expect that. Out of league, it's a little different. So Freddie might be the most popular guy with [Montana?s] Coach [Wayne] Tinkle right now. Who's a good guy, by the way. Talk to him about, if you guys want a scoop, talk to him about his daughters, Coach Tinkle's. They can play. They're really good.
QUESTION #6: That was my question. How much, I mean, how well do you know [Montana] Coach [Wayne] Tinkle, or what's your familiarity with him?
RYAN: Well, I've met him a few times. At the Final Four, you get to see a lot of coaches. You talk about different things, and, of course, I've talked to him about Freddie [Owens]. So, yeah, and I've seen him, we were recruiting, and he had his daughters with him. I think one of them, I'm not sure of the schools, where they play, but pretty talented. So basketball's in the family.
QUESTION #7: Bo, what's the challenge of going out West on a Thursday, Saturday, where you have to leave, basically, Tuesday already, does that make it more challenging, do you think?
RYAN: Well, I think this time of the year, when you know you're one of the chosen, these guys, or our team was one of the chosen, and you think about the fact that we're getting to do something that a lot of people aren't, all that other stuff, I don't think it matters. But we are in class. Sometimes we've been on break, so we were just in there discussing who has tests. Some of the guys have to take tests in Albuquerque, and so we're just trying to get the schedule together for practice tomorrow and then what time on Tuesday that we're leaving.
QUESTION #8: What . . . a concern, the academic load that they have at this time of year, I mean, that it might be a distraction . . .
RYAN: Oh, no, it's what they do. No, no, I'm just giving you a fact. That?s why they're here. And you guys know me. You've seen our guys, and 90 percent of them have always taken care of business. There have only been a few hiccups in there, and you find out their reason, and then you get those reasons corrected, just like we have.
QUESTION #9: Bo, I know you don't look ahead at your draw or anything like that. You're looking at Montana. But when you look at the whole survive and advance thing, is it matchups, seeds? Are seeds out the window, or matchups, what's more important, I guess, to surviving and advancing in this . . .
RYAN: It's the matchups. The line is one thing, but there are times where you play a team and you scratch your head, or you see a team play somebody, not even just our team, and you go, wow, that's a strange placement maybe in our minds, in individuals' minds.
Maybe some fans look at it one way. Coaches look at it a way, the media. But now it's if you don't put together a good 40 minutes, there are 67 teams that are going to [hang their heads] in the locker room by the time this is all over, and you just want to see how long you can keep the dance shoes shined.
QUESTION #10: We've played ten teams that are in the tournament, five in nonconference and five in the conference. Do you feel like this team is battle tested?
RYAN: Well, look at our strength of schedule. Look what we've done away from home. This team definitely earned that seed. I don't think there's any question about that. And that's in spite of, I actually thought it was our worst year on points per possession, but I just happen to have here, as some of the crack managers proved me wrong. There was a question that was asked of me. If any of you guys are . . . shooting the ball, it has to be your worst bunch per possession. Contraire.
How many here know what our best season was, points per possession? Last year, 1.158. This year's team is seventh, 1.055. Anyone not surprised? I don?t see anyone going, ?Oh, that's a surprise.? I think it's a surprise. I might have to redo the math. The 11th, the lowest? First year. Oh, you peeked. Yeah, 2001-2002, 1.008.
So that's 11th, and first is 1.158. So we've been between 1.008 to 1.158, and this year, 1.055. Just thought I'd throw that out there. That's pretty consistent on the offensive end. I don?t know how many teams in a grouping, say 10 or more years or whatever would have that. So I'm pretty proud of this group that we stayed over 1.0. Because I know there were times where you would say, ?Nah, that's impossible.? So there you have it. Crack crew of managers going through all our, we keep all our sheets from every year, and so it's legit. Now you have that information, you have no questions.
We're proud to be in this thing. We're proud to represent Wisconsin, the Big Ten. I'm so happy for our guys, because this is a great group. I didn't know we'd be sitting here, wasn't quite sure at times. And there's not a person in this room that can't agree with what I just said, because you, those that have watched. So let's see if we can't keep it going.
QUESTION #11: You said you weren't quite sure at times that it would be. Did you know at the beginning of the season that they had the grit that might be required to get here?
RYAN: You never know about that part. Will they buy in? Will they, on defense, help each other? Will they? We've had some players on our team who became a lot tougher throughout the season, defensively, became more involved. And one of the reasons Rob got extra minutes, not just because he had a good shooting night, but, defensively, his feet were moving better, anticipating. But that's what I've always said, if you can hit some shots sometimes in games, it helps your defense. The two are related. Emotionally, you're hitting some shots.
QUESTION #12: Bo, when did you know?? I mean, you said there was uncertainty. When did you know that this team was playing the way you wanted or the way . . .
RYAN: Well, you cannot go to Purdue and walk away over there with one on the left-hand side and not say that you've got a group right here that you're flying on the, excuse me, that you're bussing back with in that bad weather and knowing that, you know something, we've got something here. We can turn this into something.
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