Wisconsin Men's Basketball
Greg Gard Postgame Press Conference
vs. Penn State – January 6, 2019
Opening Statement: I'm happy for our guys to be able to bounce back after we had a couple rough ones in a row where we weren't able to play complete games, either offensively or defensively. I thought tonight we were solid for the most part and did a lot of good things. We were able to stretch a lot of possessions together on both ends that were really positive. Happy for our players on how they were able to rally and respond and continue to get better. We will keep moving on to the next game.
Q: When you look at Penn State, they are a team by any metric that has struggled offensively, but what do you look to scheme against when you look at Penn State?
A: We didn't change anything defensively. We look at tendencies of individuals, but our defense doesn't change from game to game. We just try to take away strengths as much as possible. I was more concerned on how they had been defending. They have been defending really well, even analytically numbers wise, where they ranked in defense nationally, they made some really good strides. This is a younger group playing with [Lamar] Stevens and [Josh] Reaves and [Mike] Watkins, but on both ends I thought we were pretty solid.
Q: On a night when Ethan Happ was still able to get 22 points for you guy had to rely on some shots from guys like [Brevin] Pritzl and [Brad] Davidson, both perfect from three. How important where they tonight coming in addition providing additional scores?
A: I think any chance you get to knock down three's that's a heck of a weapon and we got multiple guys who can do it. We've had different guys on different nights go through stretches who shot it well and others haven't. I would like to see Ethan be more efficient. 10 from 24 from where he's at we have to be better. He was five for 15 at the half and ended up five for nine in the second half, so he improved. He got some angles to the rim and did a good job of working. I know one move specifically, [he] got an angle and got it off the glass. He was much more efficient in the second half. Anytime you can make perimeter shots and have other guys come off the bench they definitely give us a boost.