Feb. 8, 2009

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Penn State Coach Ed DeChellis

Q: How do you explain the 0-14 from the three-point line? Was it bad shooting or good defense?

A: I think it is probably a little bit of both. I don't think I've ever had a team go 0-14 from three. We just didn't make any shots. This is the second game in a row now where we really, offensively, haven't been very good and didn't make any perimeter jump shots. I need to go back and look...I didn't think all of them were bad. But, we had a couple that weren't even close, which is not good. We've been a pretty consistent shooting team and had a couple shots, but we weren't close with them.

Q: What did Wisconsin do that ultimately beat you?

A: They are big, strong, and crafty. Give them some credit. We tried to get the ball in there. We ran several things to get our players the ball, but we never got it to them. We just couldn't get it to them. I'm going to credit their post defense, which was good. We didn't come off hard and crisp like we needed to, and execute offense like we needed to.

Q: This is the second game offensively that you guys have struggled. Is it something Michigan or Wisconsin was able to do?

A: No, I just think we haven't played well offensively. I don't think it's anything that anyone is doing that we haven't seen or done or whatever. We just haven't played well offensively, and it has affected our defense. I think it affected our defense tonight. I thought we still tried to guard. They did a good job at using the shot clock and trying to shorten the game and possessions and so forth. We're in a dilemma where it is the first week in February. How much do you spend on the practice court trying to clean things up, verse how much do guys need rest? The same kind of thing. So we will come back and look at that tonight, and come back ready for tomorrow's practice. We need to execute on offense much better. We need to make a jump shot. We had some looks where we weren't even close.

Q: With two tough losses and four difficult games ahead, will these next few weeks define who you are as a team?

A: I mentioned that 10 days ago when we won a game. I said, "This is a tough game. We have a lot of hard games. We have a tough February. Good teams coming in here, and we have to go to good places as usual. You can't get too high, and you can't get too low." Wisconsin lost six in a row, and they played at home the other day, and Illinois couldn't make a jumper, and they were able to win and get the good feeling back. We need to go back to work and try to get the good feeling back. There is a lot of basketball to be played yet. I told the guys after that we can't hang our heads. We need to pick ourselves up and keep moving forward.

Q: Are teams starting to figure out how to guard Talor Battle now?

A: I think he could be the first to tell you he hasn't been able to finish some shots. But, I think he has to help himself too. I think he has a driving kick like we had spoke about early for a day and a half practice. It is tough getting to the basket all the time. You have to know when to throw that punch and get in there and jump stop and kick out and make another play. If you try to put 10 pounds of potatoes in a five pound sack, you can't always get there, you can't always do what you want to do. So we need to take a look at that as well.

Jamelle Cornley

Q: What has happened to your offense during the past few games?

A: A little stagnate. Not really getting enough penetration and kicks. We are usually a great team when we can get inside the paint and create. Whether that be scoring, or just picking up fouls, we haven't been able to get inside lately. Whether that be get the ball in the post or create off the dribble. I don't think we set screens to allow people to get open. With that being said, we weren't able to put some points up on the board.

Q: Wisconsin had some very long possessions.

A: We were prepared for that. We understand that they are going to take their time. They are going to run their swing offense, which they have been successful at for years. We try to practice that as much as possible going against the scout team. They try to be patient, and we try to be patient as well on the defensive end, but we also try to be aggressive and try to disrupt some of their passes and make sure they don't get clean cuts. We try to contest their shots as well. It can be tiring, but it is something that we prepare for.

Q: How does what they did take away from what you guys are trying to do?

A: I think that some of our best offense is created from our best defense, and we weren't able to get in the open court and get some easy buckets, and that is where I think we hurt at today. We weren't able to make a good run. Anytime we made a bucket, we were waiting for that next stop or steal to happen, and we just couldn't get it going today.

Q: Any explanation you can think of for going 0-14 as a team on the three-point line?

A: Well, shooting 0-14 wasn't our plan. But, we are usually able to hit those shots. Some were open, some were contested. But, we usually at least good for a few. For some reason, they didn't fall today. And if you aren't going to hit jump shots, we've got to be able to hit something going towards the bucket, and get some types of fouls, or something. Again, we weren't able to be successful at either end.

Q: Is it tough having the high at Michigan State, and then coming home and losing two in one week?

A: Well, we really never want one victory to be the highlight of the season. Our mindset after the Michigan State game was that we just want to take care of business from here on out. We didn't celebrate much, we didn't look at it as a huge win. It was just a game we really thought we could win and take care of. But bouncing back from that is something that experienced teams need to be able to do, and thus far, we haven't been able to handle that success. So that raises the question, can we handle success of not? I think the next games coming up, we will be able to determine what type of team we are.

Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan

Q: Can you share your thoughts on the way your team was able to close out this game?

A: It's how they played the other 30 some minutes too. It's always a forty minute game. We got ourselves in position to get to the line. We hit some free throws we would have liked to have hit all of them, that's how you really discourage teams when they are trying to come back. We made some good passes and got a couple of lay-ups when they stretched it out and sometimes when you put pressure on that happens.

Q: Can you talk about the stellar defensive performance?

A: We could play them again and Penn State is not going to go 0-14 from three. But they did tonight. We really weren't trying to do anything different we tried to make sure we kept them in front of us, tried to make their looks tough, all of the things you say in your scouting report. And it was very effective. And Cornley has been playing so well he is such an improved player over the years. If I could step out and look in as a fan of the game I would love to watch Cornley play. But I don't like to coach against him. I thought we did a pretty good job on Pringle, Battle and Cornley.

Q: Can you talk about the job Trevon Hughes did on defense?

A: Yeah he rested on offense. He didn't want to strain too much on those nine misses. How about that, a guy can play that well, I didn't know he was 1-10. I knew he had made one basket. Look out when he does find it. But he did the other things. You can still help your team by doing the other things in the game of basketball. That's the nice part about basketball. You're not just a pitcher, you're not just a batter, you're not just a catcher, you have got to do a lot of different things in the game of basketball and Trevon did those things well.

Q: Would you call this a "gritty" win?

A: I let people that observe and make their comments call it what they want. This is how we try to play. When you get a result in your favor do you say something differently than if it was the other way. We have had some gritty defeats. I think our guys play hard, get on the floor.

Q: How do you feel you handled the Penn State zone?

A: Even if the team is 100% man to man you still run through some zone possession just so your guys don't forget the alignments and looks and what we are doing. Penn State is a predominately man to man team and they went to a zone and we were patient. Sometimes guys see zones and they see a wide open three and they fire it. I thought we were patient, changed sides of the floor, ball fakes, body fakes, touched the post, things you talk about.

Q: What do you tell your guys to slow a team like Penn State down?

A: We were just trying to get good shots. We have to play based on what we believe in and what the players believe in.

It was a performance today that if you can get that, there isn't a coach in the country that wouldn't walk away going hey my guys gave a great effort on defense, but did enough on offense.