[Rosiak's Blog] And now, a word on UW

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And now, a word on UW
And now, a word on UW
By Todd Rosiak
Thursday, Dec 6 2007, 02:08 PM

Actually, a few words on UW. Here's a transcript of what MU coach Tom Crean had to say about the Badgers earlier in the week:

What are your thoughts on the rivalry with UW heading into Saturday's game? I think that's a rivalry that's set forever, since I've been here. It transcends coaches, players, it's something that's gone on for a very long time. And I think right now, with where the two programs sit, it's a signature win. Whoever gets it is going to have a very, very good non-conference win to hold onto throughout the year. It's not what you would call a bad loss to whoever ends up losing the game, but it'd sure be nice to have that win and we're going to do everything in our power this week to go into what is a very and challenging place to play and go in. We're going to have to be on our A-game. Everybody is going to have to bring A effort and A focus and we're going to have to be on our A-game because it is, as everyone knows, extremely difficult to go in there and get a win.

How important is it for you to have experienced guards going into Madison? I think it's important. I think it's really important because they make it tough to get inside the lane and you've got to have an understanding of what you're trying to get to. They do an incredible job of playing defense with their lower body. They're going to chest you some but they're going to really get up into you with your legs. They don't have a lot of fouls that they're called for. Nobody on their front line right now has got 10 personal fouls going into (the Wofford) game. That's a really unique thing, and we've got to be able to withstand that. We've got to be able to withstand the bumps and the pressure and then keep moving the ball and play our game. They have a tempo that they want to play at; we have a tempo that we're going to want to play at. Whoever who really can get that is going to be the team that wins.

What have you seen of UW thus far on tape? Certainly their inside play is really good. Their leading scorer is a guard and they're playing Marcus Landry at the 3 when they start him and Joe Krabbenhoft at the 2, so they have an extremely big lineup - probably the biggest one in college basketball. And we know that they're probably going to high-low us to death when we get in there. That's what they'll look to do, that's what they'll try to do and they do an excellent job with that. We've got to be ready to combat that, we've got to be ready to block out and try to do our best to keep them off the offensive boards. But at the same time we can't spend so much time on them that we get away from what we want to do.

What are your impressions of Trevon Hughes? He's very confident with the ball. He can go either way, he's shooting threes, he's got a great runner, he gets to the rim, he feeds the post well, he drops it off. He's playing with a ton of confidence and he's got a green light. He'll be a handful, no question about it.


http://blogs.jsonline.com/muhoops/archive/2007/12/06/and-now-a-word-on-uw.aspx