Wisconsin men’s basketball: hear from Greg Gard, Trevor Anderson and Jonathan Davis

The No. 19 Wisconsin Badgers (14-5 overall, 8-4 Big Ten) beat the Penn State Nittany Lions (6-8 overall, 3-7 Big Ten) 72-56 on Tuesday evening. After the game head coach Greg Gard along with senior guard Trevor Anderson and freshman wing Jonathan Davis spoke to the media via Zoom.

Greg Gard

• On defensive improvements from the first PSU game, “I thought we were better in transition. To hold them to no transition points is obviously a big step in the right direction.”
• On Trevor Anderson’s performance, “He’s always helped us when he came in. He was able to get in the paint and get to the rim himself.”

• On playing Penn State in back-to-back games, “I’m sure it was a motivating factor for the players.”
• On Jonathan Davis’ confidence moving forward, “He’s continuing to work on his game and shooting is something he spends time on. From where he was when he came in...the improvement he’s made in the ability to shoot the ball is evident. Hopefully it helps grow his confidence but I think he’s just scratching the surface of the type of player he can be. And we’ve already talked about the six turnovers.” It should be noted that Gard said this last part with a smirk.
• On PSU trapping Micah Potter in the post, “I thought he was better tonight. You have to make good decisions and get out of it.”
• On D’Mitrik Trice playing well without scoring and guarding Myreon Jones, “That was the focus for him. I really wanted him to focus on that. That’s the nice thing about having a balanced team. Six assists and one turnover? That’s a good, productive night.”

Trevor Anderson

• On defensive performance, “Our identity is on the defensive end. We held them to no transition points this game...and when you’re getting back and setting your defense it’s always tougher to score against.”
• On not having losing streaks, “Our experience, probably. Just not dwelling on a bad performance or a couple missed shots. Moving on, flipping the script, just getting back to work...that’s stuff we like to do as a unit.”

• On his offensive aggression, “You’ve always got to come out aggressive. If we need scoring, if we need a couple of assists, get the pace up, I just try to bring that.”
• On Jonathan Davis’ three point shooting, “He did a heck of a job. I think I passed to him on at least two or maybe three of those threes so that’s always good getting those assists for the upperclassmen like that.”
• Anderson ends his answers with, “Make sure somebody asks Johnny about his six turnovers, ok?”

Jonathan Davis

• On his improved three point shooting, “Well, I’ve been dealing with a little bit of confidence issues for the past couple of games, I haven’t really been attempting a lot of threes but to see that first one in a while go down was a really good feeling.”
• On what will stick with him from this game his turnovers or the four threes, “Definitely the turnovers, gotta work on being stronger with the ball in practice.”