Rutgers Basketball Head Coach Steve Pikiell talks with the media following the game versus Wisconsin on Monday night inside of Jersey Mike's Arena.
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Opening Statement "That's not the way I want to start the game. I give Wisconsin a tip of the hat. They were playing very well. We haven't had a lot of teams come in here and beat us like that. It's a 40-minute league and I've got to get these guys to play forty minutes. I appreciate the effort of these two guys (Dylan Grant and Tyson Acuff). They've been really good in practice and they fought the whole time that they were in the game. Obviously we need to play better, get healthy and all of those things and we need to get back to practice."
Pikiell On Where Dylan Harper is: "I'm proud of him. He wanted to go tonight but obviously that flu has taken a lot out of him to get him back to normal. Appreciate his effort. We need to get him healthy, it's that time of the year."
Pikiell On Dylan Losing nine pounds: "The flu is bad, it's a bad strand. He hasn't eaten. I appreciate him trying today. Obviously he wants to be out there for his teammates but he just didn't have the energy and it's understandable."
On Tyson Acuff: "He has had two best practices of the season the last couple of days. I was proud of him because he hasn't played a lot of minutes. The other guys have had more opportunities but he energy was excellent. Tyson had a serious foot injury and he's been working in practice and has become more confident with his abilities. He has been stringing together good practices and I think it shows out there. His foot is healing up. We need him to be really good especially when we are down some guys. We need the energy he brings. Those are two real positives from today's game."
On Ace Bailey shooting: "He got in foul trouble early and that obviously didn't set a great tone. He got some good looks too. He made some good free throws. You have nights like that. I just wanted us to play better from the jump and we didn't. That is on me, that is not on anyone else. But you do have nights like that in Basketball."
Message to the guys on timeouts: "Two offensive rebounds in the first half and sixteen in the second half. We are playing a really good team. They just put up 116 points on Iowa. The Iowa coach is great. They had twenty one 3's, they made every free throw. You know, a really good basketball team. You have to come out ready. They are playing as well as anybody. We just didn't have what you have to have in this league for forty minutes and that's on me. Trying to get them to play at a level that they need to play at in a game like that."
Pikiell on his confidence in his team: "I've got a ton of confidence. I've been here before. These guys are good. We need to get Dylan Harper back obviously. We have two ranked opponents. This is the league we play in. We have two great opportunities coming up here. These guys are tough and they'll come back to practice like we always do. We will figure it out. There are ups and downs. That's what you get when you play in the Big Ten."
On the challenges of playing Wisconsin: "I like the challenges, I'm the right guy. I have been here a long time, too many years. Tough times, real tough times. We will figure this out. We still had chances in this game today too. We played our best. A lot of positives, these two guys (Acuff, and Grant) are also now in the rotation too. We gotta get help and play better. I don't get frustrated, I get back to work. We are going to play Purdue. They are really good. They don't care that our guys are sick. I like Coach Gaard a lot, not many people come into this gym. And they did it. Tip of the hat to them. We did a good job of reloading, a lot of 3s that we did a good job defending. I say that to you, we could have held them at 65 and in that kind of range. They just scored 116, there were some positives with that down the stretch."
Pikiell on Tyson getting in the game early: "One thing about Tyson is he is confident, he's played in big games. You know the way he practices, practice is important. He's been doing a really good job he has. I see him coming, I saw him dunk the ball the other day. I haven't seen that in a while. I see things I haven't seen. He has a calmness about him. Especially with Dylan Harper out - Dylan is a 35-minute guy so more minutes available that he can take advantage of."
On what Dylan Grant has shown this game: "You know obviously he is talented so far. His ability to block shots, you saw that. He has a lot, he just needs to become more consistent in everything he does. But proud of him, he hasn't played much and jumped into the Wisconsin game ready to go. Great minutes, we were looking for a boost off our bench. So hopefully now he continues doing what he did in the last couple of days. He can't go on vacation now, after playing so well. He is stringing it together and that's where confidence is built doing that he is going to get opportunities.
On Ace Bailey: "You have to figure out ways when the ball's not going in. We got a couple of frustration fouls. He's early in his career too. People don't realize. He missed our first two games of the season. He's learning a lot. He was fantastic the other night with thirty-nine points, everything went in. Tonight was one of those nights where it was a little bit harder, a little bit more of a struggle but he can still do a lot of different things for us but I think his rhythm was messed up a little by fouls and having to sit the rest of the first half. He'll continue to learn. He's a great kid. He's a hard worker. He'll watch film and he'll bounce back.
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