More from our feature on Mike Bruesewitz:
Bruesewitz:
On how his second season is going: “It’s the second season, so I know what to expect a little bit more. Things are going pretty well that way; knowing what Coach Ryan wants every day, I’m not really going through the freshman motions of, ‘Oh crap, I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be doing here.’ Just the whole living situation, getting out of a six-by-six dorm’s always good.”
The biggest difference from last season: “Just experience. I’m chalking things up to experience and knowing what to expect. Going through the Big Ten again obviously helps; last year was the first time going through it and seeing those teams and what people want to be doing. Doing that now, again, is a little bit easier. I guess the second time through, stuff is a little bit easier than the first time.”
What he does best: “I don’t let my guy get a lot of rebounds. Obviously, my rebounding is a little bit down this year. I haven’t been rebounding as much as what I think I should be able to, numbers-wise. If you look at it percentage-wise, I don’t think my guy gets a lot of offensive rebounds. Keeping my guy from getting the ball a lot, obviously, and then offensive rebounding. I think I’m averaging around three, four a game. I’m starting to knock down some more open shots a little bit more consistently.”
Forward Keaton Nankivil:
On the Badgers’ interest in stats: “The good thing about this team is we have intelligent players and people recognize and understand the contributions of everybody – regardless of stats. By the same token, you could put up numbers but not play a good floor game or something like that. That’s called out, too. We really are lucky here to have people that appreciate the whole game instead of just the numbers.”
Assistant Coach Lamont Paris:
On his first impression of Bruesewitz: “One thing that people talked about was how hard he played and how he competed. Typically, when you say those things about a guy, it’s a guy that’s probably not as polished offensively. He’s really shown that he’s capable of shooting the basketball, just like all the rest of the bigs that we have. He’s a capable guy offensively, so it should be fun to watch his development offensively, as far as being able to score the basketball for us. I think that’s the area that he’s grown the most, yet he still has some room for improvement.”
“His shooting range is probably a little bit better than what I thought it was coming in. I think the three he hit at Northwestern was his first road three-point shot in his career, which is surprising because he’s got good shot mechanics and good fundamentals. That was one thing that surprised me.”
What Bruesewitz needs to improve on: “I probably thought he would be a little bit more composed around the basket than what he is right now. He does a great job of getting himself in good position around the rim, and then we’ve seen from time to time he forces a shot up there quickly instead of taking his time and making a guy make a good defensive play. But out of all the things, that’s the one that’s easier to cure than if the guy’s just got terrible form on his jump shot.”
How to improve around the rim: “One of the things is just getting repetitions out of him. The more comfortable you are at it, the more time you’re going to take down there, the more you believe in yourself down there and you know you’re just waiting for the defense to make a mistake and then you can make your opportunity. That’s the biggest thing, getting more reps in practice, getting more reps in games; just being more familiar with putting the ball in the basket. Obviously, a shot with no defense down there, you’re going to make at a very high clip. When you have defense down there, it completely changes things, so when he gets himself in just great position, he’s just got to take his time a little bit more, get some more reps down there and he’ll start to finish a little bit more consistently.”
How Bruesewitz adds to the team: “Just how much he contributes positively to our team. It’s not offensively, necessarily – it may be, in that Northwestern game it was, he knocked down some jump shots – it may be rebounds, it may be loose balls, it may be deflections, it may be just overall defense, help defense. He’s a guy that’s evaluated probably in a lot more different ways than some guys. If you’ve got an unbelievable shooter, it’s just whether he makes shots or he doesn’t make shots. Mike has a lot of different areas where we probably would be evaluating him.”
How Bruesewitz is evaluated: “Just how much he contributes positively to our team. It’s not offensively, necessarily – it may be, in that Northwestern game it was, he knocked down some jump shots – it may be rebounds, it may be loose balls, it may be deflections, it may be just overall defense, help defense. He’s a guy that’s evaluated probably in a lot more different ways than some guys. If you’ve got an unbelievable shooter, it’s just whether he makes shots or he doesn’t make shots. Mike has a lot of different areas where we probably would be evaluating him.”
