Dusty May’s Monday press conference previewing Penn State and Wisconsin

I'm not sure we can afford to turn the ball over as we saw earlier in the year. With our first couple games, our exhibition games and whatnot. So a credit to our guys, they've been very, very intentional. The mistakes we were making repeatedly early in the year, and as I said at that point, we, we weren't committing these turnovers in the summer.

And when you look at our live stats, our 5-on-5 stats over a period of 4 or 5 months, that was an issue that really came out of nowhere and probably is a byproduct of the way we defend ourselves and things like that. And conversely, we've gotten better at forcing turnovers, so maybe that's helped us as well, that we're forcing more. We're being more aggressive, active in the passing lanes, things like that, which is helping us fight for catches and work.

But USC did a couple things that we're going to see going forward. You know, one thing that we have to be good at is, is anticipating, predicting what's— what we're going to see from, from each team, and then hopefully we have a solution to counter. So we have a lot of respect for Penn State, their coaches, um, their young nucleus of guys.

They have a core group that even though they haven't been together long, you can see their confidence growing and they're staying committed to the process of getting better. They played Illinois very well Sunday. One of those things you saw from USC was a zone that you guys threw Roddy Gayle in the paint there. What made him the right person to have in the middle of that zone?

Roddy Gayle's a very good playmaker. He's poised in the middle. He knows where to look. He knows where to focus his attention.

He has a lot of reps. And, you know, we put different guys in there depending on what the zone looks like, depending on who's where. Sometimes if we have 2 or 3 guys that are similar to Roddy Gayle, then we'll flash them in, pull them out. We'll ball screen.

We'll look for some lobs. But we just trust his decision-making really in any situation. And that's why Roddy Gayle off the bench, I can't imagine there's a more valuable 6th man in all of college basketball than Roddy Gayle is for us. Meaning that if things are going well, they're going to continue to go even better with the energy and invisible plays that he makes.

And if things aren't going well, usually he brings a jolt of energy and maybe it's a hustle play that becomes contagious. So he just— he checks a lot of boxes for us. So him in the middle of the zone, him cutting out of corners, him as a primary playmaker up top, we're pretty comfortable with all of them. And that's a nice weapon to have in a group coming in 3 or 4 minutes in the game, someone that can check a lot of boxes. And Roddy Gayle does that for us. Andrew.

Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, his effort and want-to is generating a lot of his looks. He's in the gym right now. He works very, very consistently and religiously on getting better at what he needs to get better at. He hasn't missed an individual film session.

And to be honest, like, with us, we don't chase our guys down and make them watch film. We want them to feel like they're getting better by coming in this morning and wanting to watch their individual films. So he's every single— he's an everyday guy. He's added some things to his game.

When he still needs to fix some things, he's very open and honest and vulnerable towards, I need to get better at this, and then he attacks it. So he's been a godsend. I mean, he's one of my favorite players I've ever coached in such a short period. And he's opposite from me personality-wise off the floor as probably anyone in our program. And I appreciate him as much as anyone. Thanks. Andrew.

If that meant that we played really well and the other team played exceptionally well, I would live with that. But no, we just want to play really good ball. I think we had 92 possessions against USC. We want to play good ball in 92 possessions.

And no, I don't really want to be in one possession games because as we saw at Minnesota last year, one possession game could be a half court heave to lose. And as we know in the Big Ten, one game can cost you a championship. Or can send you down a spiral that you have to, you know, figure out a way to stop the bleeding and things like that.

So, you know, no, we just, we want to show up and play with the same spirit and fire that we did in game 1 and continue to make the plays that are contagious because as we all know, human behavior is contagious. So if everyone's being unselfish, it's very easy to fall in line. If everyone's working spending extra time in the gym and busting it in the weight room and intentional about the film sessions, then that is contagious also.

So we're more concerned with that. Am I sitting here saying I hope we have a close game at Happy Valley? Absolutely not. We want to play— oh, we want to play good ball and trust that the scoreboard says what we need to say at the end of the day.

I know they're looking to come in in the second half, but, uh, how are Yaxel Lendeborg and Nimari doing, and do you expect them to play tomorrow? Uh, Nimari's on the halfcourt shooting right now. Um, Yes, he practiced yesterday, full go. Yaxel Lendeborg is day-to-day.

He's feeling much better. I would say he'll be a game-time decision. We'll see how he goes today and then see how he feels tomorrow, shoot around and then make the decision from there with the medical team. I won't have any— the trainers will tell me if he can go or he can't and he'll say whether he can go or he can't.