With only a few weeks left in the year, The Daily’s sports desk sat down with athletic director Jim Phillips ahead of the Big Ten Championship Game, where No. 21 Northwestern will playNo. 6 Ohio State with a potential birth in the Rose Bowl on the line. With the game wrapping up a big year for the athletic department, Phillips talked about rebuilding teams, analytics and graduation rates.

The Daily: When you look at programs that are going through a rebuilding phase — volleyball is a good example of where they were at a point and are on the upturn right now. How do you evaluate those years when there is a lot of losing?

Phillips: There are no quick fixes. There are no instant successes. You either build it to last or you don’t. And it just takes time. It just does. People don’t want to hear that. I understand we are in a society where we want instant gratification and fulfillment. But, you have to really understand who you’ve hired, the program that they’ve walked into, how long it’s going to be, you have to understand the recruiting process. An example is volleyball. When that staff walks in they can’t recruit any seniors, juniors or probably even sophomores because that’s recurring in volleyball. So they are recruiting freshmen in high school. That’s three years ago. They are finally getting a few of those kids to come. I love our direction. It’s value based. It’s the kinds of leaders we have. And I do see progress. I just do — in volleyball and some of our other programs. It is just going to take a little bit of time.

The Daily: I hear the baseball team is doing some more analytics stuff and I know the National U18 team practiced here over the summer. What are some of the new things the baseball team are doing that you can tell us about?

Phillips: Across the department we are trying to do more analytics with not only performance and playing and hitting and some of those things in baseball but we are doing it in football — when you go for fourth downs, when you take a penalty. We have really worked hard with our group over at Kellogg and others to help us with some of those things. I think that is just the new wave, that’s just part of what you have to understand if you want an edge when it comes to making decisions or in recruiting, etc. The USA Baseball, the IHSA boys basketball tournament, those are other ways to get really high-level prospects on our campus. And we are going to continue to look for a variety of ways where we can get them — doesn’t matter what sport, what team, what gender — we want to get them on campus because I think that sells Northwestern as much as anything. You got to come here, you have to see this place, you have to look around and see the facilities, you got to meet that people.

The Daily: Northwestern was listed No. 1 in Graduation Success Rate. Is that what you are most proud of?

Phillips: I am. I really am. I really am. Because that is why they are coming here is to graduate. I get it they are here to play a sport as well but our responsibility is to make sure they leave here with a great degree. … I can’t look a parent in the eye and tell them if you come to Northwestern you are going to get a great degree and graduate and all the rest of that and then not do that and not fulfill that foundational piece. I love going to Indianapolis. I love going to Salt Lake a few years ago. I love holding the National Championship trophy. Im most proud of what these young men and women do in the classroom and those 550-560 hours of community service that they are doing per year. And I love to win and I’m for excited for Saturday and the rest of it, but if you peel it all back, that to me is what I’m most proud of.