Postgame Quotes
3/15/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 15, 2002
First Round - MCI Center
News Conference Quotes
NC State vs. Michigan State (March 15, 2002)
Michigan State Quotes
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo opening statement:
"It has been a great year for us and I feel bad it had to end in this kind of a way. You have to give North Carolina State a lot of credit. I thought in the second half we defended them about as well as we could and they went to just dribble driving around us and I think that hurt us the most. Really more then us, the credit goes to them. I think the performance they had the second half and how they did it. We took maybe one option away, we took the second away and they found a third one."
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo on the team's defensive performance:
"I think these guys deserve more credit then we are giving them, meaning our team because defensively we played awfully well. I think it was the match-ups more then anything. What we wanted to do was play Alan Anderson at the four today to make up for that and that ended when he got his second foul. Then we are playing Adam [Wolf] and Al [Anagonye] a ton of minutes and I think that really hurt us in the second half."
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo on reflecting upon this year's season:
"I think this team has done a lot of great things this year. We had some goals to this game and we had some objectives and when I look at some of the things, even at half time that we did I was pleased with it. When it ends on a sour note it never feels as good, but I have been told by many coaches and many people that as time goes on I will have a better appreciation for what we have accomplished."
Michigan State Sophomore Guard Marcus Taylor on NC State:
"It was hard to stop them today. We didn't hit the shots we needed to in the first half and that hurt us. In the second half, our defense started slipping."
Michigan State Sophomore Guard Marcus Taylor on NC State's full court press:
"It was a great strategy. Their press really hurt us. They made us rush some things which took us out of our offense."
Michigan State Junior Forward Adam Ballinger on the Spartan's offense:
"They are a very good team. We didn't take it to the basket enough. They were more aggressive out there. They just made plays and that was the difference."
Michigan State Junior Forward Adam Ballinger on NC State's offense:
"The coaches did a great job scouting for this game. We knew what they did. We knew if we took away their three-point shot they would drive on us. They executed their inside game really well."
North Carolina State Quotes
Coach Herb Sendek
"We had great respect for Michigan State's defense watching them on film....During the first half, we had a really difficult time cracking them, I thought they were really well prepared. And you can see why they give up 40 percent-and under 30 percent-field goal and 3-point field goal defense respectively. But I was immensely proud of the way our guys responded in the 2nd half. We cut harder...our defense picked up, and our guys demonstrated tremendous constitution."
On halftime adjustments to Michigan State's defense
"I thought we got tremendous support from our bench today. Our lineup change wasn't really any different from what we do game in and game out. But we really got a collective response from our bench, especially when Anthony [Grundy] picked up his 4th foul early in the second half. We just got positive contribution after positive contribution from everybody we put into the game.
On the use of the press
"We've employed the press all season long, and as we've moved forward we've gotten better at it. It's something that we worked hard on this past week. It was really good for us today. When Anthony picked up his 4th foul, I thought it was even more important that we press successfully."
NC State senior guard Archie Miller on coming back:
"This is the type of team [NC State] that really turns up the energy on defense. Our defense is what got us back into it. Our comeback was keyed off our defense. Guys really played hard out there. We chipped away at the lead. Guys were looking to make plays more and a lot of guys did different things out there."
NC State freshman guard Julius Hodge on stepping it up:
"Anthony [Grundy] is a great player, he is our leader. When he had to go out, it was up to us as a team to step it up and make the big time shots. I took it upon myself to make big shots. The ball just fell into my hands. When someone goes out, we're strong enough to overcome that and win as a team."
NC State senior guard Anthony Grundy on his foul trouble:
"When I had to go out because of foul trouble I was wondering when coach would put me back in. I just tried to pick up everybody on our bench. We had great excitement on the bench. I knew coach knew what he was doing and I knew I would go back in when he felt like it was the best time."