Michigan State Vs. DePaul Postgame Quotes
11/30/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 30, 2003
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Michigan State vs. DePaul Breslin Center-East Lansing, Mich. November 30, 2003
Post-game Quotes
DePaul Head Coach Paul Leitao
"The story of the basketball game today is that we faced one of not only the best teams in the country but one of the best programs. You see parts of that in the way guys play. They play with energy and confidence and that makes a really big difference. Coach Izzo does a tremendous job in getting guys to a particular mindset. I think that wore us down at certain points of the game and their effort and doing what they wanted to do - pushing the ball up the floor, the makes and misses, and our guys not really realizing that it was coming at them in waves every single time and not adjusting well to that really cost us some points at critical junctures of the game. We've got to continue to work to get a little more consistent in our play. I think when we get down sometimes, we realize that we are down and then pick up the pace. It's happened a little too much to my liking right now. It's something we need to focus in on.
"I thought we did a tremendous job of taking Paul Davis, who is a tremendous player, a little bit out of the offense and out of his rhythm. But as terrific teams do, other guys stepped up. Kelvin Torbert played a heck of a game. He was opportunistic in making shots and knifing through our defense. In terms of offensive players, just as threats, Chris Hill and Maurice Ager forced us to adjust along the perimeter. I think that was the story of this basketball game."
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement "This was a great tournament and I think that progress is being made. I said that this would be the best tournament we have ever had here and it certainly lived up to its billing. You saw how well Penn played this afternoon and you have to give DePaul credit because they did a great job fighting back. We are still at the point where we can't seem to put everything together and that takes its toll. For that reason, this is a very hard team to coach. We look like dynamite out there at times but certain lineups can't do certain things, which is a problem that a lot of other teams in the nation are facing right now as well. But there were bright spots about our game and we made some progress. Going into this weekend, we knew we had to get two wins and we got two wins. We played enough good minutes of basketball to say, 'this is where we can be,' and we played enough bad minutes of basketball to say, 'we have a lot of work ahead of us.' Eventually, some of the deficiencies are going to catch up with us. We need to get that consistency and I think that we will, as soon as they get used to moving around. It is not all their fault, it is just going to take some time. Those were two quality wins for us this weekend."
On Spartan juniors' game performance "I was pleased, I really was. I was really impressed that Alan (Anderson) and Chris (Hill) rose up. Kelvin (Torbert) played with an injured back and he did some great things, so we are starting to see more out of him. Maurice (Ager), who has been playing very well, kind of struggled a little bit today."
On Spartan defense "We are not playing as well defensively right now and that does concern me because it is effort-related. We are just not pushing the ball and we are getting nailed on the weak side. Some of it is that we have Alan (Anderson) guarding the point guard one minute and the center the next, so that is hard on him and that is hard on (Torbert), but that is the way that we are going to have to do it."
