Minnesota-Michigan State Postgame Quotes

Feb. 26, 2003

Minnesota Coach Dan Monson:

"I think the credit for how that game went, went to Michigan State's defense. I don't really have a fault for how hard we played, our effort level and what we wanted to do coming into this game. I think our kids really defended well for us. They rebounded well, to come in here and outrebound them and to scrap. We are leading the Big Ten in scoring, and to say we had an off night shooting is too simplistic. They (Michigan State) got into us, especially in the post. They played us very physical and frustrated us on the offensive end. We just never got into an offensive rhythm. We finally had to abort everything we were doing. We had to go small, go to five out and just try to spread the court. We just couldn't get any space. That is something who we are; we are a finesse team. We need space and they didn't give it to us today. They did a great job defensively and got it done."

Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo:

"Well, we made it difficult but it was a good win and a step in the right direction for us. I thought there were times when we played awfully well. In the second half, I didn't think we were as good defensively and part of that was us and some of the strange lineups we had in. I thought defensively, for most of the game, we played awfully well. We didn't rebound quite as well but they are a very big team and a very good team. I thought we took (Rick) Rickert,(Jerry) Holman and (Michael) Bauer out of their offense, which was very big key for us. We had a lot of guys step up on different guys because of the foul trouble we got in early."

"It's only one win but one that we really needed against a quality, good team and now it is on to Saturday (vs. Purdue) ."

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