Michigan State Post-Practice Quotes
1/8/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 8, 2004
EAST LANSING, Mich. -
Head Coach Tom Izzo
Regarding Brandon Cotton's exit from the MSU basketball team...
"Brandon may be back in school. It's going to be his decision now to just come back and go to school. He may transfer. I don't think he's made that decision yet. We did meet last night for a long time. To me, it's a sad situation because I think a lot of people got in his ear, and as I told you before, he's had a variety of personal problems and he's had the injury. I think a lot of things happened that were not related to us or our team. That's all I can tell you right now. I don't know exactly what he's going to do. He's not here as a player right now. I guess if he comes back and goes to school and it worked out for him, that's his (choice).
"It's been a lot of people, maybe, getting involved instead of the few people who should have been involved. He had a lot of things on his plate.
Regarding whether he is officially part of the team...
"Probably not."
Regarding who helped Cotton to his decision...
"It was kind of all three of us. His mother was involved, I was involved and he was involved. It's one of those things where it wasn't like there was any damage. It's not like there was any mudslinging in any way, shape or form. But if you want to be a part of a team, you have to be part of the team. It's been hard on him. I'm trying to be as honest as I can. Everyday I have to say 'I don't know.' I'm trying to deal with an 18-year-old kid who has gone through a lot, you try to be as delicate with it as you can. That's what I tried to do. But it just kept dragging on and dragging on and in a small way it still is because no one is kicking him out of here as far as his schooling goes. He just has to make his decision as to where he wants to go with his basketball career and we're going to help him do that. I think there are a couple people who have been close to him who are going to help him do it and I think his mom is going to help him do it.
"This has been tough in a way because I've tried to make it a little bit more him than us. It wasn't like any player was saying 'no, we don't want him back' and neither was any coach. It just kept dragging on and on and on. I think he was very confused about things. I did the best I could do with it. And yet it's time for me to move on to Wisconsin and it's definitely time for our players to move on.
"I have no reason to close the door completely because he didn't do anything legally wrong or morally wrong. There were no issues like that. He hasn't done anything wrong. He has just been confused. But I've got a team to run and with a team to run, I've got to do the best things I can do for the team.
"Believe me, this has been wearing and tearing at me and I've tried to handle it the best I could without being just cut and dry, and that's where we're at.
"In fairness to that poor kid, he had to deal with a lot of things. He had to deal with a lot of things that weren't his fault, not things he had to deal with that would get him removed from a team, but just things you have to go through. I think everybody always looks for the easy way and in this case, the only problem is, I can't figure out what that is - I couldn't understand from the beginning and maybe that's some of what he is going through."
Regarding whether he feels slighted after investing so much time into recruiting a player...
"Sure. Especially this case. I'm really just thinking of what we could have done and what he could have done. But I don't have any regrets. You can't play a kid when he's hurt, you can't coach a kid when he's hurt. It's just a tough, tough situation."
Chris Hill
Regarding the upcoming game against Wisconsin...
"That's a bigger game for us. We're going to get tested. The one thing we can say is that we have been tested. We've been to the toughest places there are to play. Wisconsin is no different than where we've been. We've got to take that and go with it. They're going to come out aggressive. They have been playing well. We just have to use the game to get us going and do the things we've been working on.
"This is one of the toughest places to go and play and that is our first game. We're looking at it as an opportunity to improve on what we have been doing. If we can go out and get a big win there, which we can do if we play like we are capable of playing, we'll be a step ahead of a lot of other Big Ten teams."
Regarding Brandon Cotton's exit from the MSU basketball team...
"We can't really worry about it too much at this point. We wish Brandon the best and hope that he can get things together and be successful. We have enough of the guys on the team that are here that we need to get playing better and get this team better, and that's what we've got to focus on."
Shannon Brown
Regarding opening the Big Ten season on the road against Wisconsin...
"It's going to be a real hostile environment against a real good team. We've just got to go out and play hard, play tough and play together and do what we did in practice.
"It's a whole new season. We've got to come out and take all the things we learned from the non-conference and use the good things and work on the things we didn't do well and just come out and play basketball."
Regarding Brandon Cotton's exit from the MSU basketball team...
"We've just got to keep the team together and stay focused. We wish our best to Brandon. He's a good player and has a lot of potential."
Paul Davis
Regarding battling from the corner with their backs against the wall...
"Coach (Izzo) has been there before, in his early years. He said the only way he did it was to work through it. We're going to be right behind him, working through it. We've been knocked down a lot, and we haven't gotten up. Now, we're up and we're energized and ready to go with this new season we've got.
"They are obviously one of the top teams in the Big Ten. Even in the preseason, you can't wait to play them. I still think there are five or six teams that could be Big Ten Champions and they are definitely one of those teams. If we want to get it outright, this is one of those teams to beat."
Regarding how to improve defensively as a team...
"I think we may be relying on help just a little too much. We've just got to communicate. We watched tape of the championship year and watched how they played. They made turnovers, but they helped each other on the defensive end and they were together as a team out there. If we do that together on the court, I think we're really going to turn around defensively."
