Post-Game Quotes
2/24/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2005
Michigan State 77, Wisconsin 64
Post-Game Quotes
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On Alan Anderson: "I've heard people say this about our team, and you can say it about Michigan State and Illinois, if you take away one thing, something else may burn your team. (Alan Anderson) did a great job at penetrating and taking care of business around the basket. I mean, you name it, he did it. We were impressed, but unfortunately, that's not what we needed to see. We thought we did a good job on some of their other guys, but we definitely didn't take care of him (Alan Anderson)."
On MSU's early lead: "They have led us before. We weren't taking care of the ball. We had seven turnovers earlier and three in the second half. Early leads have happened before, but it's nothing new to basketball. Michigan State just happened to have the early lead on us tonight."
On MSU's energy: "It's not in the game plan for a coach to say, `look, let's let these guys get up by 10 points and then see if we can come back.' MSU did it. They got it done. They hit the shots and it happens. It's not what you want to see, but when it does happen you have to be ready to try and come back. In the second half we closed the lead to eight a couple times. We've been in that situation before and have been able to whittle it down. But with the experience of a team like Michigan State and the way they're playing, it was hard to get it to single digits, let alone get it down to five or four points, and that's what we needed to have a chance here."
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo
Opening statement: "I couldn't be prouder of these guys, to be honest with you. It hasn't been easy on these guys and we beat a very good team, and we beat them soundly. I thought we did a lot of things well. Our staff just came with the conclusion that this (Wisconsin) team pulls you in, but almost beats you from the three."
On the team's performance: "In the first half, especially, we did a great job not letting them get many open looks from the three. Alan Anderson, of course, was dynamite. What an unbelievable game. I've also got to credit Paul Davis. Paul just gets himself so jacked for some of these games and wears himself out, but he bounced back and had some big rebounds in a big game. I thought he was a big key to our win, along with Shannon (Brown)'s second half performance. All our guys played very well, defensively. We stuck with it, rebounding, and didn't turn the ball over a lot. It was one of those nights where I felt we played well throughout the game. We had a slip here and there, but you have slips when you play against any good team. And yet, the bottom line is that we really did a heck of a job sticking with our game plan for 40 minutes and that's what I'm most proud of."
On the Spartans' opening 20-6 run: "Believe it or not, it was important to get off to a good lead, but last year we got off to a great start at their place and that didn't really matter. This is one time the start didn't matter, the finish did. That's all I really care about, how we finish, and that's how we talk about it."
