Post-Game Quotes: Loyola
11/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement
I thought we did some things that were really well that we needed to do. Give credit to Dwayne Stephens, he did a good job scouting them when we changed up our ball screen defense. We went under, stepped up and kind of created some problems for them. Some incredible bright spots were seven assists with three guys, 27 assists on 36 baskets and some of the baskets there weren't assists on were put-backs. That was really good. We rebounded pretty well. I thought we ran better in the second half than we did the first half. A couple of the negatives were not shooting well from the line, still some foolish turnovers and I have a problem with a great player that I shouldn't have. BJ (Branden Dawson) is so unselfish that I'm going to have Day Day (Draymond Green) call him tonight and tell him what he's got to do when he's having a decent night. I thought he had 15 and 7 but sometimes you try to set up something for him and he's such an unselfish kid, that he's passing it out and passing it to different people. We need to get him scoring more. I thought the way we started the game off, we went inside; we knew they were smaller and give (Travis) Trice a lot of credit. He gave some great passes to (Matt) Costello who finished. We want to get like 15 points and 10 rebounds out of that position and today we got 21 and 14. They're a smaller team so you should. Gavin Schilling did some good things and Marvin (Clark) did some good things offensively. We've got to improve defensively. All in all, it's a good win for us, we told Trice we've got to get him more involved in passing the ball and I thought he did a great job. (Bryn) Forbes did a better job defensively. We made some progress against a team that didn't play as well. I thought they had some shots in the first half that they missed too.
On getting the ball inside...
Yeah. We did. Partly because they're smaller and partly because we want to get to the free throw line. They didn't foul us so we didn't get to the free throw line. That's what we wanted to do and that's what we did do. I thought we were out-rebounding them even worse than at the end, I think they got four of the last five. They're inside guys did a pretty good job. If you look at it statistically, Costello and BJ and Schilling shot about 85 percent so that's a positive.
On if Costello did things defensively tonight Izzo was wanting out of him...
I thought Matt and Schilling did a great job against (Duke's Jahlil) Okafor. If you really looked at that game like I did, you'd say Okafor was 8 for 10, he didn't get as many touches, and we did a good job with that. I think right now with post defense we're doing a pretty good job. And to do it without fouling is pretty good. I guess that is a plus from the last game that we did a better job and we went to them but they rolled harder today. We worked on our screen and roll and we haven't been rolling as hard. I think that changed the game a little bit more.
On if he has a number of shots he expects out of Dawson...
Yeah. I had put him back in at the end because he didn't play as many minutes as our other starters. I'd like to see him get 15 shots up in a game like this. He was 7 for 11 but I'd like to see him get 12 or 13 rebounds. Day Day used to know how many rebounds he had because it was so important to him. When he'd have nine, as Matt said, he'd almost foul a guy on purpose so he'd go to the line so he could make sure he gets his tenth rebound. BJ, when there's a free throw, those are your rebounds, get them. I look and he's on the third line. I said what I hate about him I love about him. He's unselfish, he doesn't care about all those things but I wish he would a little bit more.
On what he saw from Marvin Clark...
Marvin is doing a very good job. What I was a little disappointed with was I didn't think he guarded very well. Guys were going around him. Offensively I thought he was great, defensively it just didn't seem... I struggle with a guy that shows no emotion. When he showed emotion it was in a negative way to a kid which I didn't like that either but that's not Marvin. I'm not worried about that. I just think Marvin and Tum (Tum Nairn), they're going to be freshman, and they're going to be up and down. We've got to get him playing a little better on both ends of the court but offensively I thought he did a great job.
On if tonight was a step forward for Denzel Valentine...
It was. I talked to some other coaches, there were a lot of coaches out at the Duke game, and I think different people gave me a good line for him. He's got to tighten things up. The spin dribble and almost throw it, (Bryn) Forbes makes a heck of a play after we have another turnover or a bad shot. He's got to just tighten things up because he really is a hell of a player. I think this was a step in the right direction. I'd like to see him get to the line a little bit more but he gets six rebounds, seven assists. He gets three turnovers but I think one of them should have probably been Bryn's not his. He gets 10 shots; I'd like to see him get a few more shots. I'd like to see him and Dawson get 12, 13, 14 shots. I'd like to see Trice get maybe 8-10, he got eight tonight. I thought Travis played as a good as anybody. His defense was pretty good. We had our stretch when we didn't check very well and that happens when you get 35 up. In fairness to Loyola, I thought they missed some shots early. Watching them on film, they were shooting 55 percent coming into here. It doesn't matter who it's against. They didn't play their best and I think he was disappointed with that. I thought Valentine after that little incident bounced back. Got to keep him there because those things will kill us in big games.
On if tonight was the ideal bounce back game following the loss against Duke...
I don't think our guys hung our heads after the loss to Duke. We did some good things, we knew we did some bad things, and we knew we wore down. It's just great to be home. I've got to be the dumbest scheduler in America. Our games are OK but six out of the first eight on the road is not good for a young team. These guys were excited to be home, they were excited. I think that was a plus. I'm sure it helped us a little bit bouncing back but it wasn't like we were that down about it because we knew what we did wrong, we knew what we did right. We didn't deserve to win the game but I think we had enough feel that if we would have tightened up a few things we had a shot for it to be an even better game.
On Marvin Clark's technical foul and how Dawson showed leadership following...
Marvin's a great kid. I did that for you guys (smiling when Clark was talking to him). I figured I'd break a record. Do it early in the year. He's the quietest kid. If I would have lined up 12 guys who would have acted stupid, he'd have been number 12. That's what I was laughing about. I was really impressed with Branden because I was going to pull Marvin the time before when he threw the ball away again and I got Colby (Wollenman) up and Branden said, `leave him in there, he's got to learn to play through it.' My style and BJ's are a little different. I don't like guys having to learn to play through it time after time but he is young and it was the right thing. When he came out, Branden jumped to him too and that was impressive to me that we're starting to get a couple players coaching the team. That will help us a lot.
On Matt Costello and where Izzo is on him shooting the ball...
He can shoot it but I'm not in love with him taking threes or even 16- to 17-footers. He can make them but he hasn't shown me he can make them on a consistent basis. That one, he had it ready, he's a good enough shooter, it wasn't a brick or anything. Matt's got some offensive skills but it was nice to see him shoot a hook shot, attack on a roll and go up and dunk it instead of what he did at Duke. I don't know what that was that he threw up there. As I tell players, they all want the coach to have confidence in them but they shouldn't worry about the coach. They better worry about the players having confidence. We worked hard yesterday on him rolling and I thought Trice did a great job getting it to him early to get some confidence because Trice had confidence in him. Matt did a good job tonight. Most of our guys did a good job tonight. We've got to shore up and just keep working on it. You're going to see the competition. They're (Santa Clara) in the same league as Portland last year and I think it will ratchet up a lot more on Monday night and that's nothing against Loyola because I don't think they played as well as they've been playing. They come into big arenas and things go a little different. They missed some shots early but all in all, we had a good win and it's on to the snow bowl tomorrow and hopefully we get a big win there.
Loyola Head Coach Porter Moser
Opening Statement
Well that was painful, for you to watch and us to coach in. I have to give a lot of credit to Michigan State. They came off that game against Duke, Wednesday night, which was a high energy game. I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall in those practices the last couple of days, because I thought they we're really clicking on all cylinders. They pose such a problem with their shooters, they have tremendous shooters and speed but they're also tremendous passers, off the dribble. When you have three guys with over seven assists you have to be phenomenal sharing the ball. They drive you to create help and are great interior passers. They're very unselfish getting each other's shots. When you have 27 assists, that's guys that are unselfish.
