Post Game Quotes: Michigan State vs. Penn State
1/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
Opening statement...
Well, I'm learning something about that if your shooters don't shoot well, they have a tendency not to guard as well. Travis [Trice] struggles a little bit to make some shots, but he had some good shots and he rebounded pretty well. And Denzel [Valentine] got in foul trouble. We're just not good enough when teams go zone and different things if we don't have him in there. He was out so much of that game, especially in the first half when we had a little lead. Did some good things inside, but I thought we missed some shots. I just thought we missed a lot of open shots. Rebounding pretty well, and then in the second half we didn't guard until the last five minutes. We put Dawson on [D.J.] Newbill to try to stop him. He had a couple blocks and did a pretty good job on him, but it was hard without Denzel because he's my next best defender and he's in foul trouble. We just kind of left gaps open. It's not what we do, it's not how we play. But, after the other game, I'm going to take the win and we're going to move forward and see if we can continue to get better. We didn't get Javon Bess in as much because they played so much zone. We had to go with a little different lineup. I was pleased with [Gavin] Schilling's double double, but he must've missed three dunks only going up with one hand. Those kind of things are ridiculous. I feel for Penn State. That's a good team, a veteran team and they've got one of the hardest players in the league to guard. The inside guys are good. They started a different lineup. He's trying different things. Give him credit. I thought that if Denzel doesn't step out of bounds, maybe we could have pulled away a little more in the last three minutes. To their credit, we didn't.
On the confidence levels of Denzel Valentine and Travis Trice...
Yeah, I'd say that's a good way to look at it. No, absolutely no reason for it. When you go in and study for a test, and you study all semester for a test, you go take the test and you may flunk the test, but you shouldn't be unconfident about taking the test. Those two guys work so hard and were shooting so well, but I see the same things you see in their faces. Free throws. Travis almost air-balled that one, and that's not like him. I'd say that that's a good point and we need a game to come out of that, but it's not because of lack of work. I can't complain about that. The one thing I'm complaining about is that for the most part I think Travis is letting his offense dictate his defense. Denzel was doing that for a couple games. Tonight, he played pretty good defense. I don't know what [D.J.] Newbill had at halftime. 9? I thought for the time Denzel was on him, he didn't score many. Then we had Denzel out for about seven or eight 8 minutes and he scored some then. I need Denzel in there and I need a couple of other guys. I look at this team and I think we were very good defensively early in the year, but we're pretty good offensively. I watched last year's tape and it makes me appreciate that Keith [Appling] and Gary [Harris] were probably the two best defenders at the point. But, the other thing that was strange when we watched the home game here, we didn't have Keith and we didn't have BJ [Dawson], but [Kenny] Kaminski had 19 points. We're still missing things when you wonder why we aren't quite where we need to be. Sometimes it's size issues and sometimes it's shooting. If we make some of those shots and you win by more, you feel better. We're going to make shots. We've done it in the past. They're good shooters. We just have to do a little better job of checking if we don't make shots.
On momentum change after Penn State Coach Pat Chambers was called for a technical...
These games are hard to officiate. I think every coach is complaining now because the consistency of officiating is difficult. We have guys working a lot of days, and we have guys working so many more leagues. If you look and see it looks like what happened with coaches. Within a two or three year period we lost [Jud] Heathcote, [Bobby] Knight, and [Gene] Keady and [Don] Haskins and [Mike] Davis and [Lou] Henson. It's kind of almost that way in officiating. We lot a bunch of veteran guys last year. We're breaking in new guys and they're working a lot of leagues. I think it is frustrating for them and frustrating for us. Did I feel the momentum swing? A little bit, but Denzel only made one of the free throws and right there two free throws made a big difference. So, I'm sure it did some, but not as much as it could've or should've.
On getting Forbes open looks and making big shots...
I think it's big. We said that we thought the slips were open all night, but we just couldn't get guys to slip. Then, BJ [Dawson] must've been a shot-putter in high school. He's throwing the ball up, but he's not finishing it. That part is a little frustrating, but he is playing harder and he is playing longer. He did take the challenge of guarding Newbill, so we're making some progress there. Right now, it's Travis and Denzel that we've got to get playing like they were playing early in the year. Keep Denzel out of foul trouble. Every game that Denzel has been in foul trouble has been a problem for us. We're going to have to look at a couple of different things in the next couple of games. We've got to do a better job.
On his team's mental toughness...
I'm sure we did. We found a way to win at the end. As I said, we just have to get more out of our key guys on both ends of the court. I thought Denzel struggled the most because of the foul trouble, but I thought he showed a different attitude from the start of the game to the end. He was really in it in huddles and that, so I think he made some progress.
On his team's physical toughness...
I thought we battled in there. We were up 10 or 12 rebounds in the first half and we ended up only out-rebounding them by 13. Part of that was that they shot 57 or 58 percent in the second half. They made all of their shots in the second half and I think they made more free throws even in the second half. Yeah, we got a little tougher. It helps that Schilling is a tough kid. Costello was playing good and he, too, got in foul trouble. Dawson probably played a few more minutes. I think the other thing that we really have to work on is figuring out whether it's going to be Marvin [Clark] or [Javon] Bess is going to have to play some four. We have to give Brandon [Dawson] a little more rest than we're giving him. Maybe that's part of the reason he missed those shots. Seeing him make free throws and even the ones he missed - I think he's worked very hard on it and deserves some credit for it, and I give him that.
On pressure Travis Trice faces...
Every player in the world wants to be `the man'. BMOC, is that what they say? Big man on campus. Everybody wants to be that. But with it goes a lot of responsibility. There goes some pressure with being `the man.' It's not as easy as you think. I think the one real bad shot and then they give a layup. It just didn't make sense and that's not who he is or what he is. I'm sure everyone is feeling a little pressure. People are mad, everyone is upset. We're alright. We're not great yet, but there are a million reasons and some of them are that we weren't great from the beginning. We were supposed to work on becoming great. To do that, you need your three best players to play well. I said all along, if I ever thought we'd get this out of Schilling and Costello, I like our chances. Our consistent guys early have to get more consistent now, and they will and they do when they're out there.
On Gavin Schilling applying coaching lessons...
Gavin is a good kid. He just - as he said to me downstairs just now, it's just a bad habit. He goes up everything one handed. He's got a little bit of a shoulder problem and maybe that's a little bit of it too, but he's gone up with one hand all the time. He should be going up two hands on those. He missed at least three dunks and that's six more points for us, six more for him. Those things in Big Ten games - when you talk about four, six, eight point swings - scores aren't going to be separate enough most nights, so those make a huge difference. We were shooting better from the line and then key guys miss some down the stretch and we shoot 80 percent from the line tonight. It made the game easier, it made them happier, it made me a lot happier. He's been very active and he's battling and he's tipping balls loose. Like I said, I have no complaints with Schilling and Costello. I think those guys are playing, not at the highest level, but I think they're playing pretty well right now. Dawson is making progress. He's playing longer, he's playing harder, he's getting balls, he's getting rebounds. Now it's back to finishing, so we'll keep working on that. Between him and Schilling they get 11 offensive rebounds, that's hard to do.
On MSU's next game at Nebraska...
It gets a little tougher here because now you go on the road. What's starting to happen in this league is that it's really changed. So many of these teams would be a - big, a lot of big teams. Big teams and we probably have our smallest guards. [Terran] Petteway can play the two at 6'6'' or 6'7''. We came off the Maryland thing and there are a lot of big teams right now. So, we're going to have to play better, but I think we will. I think this is another shot in the arm where we found a way to win games. Early in the year, we found ways to lose games. We're going to build on this, we're going to get a little better. The guys that I need to play better have played better. I'm not looking for a pipeline dream like getting blood out of a rock or something. I'm trying to get stuff that has already happened. We'll do that. It'll get better and it's going to have to if we're going to play well down there.
Penn State Head Coach Pat Chambers
On what he saw on the play that led to his technical foul with 3:41 left in the game...
"It's probably four years of frustration. Our kids compete, they play hard, they try. Let us decide the game. There was three straight calls against us that were not called in the game and I never want to say it's the refs because they're good guys, they try their best. But I just think people look at Penn State very differently and I'm a little tired of it. And I didn't think it warranted a tech, but that's his discretion, that's fine. I hurt my team, too. I can't do that, I've got to be a solution-driven coach. I've got to be a positive. I've got to coach the game, which I did for the most part. "
On D.J. Newbill's performance and what kind of asset he is to the team...
"He can't do all of it, I mean he can't do it all. We put a lot of pressure on him to make plays. They switched everything, which makes it more difficult for him. We've got to continue to share the basketball. Obviously down the stretch, he took a little more shots in the last three minutes of the game because we were down. They hit a big three in the corner, but he's a special talent. He's a special kid and he's a great leader and I feel like I let him down tonight. I need to do a better job at that and we will because if we play like that the next 12 games, this thing is going to switch. It's going to flip and people are going to be scared to play Penn State."
On if he will send film to the Big Ten office over...
"To be very upfront with you, I've never sent film until this year. I rarely called the Big Ten for three and a half years. I could probably count on one hand how many times because I always believed you have to play harder and you have to take the refs out of the game, so they never should be in question. I'm a firm believer that from my pedigree, where I come from, and the coaches, my mentors, who taught me that. But at some point, this thing has got to stop, it's got to switch. I'm not a Hall of Fame coach, nothing against Tom [Izzo], nothing against John Beilein, nothing against all these other guys, but it's just got to stop, and I'll just leave it at that."
On Michigan State's performance...
"I want to give Michigan State a lot of credit. You know, I know they were hurting from that Maryland game. They came back, they played extremely hard, tough and physical. It's exactly what I expected and then they made the big plays down the stretch. Rebounds, [Branden] Dawson played very good defense on D.J. Newbill, [Bryn] Forbes hits a huge three, [Denzel] Valentine hits a huge 12-foot jumper in our zone. That was a great game, I enjoyed that game thoroughly. Unfortunately, we came out on the other end."
On if the technical foul gave Michigan State an advantage...
"Most definitely. It gave them momentum and they hit a big three and I take full blame. I know I've got to control my emotions. No matter what's happened, I can't let the frustrations of losing in years past get to me and that's what happened."
