Post-Game Quotes: Boise State
11/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Coach Tom Izzo, Michigan State
Opening Statement - "These two guys (Nairn Jr. and Valentine) deserve to be up here with us. They carried us today. I was very impressed with Boise St., impressed with them on film and they are a hard team to prepare for in one night because they have bigs that can step out and shoot it. Webb did not have the kind of game that I've seen him have on film, part of the reason was that he was in foul trouble. Denzel had a stretch where he was unbelievable, but I didn't think that was his best game and that's the good news for me. Tum Tum is having a great tournament, the best two game stretch since he's been here. We talk all the time about having a tremendous upside, it's just a matter of if we can get our players to play a little more consistently. I never know who I'm bringing off the bench right now. I've got guys to bring off; there is just not the consistency. As good as they played, I thought we could have had a bigger lead at halftime if our bigs would have made some layups. That's the problem right now that we're going to have to adjust to. In the scope of things, coming off a big win yesterday and playing a team that we barely beat at home two years ago. Coach Rice does a great job, he's part of that Gonzaga tree and that means that somewhere there is a little blood of Judd in there because he is hanging around all the time. I think he did a great job, his players are good at getting to the hole. They didn't shoot it as well as they've been. I feel fortunate that we got a win. We have got to play better if we are going to be a championship game."
On Tum Tum's play - "Denzel said it best, Tum has worked harder than anybody, including ‘Zel but as hard as ‘Zel, nobody works harder than him. This summer he and J.B. spent some time working together early in the morning. He had plantar fasciitis and he hasn't been able to be in the gym for two months extra. We utilized him during practice and that's it. I think he lost a little confidence and he needed a game like last night to get some confidence back. He looks better now and his shot wasn't broken. He just needed to have some confidence. He plays with energy, he plays hard, he is pushing the ball hard. Last night he had 8 assist and no turnovers with 7 assist and no turnovers today. That's 15 assists, zero turnovers and some pretty good defense. These two guys have been what we have ridden so far out here. I think they would agree they that we have more than that; we just need to get more out of more people."
On Denzel's play - "We said we'd go to him (Denzel). We talked about which side he wanted to come off and what he wanted to do. He hit that first three pointer and I maybe 4 or 5 more. All of them but one I thought was a good shot. One of them I thought he rushed a little bit but he made it. That's what he can do when he gets in the zone. For the most part he is starting to do it more efficiently. At Kansas, he took 23 shots but now he is down around 15 shots. I feel a little bad for him, whenever he's trying to get shots and assists too, we have guys missing layups and it ticks me off and I hope it ticks him off too."
On his thoughts at halftime - "We weren't guarding, we gave up a three, we could have gone in with an 8-point lead but we let them get momentum. We weren't executing and I think the players felt the same way I did. We are struggling right now with our bigs. We are struggling with our off-guard to guard somebody. We are happy we are in California because there are a lot more people out here than there is back in Michigan. We are going to send those guards out tonight to Disneyland to see if they can find somebody, anybody they can guard."
On defensive play of the guards - "There is no reason anybody should be able to drive by Bryn or Eron Harris. Eron might be the best athlete on the team. That's just inexcusable and there has to be a premium put on. Draymond (Green) told me last night, "Coach, you need to give him more of a chance." I'll give anybody a chance to miss shots, even throw the ball away but effort related things cannot be tolerated here."
On play of Eron Harris - "It was one of the questions he had at West Virginia. He could score points but you don't win games just by scoring points. He's good enough to do both. In fairness to Eron, he has been out a year and half and we need to get him more time. We played him when he had some errors early, but he got in some foul trouble and we had to take him out. I'm going to leave that up to these two guys, they are close with him. If we could get some consistency out of him, we really step up a notch in our game. Marvin (Clark) has missed 8 weeks, so he's just getting it back and we need him so we can get a little consistency in our rotation. Even though I'm frustrated with it, I understand that Eron has been out a long time and we have just not been together enough as far as those subs. We will live with it and keep working on it."
On his team's unselfish play - "What has made this team special so far this year is, that with this being another night on the road, we had 23 out of 25 baskets assisted. We had 6 turnovers in the first 8 minutes and only had 4 the rest of the game. We have guys looking for one another and that is going to carry us. It'll be hard to say who we are going to play, I don't know what Kaleb Tarczewski's situation is and I think Providence is a heck of a team. We feel blessed to be in the championship game in one of the greatest tournaments because of who it is named after."
On Michigan State fan support - "I Appreciated the number of Michigan State fans who came out to watch us play. I don't know if a lot of them came out here, I think we may have a lot of alums out here. That was special for all of us."
On the next few days - "The three of us are going to study some film tonight. They are going to go out to Disneyland. We are going to get up tomorrow and have a good practice, study some more film and then go watch our football team get to the Big Ten Championship."
Michigan State Sophomore Guard, Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn, Jr.
On late game strategy - "We were executing what coach wanted us to do. I think Denzel runs extremely hard off picks, so he was playing hard and being aggressive. It got him open and he was knocking down big shots."
Michigan State Senior Guard, Denzel Valentine
On looking forward to Sunday - "I just want to win the championship. I'm not looking to get a career high or anything, I'm just playing to win. Tum Tum had a great game; he carried us in the first half and part of the second half. He got me going, he was the one in my ear telling me if I took a bad shot. Credit to him for leading us throughout this game."
On momentum during the game - "Once I saw the first three-pointer to drop, I got this adrenaline rush and I felt that every shot I took was going to be good. The last shot I took was probably a bad shot, I was just in my zone and it felt like it was going to go in. I was playing confidently and credit to Tum for getting me the ball and going at it."
On Michigan State fan support - "It was huge. A special shout out to all the Michigan State fans here. When Boise was going on their run, our fans never gave up. If we score a basket and we are still down 5 or 6 points, they are still cheering us on throughout the whole game."
Coach Leon Rice, Boise State
Opening Statement - "It's always nice to come to these things and play a great program like Michigan State. They're obviously one of the top teams in the country. They have great players, great coaches. I was really proud of how my players played possession by possession, but you have to hand it to Michigan State. They made some big shots that kept us at arm's length. They're the number three team for a reason. They don't have a lot of weaknesses and do their jobs at a high level."
On momentum - "Valentine made some big shots down the stretch to get things going. But that's who they are. They know how to battle in those situations. They just kept battling through. I think we were a little fatigued. We're playing a lot of good minutes against these good teams. But we need to figure out a way where we can do that for 40 minutes. But that's the benefit of playing these types of games in November, because it'll only make us better."
On MSU's defense - "It's not so much taking advantage of their ball screen defense, it's about the way we play. It's a tough guard when you have Nick (Duncan) and James (Webb III), these guys who can shoot the ball. We also have a lot of quick guards. But there isn't any element of bad defense by any means. That's a one of the best defensive teams in the country. When you have to guard the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, we're able to get the ball into the paint."
On playing Arizona and Michigan State - "I don't like to talk about this, just because different things happen on different nights. But when you play two Top 10 teams, it's tough. They're so well coached. Any mistake you make, they make you pay. With Valentine, any mistake you have, he makes you pay. He gets his teammates involved. Nobody is playing as good as him right now."
Boise State Guard Mikey Thompson
On Boise's performance - "Just playing the way we play. We play fast, and we're a very offensive team. Once we get the ball moving, nobody can hold us. Mentally, we have to stick with it and keep doing what we do. It slipped away from us, but we can't let that affect us. We just have to keep going and work at it."
Boise State Forward Nick Duncan
On Valentine's performance - "We were waiting for him to miss, but at the end he didn't. We were playing the game plan we had, but he was just hitting some great shots. He's a great player. Those four threes really hurt at the end of the game."
On going forward - "Coach says we have to take it one game at a time. Playing these ranked teams, it's good to see what the standard is. We can really go with these teams for 35 minutes, but we really need to go for 40 minutes. That's our goal.
