Michigan State vs. Iowa Postgame Quotes
2/11/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement...
I figured out I've been lying to all of you. I said we have to get more consistent - we are consistent. We're consistently turning the ball over, we're consistently playing parts of games. This was a big win for us. You know, they were playing pretty good. They did an unbelievable job defensively, I thought an unbelievable job rebounding the ball. Unbelievable. We had some guys that played in stretches. I thought Cassius [Winston] struggled the first half, and then was a completely different player in the second half. I can't figure out how we're going to keep this energy level up. You know, Eron [Harris] and Alvin [Ellis III] did heck of a job on (Peter) Jok. I thought (Jordan) Bohannon has a few open shots he missed, but we did a pretty good job on him. I mean, defensively to hold a team like that to 32.8 percent, and 19 percent from the three, and yet still have 21 turnovers - you know, good thing I have a party with my old guys right now because that is frustrating, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm just not sure I'm understanding it. But, if the Twitter mongrels have something to say now it should be at me. It has to change. There is no way on God's green Earth that a team can turn over 21 - that's like six interceptions in football, with 15 penalties. But, I'm going to try to go past that and say that we ran the ball better. Josh Langford, I thought, looked more like a Charlie Bell, pounding the offensive boards. They have him down for no offensive rebounds by the way. But, Josh kept so many balls alive that the early first two or three baskets were caused by him. Then he ran. We've been asking him to run and rebound, and he ran and got those open shots from the three and buried them. Big day for him. Miles (Bridges) was pretty solid, steady. I thought one of the problems was that Kenny Goins was so tired. I don't know if it was from the sickness last week, but he couldn't go at all. Then Nick (Ward]) got in that foul trouble and that was a problem. But all-in-all, they defended and rebounded which is how I say you win games. We beat a damn good team, a very well-coached team. You know, Fran (McCaffery) has a lot of the same issues I have -a list of young guys, you know- but we did the job on their ace and did a decent job, I should say. Jok has been, I think very good, and that was the difference in the game.
On Miles Bridges' performance...
Well, I don't know how many minutes, but we played him too many. 37 minutes, you know, you can't do that. I'm going to crucify myself up here. That's a poor job on my part. I thought he looked tired in the second half. We put him in a position where he had to help because the other guy he was guarding wasn't a great shooter. We wanted him to help and help other guys, and get some deflections. He still gets 11 rebounds and he still shoots 50 percent. He only has one turnover. I thought he played good, but in the second half, I didn't think was great. That's the cool thing about him; when I asked him after how he felt, he was mad. He said, `Well, I didn't rebound very well in the second half.' So that was all good. We have to do a better job with him, but we have to give him more rest than that. Three minutes is, well, we were trying to run them up and down the way they were running up and down. That was not good coaching.
On the performance of Josh Langford and Nick Ward...
I loved the way both of them played. You know, Josh - I don't know why I tell coaches, I tell parents, I tell the media - there's a process. Maybe I don't understand the process, maybe I'm looking for too much from those guys sometimes. But, he played like I think Charlie played as a junior, and the rest of those guys. He was just a lot more aggressive on the break, he ran his lane, he drove a couple times. Even when he missed shots I just think he was more aggressive. But, boy, get in the offense glass, he defended pretty well. I think you can see what Josh Langford can be. He's got a ways to go, he's got the consistency issues but, man, I was proud of him.
And Nick, he didn't play very well against Michigan. We decided to bring him off the bench and he was there. Maybe, it was the haircut I don't know. I thought Nick was as dialed in as I've seen him this year. When he got his second foul and had to come out, he stayed dialed in. I am very leery of giving everyone credit, especially at this time of year, but I was really proud of those two guys. And Cassius, for being as average as he was first half and how exceptional he was second half, I think all three of them have the same issues and I guess that's why I'm here. They have to learn to play with some passion and intensity. I even saw Josh jump up and down a couple times, and it sounds ridiculous doesn't it? But it's important. They're getting better. It's just a process.
I love Nick's haircut. I think he looks great, man. I think he looks great, and you know, when `DD' (Deyonta Davis) got his cut, things started changing. Nick was really focused in. He really was, he knew what he was doing on everything, he stayed with the game. I was really pleased with Nick.
On the 21 turnovers...
No, I can't live with it. You know as well as I do that you can't win big games - I'm not saying this wasn't a big game- but, you can't win against real good teams, you can't win in the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA tournament if you turn the ball over 21 times. You just watched the Super Bowl. It doesn't change in any sport. This was a weird set of turnovers. Two in the first half was another way in the second half. We were throwing the ball and then falling down. I don't know how I can coach that different. But, we showed all of our players the turnovers against Michigan and had to go through that. I hate to say that, but it's going to come down to if you turn the ball over in practice, it's going to get drastic because we are not valuing the ball. It should all fall on me so if anyone wants to get on me, that is one issue you should get on me about. It should fall on me and the harder you get on me the harder I'm going to get on them. We're going to get it straightened out. Some of the guys who are making them are good passers and good players, it's just frustrating. I shouldn't let it ruin a good day, because really if I look at it, if we turn it over 15 times we would have gotten 66 shots. That's the most shots we've shot all year and we're shooting 50 percent. That's a 20-something point win and that's disturbing.
On Miles' block...
Well, I just took the blame for the turnovers and I'm going to take the credit for teaching that son of a gun how to block shots. It kind of balances out 50/50. It took a lot of work and it took some time. He used to just kind of jump off of one foot and wasn't doing it well enough, so I got him to jump off of two feet. He used to just try to block it with his head and I got him to use his arms. Between the two of us, we've done a hell of a job on that. It was an incredible play. I still say he is one of the more special people. Enjoy Miles Bridges, guys. I still say he is one of the most humble, greatest kids. I love that kid.
On if he can see steps towards his team's potential...
Yeah, I do. I've said that since the Duke game. Since the Arizona game. I really do. Maybe I'm complaining about you guys and the people out in the other world. Maybe it is just part of the process. I watched Kentucky today and they just looked average. I watched Duke, I mean maybe it's just the way it is. These freshmen are going to take awhile and I'm sure Franny (Fran McCaffery) felt some of that. (Jordan) Bohannon never missed some big shots. He's been such a great player for them. He just had one of those days, I don't know; but I do see progress. I've been saying that and I see it. There's times we run things really sharp and good. We missed some good shots. I mean, I thought they missed a few, but McQuaid missed a few. Thank God he kept shooting this time. Langford, what can I say. Those guys, Bridges and Langford, had one turnover each. Eron (Harris) struggled turning the ball over. We had a plethora of guys getting two. Only a couple more because I'm ready to go party.
On overcoming the turnovers and what he differences he saw...
I thought the transition defense was pretty good, except when we scored. We are celebrating and early in the game they weren't down. Then we did a better job with transitions and it was really good for us. We did a better job sprinting back. We did a better job when we did turnover, going out and blocking the shot or challenging, they missed a couple of layups. That could have been really ugly as far as points off of turnovers that were direct points. When there were turnovers for touchdowns, Miles saved one, Eron saved one, I think Cassius saved one. So there were some plays there. Transition defense was a big part, I give our kids credit on that.
On Alvin Ellis' defense...
I thought Harris did a great job defensively. Ellis did a very good job with it. Very good job.
On his most effective rotations...
I think that's going to be the most frustrating thing for you, me, and the fans. The rotations are going to be what they are. Someone's playing good, he is going to rotate and I just can't afford to let guys in that aren't playing as hard or aren't playing with as much passion defensively or aren't playing with as much passion offensively. I thought we ran better. Kenny (Goins), I thought, struggled. I thought he looked winded every minute he was out there. He got three dunks that he didn't even dunk and he is a good dunker, but he had 10 rebounds. I don't know what the best rotations are. I thought Tum (Nairn) did an unbelievable job on Bohannon. I thought Cassius did a great job in the second half scoring the ball. We ran some things for him. He looked more aggressive. Alvin did some good things, and yet, a critical time for making one-handed catches and the balls are going out of bounds. They all know that they are going to play. You can't really shrink the playing group because of the foul trouble we get in. We could shrink it a little bit with the guards, but those guys have been pretty good. Sometimes we play Ellis at the four. It is what it is. It is hard to change it in the middle of February. That won't be the problem. The problem will be the turnovers. That's what we have to correct
Closing statement...
I'll close by saying this. I really am thrilled about the win. It's hard to come off of your rivalry game, play as poorly as we did, and bounce back. That is very hard to do, especially for a lot of young kids. I thought we had energy in practice, and for the most part, we played with a lot more today. We want the way you have to win down the stretch now. You've got to defend and you've got to rebound. Older than dirt, but you've got to defend, rebound, and not turn the ball over. Two out of the three, I thought we did at a very, very high level. One, I thought we did at a very, very low level. But I thought it was encouraging to see Cassius bounce back like that and it was encouraging to see Nick after having to sit out and bounce back second half. It was encouraging to see Josh do what he did. Yet, those seniors might have won us the game by the defense they played on (Peter) Jok because he was unbelievable at Minnesota. Hopefully we will get better because Tuesday is not going to get any easier and it's going to be a quick turnaround. I'm going to go spend three hours with my former guys and back to work tomorrow.
Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery
On if the low shooting percentage was more of a credit to Michigan State's defense or poor offense...
I think it was a little bit of both. I thought they really got up into us, thought they were connected, they made it hard. We did have some open looks at times from some really good shooters and they didn't make them, so that's unfortunate.
On Michigan State's freshmen...
It's a good group of players. They play a lot, so it's not surprising that they'd be in double figures to me. I mean every one of them is impressive, I thought [Miles] Bridges in particular in the first half was the difference in the game. They turned it over 12 times, we should've been up by more than one, we didn't shoot it well. As I said, however, good they defended well. They also kicked us on the glass pretty good. You can't come in here and get out-rebounded 46-32. That's going to make it really hard.
On the press late in the second half...
I thought they did a real good job later on, attacking it to score. We didn't get where we needed to be a couple times. We try to be aggressive sometimes, a couple times came up. You come up and it leaves you vulnerable at the rim. To a team like this, we got to go get it.
On the ball movement and the flow of the offense...
The ball movement was fine, it wasn't that. It was ball movement with a purpose. We moved the ball, but we weren't really working hard to get open. We weren't really screening people, we weren't screening with a purpose, cutting with a purpose. We just passed it around. We got hung up a couple times, wounded a couple of times at the end of the shot clock putting up a difficult shot. At least you look at Ahmad [Wagner] and Tyler [Cook], at least they got the offensive glass a little bit, but then you also look at the other side.
On Jordan Ryman's play...
Yeah, I haven't seen him 0-for-8 ever. One of those nights for him. I told him to keep shooting, he did. I thought he rushed a couple, but he does that all the time so it's not like... He'll make some of those, we've seen that. He's down about it, he'll be fine moving forward.
On having a week off for improvements...
We're doing some good things. We have to play better. You can't come in here and expect a win, getting out rebounded and shooting a low percentage. Our ball movement wasn't what it needed to be. Our press was good. Our changing defenses was good at times. We had a couple good individual performances, but we have to do a better job offensively in terms of execution against a team of this caliber on the road. We have to get more back when you're missing as many shots. We were 21-for-64. That's a lot of misses. We got to go back and get a few more. They made that hard.
On defensive efficiency in the second half...
Okay at times, not good in that one stretch. I mean we did not handle that one stretch where they kind of separated from us because they weren't able to do that up until that point. Then all of a sudden you look up and it's 12 or whatever. So it's credit to them. I thought at that point we needed a little more maturity in terms of shot selection, at least limiting them to one shot, know where all our people are. They also made some threes in that stretch, got to credit to [Cassius] Winston, he made two. That was big. Let's hope we learned.
On the rotation...
I think that's a legitimate question. I mean that's a struggle for me, it's a struggle for our staff. Kriener deserves to play, [Cordell] Pemsl deserves to play, Cook, all those guys deserve to play. I thought Dom Uhl looked really good in the first half, but then only played five minutes as well. I'm trying to be fair and I'm trying to get guys going. I guess it means I'll have to scale it back and just play some other guys more and see how that works.
On Peter Jok's injury...
I think he's a little sore. I mean, I think he's okay to play. He tweaked something, but when he came out he said `I'm ready to go back in,' so I put him back in. He's always got ice on various parts of his body. Only if he tells me he can't go, I'm going to go with him. Says he can't go then he can't go. I'd be willing to bet the next game he's ready to go.
On if Cook had an injury...
I thought he got hit in the nose first and it was his own man Ahmad, the one who hit him. They were both going for a rebound. Then I thought it was his forehead, that he might've had a concussion. I guess it was his eye, I guess he got poked in the eye and it really scared him. That's why they kept him out for a while, just to make sure he was okay. He says it's good.
On having a week off to prepare...
We had two road games in a row, two tough road games, a little bit of fatigue so we have to rest a little. The guys that are banged up will get to the training room. We'll just go back to work. Like I said, we have to work a little harder, challenge each other a little bit more and continue to improve.
Michigan State forward Miles Bridges
On the process of getting the team going...
Coach really talked to us about turnovers at halftime. If we continue to turn the ball over, that is how we lose games. We just have to keep our turnovers under 15 and that is one of our goals.
On the turnovers being an issue...
I feel like we could have run away with the lead if we didn't turn the ball over so much because we were playing such good defense. That is just something we need to work on. We need to make better decisions.
On taking the momentum and building on it...
We just have to continue to take practice over to the games. That is one of our biggest problems. If we can do that we will be a great team.
On the importance of winning...
Losing to Michigan felt like a two-game losing streak. We just had to get our grove back. We wanted to play better on offense and defense. Everyone stepped up.
Michigan State guard Joshua Langford
On getting his shots up tonight...
I just knew that last game was inexcusable for me to not be aggressive. There were times last game where I could have been aggressive and swept baseline and made plays. This game I wanted to be really cognitive and make plays on the offensive and defensive ends.
On defending Iowa guard Peter Jok...
Eron Harris and Alvin Ellis did a great job guarding him tonight. It was also a great team effort. We said that throughout practice we have to defend as a team. That is what we did and we did a great job.
On team defense as a whole...
I think we held them to like 33 percent I believe. If you look back at all of the games that we won, it started on defense. When we sit down and play defense and when we rebound on offense and defense we go out and get a win.
On the importance of win...
Its important because Iowa is kind of a team that was streaking and had themselves going a little bit. For us to come out and win and bounce back from the Michigan game, I feel like we made some big steps in bringing practice to the games.
On the remaining schedule...
I think everything is on us. The teams we are about to play are great teams but if you look at all of the teams we lost to, we beat ourselves. So we have to come in and know the scouting report and bring practice into the game.
Michigan State guard Cassius Winston
On controlling the second half...
We played at our own pace. We didn't allow them to rush us or force us into situations we were not comfortable with. Everybody was able to touch the ball. It helped us a lot on our turnovers and getting easier baskets.
On the press defense...
It was aggressive, but we were ready for it. We were not in a rush, we hit the open guy in the middle.
On the defense that overcame the turnovers...
Our defense helped us tonight. We were solid on defense and rebounding and that is probably what won us the game. The offense didn't turn on until the second half but our defense saved us.
On what to takeaway from this win...
We just keep playing with this energy level and work on those turnovers. We have to keep rebounding. If we keep playing with this energy level we will be alright.
On Iowa's play...
They are a good team and have been hot lately. They have all of the pieces but our defense was great. We rebounded and held them to one shot per possession. That helped us in the long run.
