Post-Game Quotes: Colgate
11/3/2025 9:56:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Opening Statement
Well, that was a win, that's about the only thing I'll say about it. I thought we didn't guard very well again. Although the second half, even though they shot fifty percent, I thought we guarded a lot better. This goes to show you how much analytics mean nothing. Jeremy is our leader, he's got unbelievable stats. Four for ten, six for six from the line, five rebounds, 14 points, 10 assists, one turnover, five steals. Those are unbelievable stats. In the first half, he didn't lead our team to anything, and he knows it. In the second half, he did, and that was the big difference. Our best players have to play well. He played pretty well. Jaxon's stats were pretty good, but we didn't think he guarded very well. I am calling guys out because seniors should be able to guard somebody. That was disappointing. On a positive note, Jeremy's was positive, Coen came back in a little bit of foul trouble, came back in with some energy, freshman Jordan Scott maybe did the best job out of anybody keeping balls alive, playing hard. I thought he was phenomenal. Our two guards right now, are either not making shots or not guarding anybody. The reason we won the game is the offensive rebound in 19, we did get to the free throw line, we did not turn the ball over much. Those were all good things. Second chance points was 20-to-3, we did not guard the three-point line very well, they took 29 threes, in the meantime they didn't get to the line because they didn't go inside. But I think that is a very well coached team, they could win their league like they have in the last five of six years. I really enjoyed watching them if I wasn't an opponent. I thought they played better, and I don't think we played very well. We have a lot of work to do, and we are going to get our ass embarrassed on Saturday and maybe that's good to have that pressure on us.
On if there was an offensive struggle...
I think they did a good job. They played some zone and some man. They did a good job, but I thought we missed some great shots. And again, we missed like four or five layups and they didn't miss any. We're missing layups in there. We had two jump hook air balls. That's just inexcusable. It'll be a fun couple of days.
On if the Jeremy Fears Jr. off the backboard alley-oop to Coen Carr lit a fire...
Listen, Jeremy Fears is a version of Mateen Cleaves. He's not there yet, but when the head goes, the body usually follows. And when the head goes south, the body usually follows. There's a lot of pressure on Jeremy because right now those wings haven't played very well but I thought that in the second half, Jeremy did everything I asked him to do and more. Those stats are unbelievable with the rebounds, the steals, the assist, the lack of turnovers. I thought he did a hell of a job, but he lost it a little bit in the first half and thank god he regrouped. I understood some of why he loses it. Our bigs did not cover those screens like we worked on, but that's my job I told him, not his.
On if it takes everybody to win...
It does take a little bit from everybody. Like I said, the big key player was Jordan Scott, a freshman. Jaxon came around a little bit too, though he missed some free throws. I mean I am baffled by our free throw shooting. We shot them all summer, we shot them the night before our game, we shot at 92 percent as a team. We do it everyday. We shot 77 (percent) from the line last year. We talked to our players and how that won us games. Coen was shooting almost 80 percent at one time last year and he ended at seventy something. Not that he can't shoot them, we're just in our heads a little bit here. There's only one way to get out of that and that's to work your way out. So if somebody isn't sleeping here, that's their fault. I take blame for a lot of things, but it won't be missed free throws.
On what it will take mentally and physically to win on April 6th this season...
I usually like your questions, that's a dumb question. I'm thinking of tomorrow's practice. I'm trying to win tomorrow's practice. You saw the way we played. If we don't play better, on April 6th, we'll be - let's see it's in Indianapolis, we'll take our team down there to clean the grounds. I'm not insulting you, I'm not insulting my team, but there is no way I am looking past tomorrow's practice. I am not happy with the way we played at UConn, and I am not happy with the way we played today. Now, in fairness to the players, last year we weren't very good the first couple games. This is part of it. This is part of the new regime. My key is we have four players that are veterans that are here. Three of them aren't playing very good right now, so then we rely on other people that are just learning their way. It's not fair to them. They'll get better. I mean Trey (Fort) had some moments today, Divine (Ugochukwu) had some moments earlier, Cam (Ward) did a good job for a freshman getting four offensive rebounds. He just needs to make his free throws. Kur (Teng) made a couple shots early. The problem is usually the best players are the two and three men you have to be able to guard. You can't be one dimensional, you can't just be a shooter, you can't just be able to guard somebody. We are going to keep working on that.
On looking to improve from three...
I think some of it was their defense. I'll give them credit. Matt's a hell of a coach. You don't survive like he has and win the games that he's won. He is a hell of a coach. I'm a dumb scheduler, we all know that, but it's really dumb when you schedule good games that aren't the tough games. In other words, some people are playing teams that.. this team will win a lot of games I think. So, some of it was them. I thought we took a couple of bad threes, a couple of stretches but I thought their defense gave us problems especially with our subs in there. They were going man to zone and we aren't ready for all that yet. The encouraging part for me is the energy of rebounding was better, the energy of guarding was not. I got one step forward, so hopefully I can get the next one next week.
On issues with the defense...
No, I don't think it's effort. That's a fair question. The driving based on that Coop is a better defender than he is playing right now. I didn't think our ball screen coverage was great, and some of that was the new people in there and some of it were new guards in there. The second half Jeremy didn't have many problems because he climbed into it because he's worried about who's stepping up and who's not. If you interview Jeremy it'd be good to ask him who was there in the first half and the second half, I think he will give you an honest answer. I'm not putting it all on him but he is one of my best players, and he has to play the best. As I said, when the head dies, the body follows, so when he wasn't sharp out there early, guys did not cover ball screens right so it looked like he was getting beat. He was doing some of the right things but he didn't do all the things right.
On if there are any positives about getting to the free throw line 37 times…
Yeah, both games. I mean, we did 44, 45 against UConn. That is a positive. Thank you. I really didn't feel like bringing any positives up, but I appreciate that. Usually, you guys are the ones giving me all the negatives, we've got a reverse role tonight. I'm giving you the negatives. But that is a factor. And if we were shooting 77%, I mean, in the last two games we are 53 of 84. Getting to the line 84 times in two games is phenomenal. Missing 31 is ridiculous. So, I have to balance the phenomenal from the ridiculous. I'm going to do a better job of that, but I don't know. I mean, I don't think its about spending time this time. I think it's about getting some confidence and getting up there and making a free throw, because they've all done it before. And stuff happens. Guys all of the sudden can't throw a strike. But, we're only one game in. Last year, we had some games early that we didn't do much. Listen, I'm not panicking, I'm mad. I don't like the fact that I have some upperclassmen that didn't play as good as they should play, and that's what you do in this program. You grow, you learn, you get better, and when it's your time to shine, you're supposed to shine. I probably did a poor job of coaching them. So don't think that tonight, I won't look in the mirror and ask myself, and I don't think they did a very good job of executing things that they know better than. And I'm going to tell you now, #22, he's a really good player. (Jalen) Cox, the point guard, very good player. He could play at a lot of places. We were told that by a lot of people, and they were right.
On freshman forward Jordan Scott's performance…
To be very honest with you, I thought he did a hell of a job of playing with energy for a freshman. I mean, I thought tonight he was our second or third best player. And you're right, that's why I say analytics. I don't have any faith in analytics because his 1-for-4, 0-for-3 from 3, 4-for-5 from the line, he had six rebounds, and I think he had more. They only had him down for two offensives, I think he got two off free throws. So, I thought Jordan (Scott) played very well and that'll be encouraging because he did play hard. He's skinny. He's not a great athlete; he just plays hard and really proud of how he played. So, hopefully, that'll be some help moving forward.
On Coen Carr's performance…
Yeah, I mean, Coen played hard. He got in a little bit of foul trouble in the first half. His whole thing is he's missing those free throws right now. I mean, I think he was 5-for-15. So now, he's 7-for-20. That's not going to make it. So, he's getting to the line and that's encouraging. He just didn't shoot the ball very well, and I thought the biggest problem is we didn't guard any ball screens the way we wanted to. We taught the team that our defense has got to get our offense going. It did a little bit in the second half, and the first half it didn't. I think they deserve some credit for that. I mean, they're a good team. But I think we deserve some blame. We, coaches, players, have to get it done.
On how the newcomers played…
I thought the transfers struggled a little bit. I thought the two freshmen handled it pretty well. Although Trey (Fort) was not bad. He can make shots, and that helped us. Both freshmen, I mean, Cam (Ward), when you miss free throws, it brings the level down. But he gets 4 offensive rebounds. He'll be better, but I didn't think in general, that our young guys or new played great. But it's early. Thirty more games to go, and we'll get a little better. Hopefully by Saturday, because if we are not, we'll get embarrassed. I know I've said that before, and we turn around and won, and I've said it before, and we've been embarrassed. So, I can do both. But I don't want to take anything away from how they played too. They hit some shots, and those fall-aways in the paint. Pretty well contested, a couple of threes, but some of them are mistakes of over helping, or not communicating, which is going to happen when you're playing with new guys. I mean, as they say, 'one weak link'. This isn't boxing. One weak link leads to another, which leads to another, and it moves the ball very well. I love what Matt (Lengel) does. I really do, and I think there's a reason he's won championships there. Doesn't matter what level you're at. It doesn't matter where you're at. Everything's relevant. They win championships, the consistency he has.
Colgate Head Coach Matt Langel
I have been doing this for a while now, and as a player, I got a chance to go to Phog Allen Fieldhouse and have been to Cameron Indoor. Last year, we were in the game in the second half in the second half at Rupp (Arena). When (Jeremy) Fears threw it off the glass, I cannot remember a louder environment. So, for me and for our guys, it is certainly something that is a huge part of the origins of college athletics. The atmosphere, the memories that are made, in victory and defeat. I mean, there are no programs that have had the sustained success that Michigan State has. You look up in the rafters and almost every guy who spends their four or five years gets to win a championship and go to the Final Four, that's a pretty good deal. So, in an awesome environment we are super appreciative of the opportunity to come and play and put our best food forward out there tonight. You think Michigan State and you have to keep them out of transition and off the glass. Obviously if someone could figure that out they wouldn't have all the banners up there, and we weren't able to do so tonight.
On his team's leadership...
Leadership is an interesting thing for this year's program. I always have the guys vote on it. Captains for me aren't that big of a deal, it's the guy that talks to the officials and the other guys at the center circle. Leadership is much more important and there are a lot of ways to display leadership. We had six guys get votes and it is pretty uncommon that over a third of your team would get votes.
On MSU's second-half adjustments...
I would have loved to be in their halftime room locker room. They have big guys. They have strong guys. Their front court is pretty veteran. We talked about free throw box outs and responsibility and changing our defense. We are not going to get out the football pads or get out any helmets. We have to be better, but you have to tip your cap to what they do. They get to the foul line and they push in transition when you are backing up, they are attacking.
On Coen Carr's backboard dunk and the foul on Trey Fort…
College basketball, especially sports in general, it's a game of momentum. We talked to the group and used the timeout after the dunk just because it's so loud and young people sometimes negatively affect them and they think they need to get five or six points back all at once. The free throw rebounds again you're talking about, you can't simulate it. You can show it on film against University of Connecticut, Michigan State doing it, but you've gotta battle like crazy, almost on the borderline of committing a foul, but not getting called for it in order to keep them off the glass. Then it started to snowball a little bit, I thought we were resilient enough to hang tough but you know they're big, they're strong, they're old, that's what they do all of the time and we got a little bit of a taste for it. Hopefully it'll make us better, it certainly led to them getting a big enough lead to put the game away.
On playing a game at Michigan State...
In scheduling, it leads to a couple of things. One is that if we're going to be champions, we've been to five of the last six NCAA tournaments, and so we're going to play a team of that caliber. A team that's going to be one of the best teams of the country and having been at the top of one of the most powerful conferences. If you can fast forward enough number of months in looking to see if we're good enough to win, we can build off that experience and we can look back and study the film and show the guys. The second piece in scheduling again, I was a studen- athlete, the guys that we get to recruit and coach, they're coming to college for a lot of different reasons and the landscape of everything that college basketball is today. For a lot of different reasons than other guys. I still believe that we're coaching young people and helping teach them valuable lessons, but we're also coaching experiences and memories. So you get a chance at 18,19, 20, 21 years old to play in the Breslin Center against Michigan State with Coach Izzo on the sidelines, you're in the game tied in the second half, that's a story you tell for the rest of your life, to your friends, to your teammates, to your children, to your grandchildren. If you're a basketball junkie, like most of us are, that's something that lasts a long, long time.
Michigan State Senior Guard Trey Fort
Â
On getting a bucket when the team needed it...
I feel like I should be able to do that at all times. That's what I take pride in just being able to pick up the team when things get a little big stagnant. You know we got work to do and get these going, might have a stretch where were having trouble getting what we want, getting something easy. But have to be able to create not only for myself but for others. Just having confidence in myself, and having my teammates have confident in me to get us going and hit those shots.
Â
On learning the system and getting stronger defensively...
It's been what I expected, it's still been on the come up we were doing good with aggressive pretty well. We have a lot that we have to do as a team, and I feel like that's how I'm going. It's our first one that really counts and we're learning from my first two games and I feel like we'll take things up a notch and make sure we hone in on the things we need to.
Â
On the biggest thing needed to improve on as a team defensively...
I feel like our effort is there, I feel like our communication at times might slip. With us having newer guys on the court sometimes we feel like our communication slips because one person easily knows what to do while the newer guy or freshman is trying to learn the system and maybe do the same things they are doing, it's not the worst but it's going to get a lot better because that is what we take pride in.
Â
On Arkansas coming into town and communication being an issue in the loud arena...
Focus, focus on and off the court. Every day we come in just really having the mindset that we need to communicate, that we need to be together, stay together, and help each other out. Be a brother if somebody slips up and make up for it on whatever end he needs help with. Arkansas will be another great test. I have faith in us, I believe in us for sure and I feel like defensively we going to be like them because we don't have any other choice.
Â
Michigan State Senior Forward Jaxon Kohler
Â
On Jordan Scott and what he gives to the team...
I love him man. It gives us a spark, it gives us the motivation to do what he is doing to be honest like watching that from the bench and sideline, I'm jumping off the floor like excited because that creates a spark and when he does that someone else is going to do that and before you know it were going to out rebound the other team by however many.
Â
On Izzo saying if you play like this, you will get embarrassed on Saturday...
I mean honestly forget the win, we as a team didn't achieve what we wanted to achieve. We didn't do what we were supposed to do, and I think that we all need to make sure we analyze the last couple games, good exhibition games and just really focus on what we got to do better as a team. We got to get better at defense. I think that was something that really hurt us, and we need to make sure we keep out rebounding the other team the whole game, not just one half, the whole game. We have to make sure our offensive is flowing, no bad turnovers, get into a free-flowing offensive system.
Â
On the sequence which seemed like how you want to play...
Yeah that's how you want to play, that's honestly the standard, that's what our identity is, that's what it should be and you know it's still early but that's no excuse to not be at that standard right now. That's something that as a team every one of us has got to step up a bit and make sure we are ready for these next couple of games, everyone knows our preseason games are no joke and the way were playing right now, we're going to have to change.
Â
On ball screen coverage in the first half...
I mean, in scout we knew that at the high post that one of two things was going to happen and there was confusion on what was actually happening in real time and that is what kind of screwed us up. At halftime, watching it on film we were able to see what was actually going on and allowed us to in the next half do a better job. Plus, they had a system where they send screens for the four man which is something not a lot of teams do, and so with a lot of new guys on our team, we've been working all week on the ball screen for the four man, him going under. You know we have in-game experience and we're going to be all day watching film, learning from it and make sure it doesn't happen again.
Junior Forward Coen Carr
Â
On his takeaways from the game…
Their drives which led to open threes and they were hitting them. They also hit tough shots too but most of those were our mistakes.
Â
On the halftime conversation…
Halftime was definitely intense. We all feel like we played bad, but it wasn't anybody in particular. In the second half when we started playing together and playing team defense, I feel like that's when we turned it around.
Â
On ball-screen defense and getting acclimated to new players…
We've never had this many (new) people on the team before. You know it's been tough, but we just gotta emphasize communication even more.
Â
Redshirt Sophomore Guard Jeremy Fears Jr.
Â
On the differences between the first and second half…
I would definitely say defense. It's got to start with me, I think. When I pick up the defensive intensity it kind of helps the other guys, so I think in the first half I didn't do my job.
Â
On building on his second half performance with five steals…
We just gotta make sure we bring that same intensity and effort from minute one.
Â
On his first half leadership…
I didn't do my job to start the first half, just not leading and not helping, and it kind of showed out there. I wasn't on, I guess you could say, first half. So I just went out in the second half with a clean slate.
Â
