Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement…
Just another day in paradise, I guess. I hope our fans appreciate one of the better games. It was crazy. I know we were both complaining about calls, and this and that. I thought two teams really competed. I said this before the game, and I’ll say it after, I really do believe they are the best team in the league right now. I’m not slighting us, I’m not slighting Purdue, I’m not slighting Michigan, or anyone else. I just think that right now, that was a tough team to play. We made some mistakes early that really bothered us, because they were scouting report mistakes. We missed some free throws early, and they made some shots. That kid (Will) Riley has not been playing well lately, and he had 16 at halftime, he was unbelievable. (Kasparas) Jakucionis got in foul trouble and that helped us, no doubt about it. I loved the kid Gibbs; Longhorn, tough. They play hard. (Morez) Johnson, they play hard. But we did a hell of a job. I think I’m just going to say, number 13, number 11, you know this UP vocabulary isn’t ready for some of these names. A lot of good players, I thought we did a decent job on (Kylan) Boswell. We didn’t take many three’s; it was because of the way they guarded. We thought we could go inside, and we did, we weren’t very good at rebounding in the first 10 minutes of the game. They scored 26 points in the second 10. They scored 10 points. We ended up losing the rebound battle by one. But that team is really good. One and two in the league in rebounding. I don’t know. I love the way he coaches; I love the way they play. But, dammit I loved the way we played, too. We came back. We had sometimes we could’ve gotten down. I think it showed a lot of character. There were some guys that struggled a little bit early, and they bounced back. We were moving people around and found some combinations that really helped. All in all, the atmosphere there was reminiscent, I told Mateen (Cleaves) it was reminiscent of the good old days. Credit goes to all you fans that are out there. Students, I thought they were phenomenal. I think it’s a good time to be a Spartan. I stopped by the gymnastics event on Friday night and saw a monster crowd. I went over to Michigan, stopped by the hockey game for 15 minutes and saw the standing room crown there was phenomenal. Another nice win over Michigan. And then today, to end the weekend with a performance by our team I think was exciting. I’ll just take a big win. I know we didn’t play great. I know they had their moments where they didn’t either. But that’s what happens when two good teams clash. That team, it’s hard to check that many players, and we did a decent job on some, and some checked themselves because of foul trouble. I’m being realistic, we still have a ceiling and we’re going to get there. They have a ceiling too, and they are going to get there.”
On his in-game conversation with Illinois Coach Brad Underwood…
We were just talking about how it was getting crazy. I’m not going to incriminate myself either. Put it this way, we were together. We were on the same page.”
On where his team is on the Tom Izzo scale of mental & physical toughness…
It’s getting better. If you saw the first four minutes of the game, we were supposed to go over a screen and we went under it. Simple things. But I think my players were nervous and excited. How good is that? I bet as fans you’re nervous and excited, I bet as the media you came today saying this is going to be a hell of a game. Both are good things. Thats an honor to play games that matter this much in the middle of January. It hasn’t been that way in the last couple of years. I thought that both teams went at it and it was clean. It was physical, but clean if that makes sense. I thought we showed some mental and physical toughness, and some character. We were down, down, and behind 90 percent of the game it feels like. Once we made a little run, they didn’t collapse either. That’s two good basketball teams. He’s a good coach and has done a hell of a job with that group. The scary part is they did that without (Kasparas) Jakucionis. Number 32 is a little more northern Michigan-ish. Either way, you look at it they did a hell of a job. I think they are going to win a lot of games. We have some challenges ahead of us and were looking forward to them.
On if this was the closest his team has played to a 40-minute game…
I’d say we did play a full 40 game, but in a way, we still only played 30 because of the first 10 minutes. We have to figure it out. We’ve gone where we played 25 minutes good, 30 minutes good, t10 minutes bad. I thought the first six or seven minutes, if you look at the report of what we wanted to do and what our assignments were, we didn’t do a great job. Part of that is because we were playing against a really good team. I’d say all in all that was our best 40 minutes of the year. Even though we had some lows, I thought we stuck to the game plan when we wanted to go inside, we did. We made some wicked plays too at times. But I think all in all we did pretty good job.
On Strength in Numbers and Tre Holloman…
Tre did a good job. Everybody did their thing in moments. There were plays we ran for everybody that we thought would help us get going. Frankie (Fidler) once, Jase (Richardson) once made a big play on a curl move, we went into Coop (Carson Cooper), who made that nice hook shot. We went into Jax (Jaxon Kohler), who made a couple nice plays. Tre was really good. And Jeremy (Fears) ran our team well. They run a different coverage defensively, and at times it screwed us up a little bit. Book (Xavier Booker), don’t downplay Book’s 18 minutes. He hit a big three, but defensively he did a pretty good job. He had more energy. He did a better job, he got a big rebound and lost it but like I said, he’s not playing against a bad team. I thought every guy had his moment where he brought something to the table. That’s what strength in numbers does.
After playing Penn State what did you learn about your team today?
Well, they responded. I think KJ, when I look at him on film, I like that kid. There are nights where I think he’s the best player in the league. But I haven’t seen everybody either. Purdue has some, a lot of people have some really good players, Michigan’s got some. I just thought consistently looking at him on film. But what I learned about my team is that we went after them a little after that game, and they responded. As a coach that’s what you want. You want players that respond. There were a lot of meetings, a lot of sessions, a lot of practice, there was some film time. That’s the best part of coaching. When you can deal with those things instead of the rest of that BS that’s out there. I really enjoyed that, and I thought every guy I talked to and spent time with. Coop and Tre were the last two yesterday afternoon after practice. It’s nice to see people respond. It’s nice to see them get their character challenged. Don’t underestimate. I sent out a little message to the Izzone members when the team was here, when Jalen was here, when Zelle and them were here, the fans win you games. They do. I’m not a gambler but there is reason why the same game at home and on the road is sometimes an eight-point difference. Our fans made a big difference. If we can capture that, man I saw old people coming out of their chairs. I guess I am one of them, but I still saw them. It’s really a pleasure to be able to excite people. That’s what this weekend was about. If you’re a Spartan this weekend, please capture it and understand it’s a privilege to have it.
On where the team has improved since earlier in the season…
We’ve improved a lot since Kansas, but I said that I didn’t think we played very well. Memphis, not because it was a loss, but they played awfully good. Sometimes it’s not you, it’s them, and that team played awfully well. We’ve been playing good enough in this stretch, but we haven’t been finishing games, and we tried to finish games now, and that was one of the battle cries in the huddles. We got to finish the game. We didn’t play as good in the first half, we got to play better in the second half. So those are the kind of things that I think we’re trying to get through to our guys. I think our guys needed a moment, with five minutes left to go, that huddle. There was every single guy, from our walk-ons to our managers. They were all into it in the locker room, it was a special moment. Those are the most that I appreciate in this crazy job I’m in, those locker room moments with the guys, it’s priceless. I think that helps you grow and helps togetherness, makes everybody realize. (Szymon) Zapala didn’t start the second half, didn’t play as well, came in and made two big plays and made two free throws when it really mattered, and he had struggled from the line. He is struggling from the line. That says a lot about him. In nine minutes, he gets four points, four rebounds, and you’d say, who cares? But some of those plays are monumental, and they were all happy for him. He was all happy for the guys.
On the team’s rebounding…
I was really disappointed in that area because this is rebounding U. Penn State is linebacker U, and we are Rebound U, and we didn’t do a very good job. We really worked on our cutouts. When I got here, I said, I’m not gonna cut out like in high school, where you cut out, hold a guy, and the ball hits the floor, and the coach says, ‘Nice job.’ I never believed in that. I believed in the hit, find, and fetch theory of, ‘Go get the ball.’ Don’t let the ball come to you. There’s too many athletes at this level. We were cutting out, holding our cutouts, and I thought the athletes, especially number 2. I mean, that kid was lost. He might have only had four offensive, but he’s only six foot. He had four offensive rebounds. He was just a terror. He went hard as hell. We did a decent job on (Morez) Johnson. He got six rebounds, but none on the offensive end. We weren’t rebounding the ball good. We weren’t going after it, and four guys cut out and one guy doesn’t, and they get it. So I got to figure out a way to still cut out a little better, but we’re not going to hold the cutouts until the ball hits the floor. We worked on the drill a couple of times for a reason. My guys took it to heart, so that’s my fault. Coach will fix that on Tuesday.
On playing Illinois again this season…
What do you think I am, a masochist or what? Glad about it? Hell no, I’m not glad about it, but I think it’s good for our league. I think it’s good for the country. I think it’s the kind of games people want to see. It’ll be good for their fans, and it’ll be good for us. As much as you sometimes don’t want to play in those kinds of games, but I do want to play in those kinds of games because, if I ask Jeremy (Fears Jr.), you want to play them 10 times? He would say yes. I love guys like that, so there’s the reasons for it. They’re good, and they’re gonna get better, but we’re gonna get better too now. I’m not downplaying us. I’m just saying that we’re a different kind of team, but they play a lot of guys too now. I mean, they played a lot of guys. They played nine guys a lot, so they’re right there with us, and that’s been an advantage for them too.
On the chemistry of the team…
I’ve enjoyed it because the players have embraced it. The first half of the year was difficult. They’ve embraced it, and as I told them, there were gonna be some minutes that are gonna go up a little bit and some that are gonna go down a little bit. Are we still gonna try to play nine and ten guys? Yes, because it’s been good for us. As I went through the roster of the two games yesterday, Indiana’s missing two players, Ohio State’s missing all starters. UCLA’s missing guys. There are four teams that played, and every one of them had one or two starters out. So sooner or later, those might be necessities, not just luxuries. I think we’re going to be prepared for that, but I like the way our guys are putting out more, and so they’re actually getting tired some too, and that’s a good thing. So it’s not as easy to coach that in some ways. But it’s working, and the guys have been unbelievable about it.”
On Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal being in attendance…
It was pretty neat. I don’t know how we got in contact. He wanted to come up for a game, and he was a great guy. I mean, a great, great guy. The players met him before the game, and then he was in the locker room after, and I just said, a little different than baseball, huh? The little place was rocking, and there’s five seconds left, and he was great. I thought he jumped right in with everybody else. He walks in my office wearing Mateen’s jersey, just kind of cool. He played in college at Seattle. But he said, not the same, and I think he really enjoyed that. Ironically, I think the Cy Young thing is in New York next weekend, and we go to New York. So I told him, skip out of there a little early, come on back, bring us some good luck. But that was great having him there. I appreciate it, Mateen appreciated it, and our great fans do. That’s some of the neat things that get to happen to you and you have some success. We got to see a Cy Young winner in our building. It was pretty cool. I think he’ll try to come back because I think he enjoyed the experience. And I give our fans credit for that. I mean, our fans, I’m sure they introduced him, but I was in the fog then because I was trying to figure out how to get a rebound probably when they did it.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day…
I told my team, I mean, this is an oddity too, but don’t call my office tomorrow because I kicked everybody out of the office. We’re gonna do two things tomorrow, we’re gonna honor and enjoy Martin Luther King Day as a basketball program, and then at night we’re gonna watch a championship event because I always think that’s really important for players. It’s been a grind here for the first three weeks, and my assistants, my trainers, my strength coach. They’re all locked out tomorrow, and hopefully, we’ll get a rest and then be ready to go on Tuesday because we got another tough game. In the garden, what a great honor that is to play in the Garden against Rutgers.
Illinois head coach Brad Underwood
Opening Statement
If anybody in here expected anything different, good college basketball. Right down to the wire, we handled a lot of tough situations today pretty well. The best player in the game played eight minutes, we saw just a little bit of what he could do when he was in, just controlled the whole game with pick and rolls and passes and unfortunately, today he didn’t get to play. (Freshman forward) Will Riley, I thought, broke out of what he’s been in, but truthfully I thought the game was at the free throw line. You can’t go on the road and miss 10 free throws. There were a couple of big plays when (junior guard) Tre White got fouled. You can’t come in here and miss free throws and expect to win against a team that guarded exceptionally well. They took our three balls away. Tommy, (sophomore guard Tomislav Ivisic) I do want to mention, got it up, he was really good even though he has strep throat. He’s been on an antibiotic for three days, just the opportunity to play, but he just feels awful. All in all I thought our bench was good, did a nice job and thought we did everything situationally pretty good down stretch.
On the fouls called during the game…
They T’d (techincal) our bench. So I didn’t get the T, it was considered on our bench. Unfortunate, two-point game, but Jeff’s (Jeffrey Anderson) a great official, one of the best in the country. We see Will Riley had 31 in the game. He’s a freshman, he’s gone through it, he’s had to go through being in the top of the scouting report, which he was for a long time and and and missing some easy shots and finding his way, but he’s got that capability offensively.
On Michigan State guarding Will Riley…
They did nothing defensively, he diced them up to start the game. If anybody thinks that he was guarded very well, there hasn’t been one player in the country or one team in the country that’s guarded him with any success. He is completely different from anybody else. You saw a little three minute stretch he went on that he did play, every bucket was easy. He got a layup. He’s that dude now. Don’t make any mistake, if he’s not the best point guard in the country, he is very close, and he’s 18 years old.
On his relationship with Tom Izzo…
You know, in 2003, maybe, 2004, I was a JUCO coach in Daytona Beach and we got up on Sunday mornings or Saturday mornings and watched his teams play. I always said I wanted to do it like that. I wanted to be that. I wanted my teams to play that hard. You meet guys and you befriend them and you start talking to them and you find out how much you truly have in common, what you truly value, is much more than a win. He’s a rip your head off competitor, and guess what, so am I. We wanna go to the parking lot, both go fight and see who wins, and then we’ll hug each other and respect each other afterwards. I’ve got so much respect for that type of person. He cares about kids, he wants them to do well, when their time is done and the ball stops bouncing, that’s everything I am and we just we just hit a great relationship and talk because we think a lot, we’re both honest with each other about our teams and we have a lot of respect for them.
On playing Michigan State again in Champaign this season…
I wish we got a crack at everybody. I wish the league would play 34 games. Just play everybody twice, let’s have a real league that plays everybody twice. Wouldn’t that be fun? You don’t think the fans here didn’t enjoy that? How about the fans and Champaign? We get to have that game too. How about let’s play 34 league games and we all play each other twice. It’d be fun.
Junior guard Tre Holloman
On emotions following a tense win…
I’m feeling good. Just going out there and coming out with a win with my brothers is just the best feeling.
On mentality of the team battling back from a ten-point deficit early in the game…
The goal was to keep on fighting, keep on chipping away and keep on guarding. We had rebounds we gave up, especially offensive rebounds, but we just had to box out. I came in and hit some big shots and so a shout out to my teammates for just trusting me and we just kept on fighting.
On message from Coach Izzo on the team’s mindset to close the game out…
Box out, rebound and run. That was it, box out, rebound and run.
On atmosphere and energy from the Izzone…
That place was rocking. The Izzone was great today and I had texted the “Head” man of the Izzone and told him that we needed all of them today and they definitely brought it.
Junior forward Jaxon Kohler
On energy and atmosphere of the crowd…
One of my favorite things about being on this team is watching Coen Carr fly by me and I get to be in awe. Seeing those plays is special, and not only is it just an energizing play, but it also makes it fun. Every now and then you have to remember to have fun playing the game because you can’t play too stressed out. Seeing plays like that just makes it fun as it should be. So, seeing the Izzone was amazing and not just the Izzone but the crowd tonight did an amazing job getting back the energy we needed. I have mentioned this before but it is a back and forth relationship, we try to make a play to get the energy and give it to the crowd and then they give it back to us.
On an impactful and memorable win…
This is a big win, and not only is it a big win, but everybody contributed. Everyone had a crucial role in this game and players, staff, coaches it was an all-around win. Those are the wins that are the most fun, those are the wins that are the most memory makers and they are wins that you look back at and realize that everyone had a major contribution.
Sophomore forward Cohen Carr
On all the elements that he adds to the team…
It was big. Definitely means a lot for sure to have the game that I had and for everyone to have the game that they had. It goes to show our strength which is great. With that shot, I had no idea that it was a tie. I mean, in practice one time, coach told me, ‘Don’t be scared to take that shot,’ and it was the right time, right moment, it was a good pass, a good play, so I shot it. It went in so just trusting the work.
On his aggressive blocks…
I have always been kind of a block kind of guy. It has always been my thing since high school. It was more of a ‘get there out of here block’ that I have been doing for a minute. They believe in me to play defense and they believe in me to guard one through four, so just being able to be comfortable out there is what it’s all about.
Redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr.
On the first half…
We really didn’t play a good half, we gave up possessions, we gave up offensive rebounds. Just going in understanding that we are giving them second chances and a second shot and that’s hurting us.
On their mindset in the beginning of the game when they were down…
It’s the run, they are going to make their run and we are going to make our run. It’s just about slowing it down. If we weren’t going to go on a run then they were going to go on a run. They have great players over there so understanding that it is a long game and we have to just work on chipping away.
On what makes this team have the ability to go on an 11-game run…
Just flowing, togetherness, chemistry. The main thing is winning. We’re happy for each other, happy for our brother. It may not be my night, but it may be someone else’s night, so I’m just happy for them. Our team was so deep that we just had to trust each other. The Izzone helped us out a lot. They put some points on the board and took some off of theirs. Just really competing. Our goal is to lose no home games.
