Michigan State vs. North Carolina Post-Game Coaches Quotes
11/29/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2000
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo:
"I thought we played an awfully good team and if there is any questions about that maybe North Carolina didn't play as hard last year, that was answered tonight. I thought both teams played all out, I though both teams went to the floor and I though both teams played hard. I thought our game is running and I felt in all honesty that they ran us a little better than we ran them. As those two point guards get better for them I think that is going to be an exceptional team in the end."
"I take my hat off to Charlie (Bell) and Andre (Hutson) because they did a lot defensively to help us win. Joe Forte is, I think, one of the best players in the country, we did a pretty good job on (Brendan) Haywood. As you might have figured out, we did it with two people and that is one of the reasons (Kris) Lang went crazy. I think (Jason) Capel being in foul trouble hurt them a little."
"We got a lot of play out of a lot of people, we had our moments when I thought we looked real good and we had our moments when we look kind of sloppy. We had three freshman in there in one time, we one handed a few and we made some turnovers that I don't think we should have made. All and all, I thought we played awfully hard and they played awfully hard, sometimes we each made each other look kind of ugly but it was a great win for us in a great atmosphere."
North Carolina Head Coach Matt Doherty:
"Well, ah, give coach Izzo of Michigan State a lot of credit. That's a great basketball team, and ah a well coached team. When I was at Notre Dame he called and wanted to schedule. I didn't want to play him because he is a heck of a coach, he's got good players. We knew this was going to be a tough game and I think the keys, I talked to some people before saying that we haven't matched their toughness and I thought we did. I'm proud of our guys. If we did match their toughness, we had to make shots and that's what we didn't. We didn't make shots.
"You know, you can't control that every night. We shot four of twenty from the three point line, some of those were late desperation shots. I'm proud of my team. We'll learn from this. We got to put it behind us because we play Kentucky this Saturday."