Michigan State-Arizona Postgame Quotes
12/15/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 15, 2001
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo: "I don't want to make the game bigger than it is, but for us it was a big game because we haven't had our chance to get over the hump with these kids. Arizona has done an incredible job in dealing with its personnel losses (from last year's Final Four team). I think that is a very, very good basketball team. Arizona probably missed some shots early that maybe its players would usually hit. But you have to give a lot of credit to our guys and the defense they played. And after the first couple of minutes, I was pleased with the way we rebounded. Kelvin Torbert, we put him on (Jason) Gardner to start with because we didn't want to wear Marcus (Taylor) out and I thought he did a great job. It was a wild game and it was one of those games where everyone in the building participated. The fans were awesome. It was one of those great program wins where everyone had a little piece of the action."
"We had some line-ups in there that in my wildest dreams I wouldn't have put some of those guys in there together. You have to give (Tim) Bograkos and (Jason) Andreas a lot of credit and I give our trainers and doctors a lot of credit because as of last night, (Alan) Anderson was not going to play (jammed thumb)."
"I haven't made the streak bigger than it is because all good things must come to an end sometime. We talked last night and I have to give some credit to our equipment manager Dave Pruder for wanting us to use the old-time jerseys (replica uniforms from the 1979 national championship team). It is part of the program's traditions and we want to continue to build upon those things here."
"Our guys realized this was their chance to make their first mark. It is not going to make national news, but it is important to this program and it is important to our players."
Arizona Head Coach Lute Olson: "I think obviously the difference in the game was the first half. Michigan State just took it to us with everything. The killed us on the offensive boards and they did a nice job defensively. We didn't keep the patience that you have to have if you are going to attack a good defense. That's been a problem for us really all year with the exception of the Purdue game when we made the extra pass and we shot really well. In the second half, I thought we did a much better job pretty much in all aspects. In terms of the boards, we gave them only but three offensive boards in the second half
On Adam Ballinger: "Ballinger is a great shooter and we knew that...he got some rolls off the screen where he popped out and we didn't get the kind of reaction we needed to have. In the second half, we did a much better job in covering that, but both halves count. They executed really well with he and Taylor off of that pick and step back. He played well I thought on both ends of the court."