Michigan State - Seton Hall Post Game Quotes
12/22/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 22, 2001
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo:
"Well, I must be honest, I'm proud of this team. We played a very good team today. I really believe Seton Hall is worthy of what they have done so far. I can see why they took Duke to the wire and they are a very difficult team to guard. I thought we did a great job at times, but give them credit. Andre Barrett almost single-handedly brought them back.
"We had some breakdowns, some mistakes and some strange lineups today. Sometimes when it looked like the guards weren't guarding their guys we had different people in the four or five spot, and we didn't cover people like we were supposed to. Sometimes the guards looked bad and it wasn't their fault.
"It was just one of those games were I said, 'Hey, we have to find a way to win it, whether we win it ugly or we win it pretty.' And I thought for most of the game we played pretty well. We played great defense for a large part of the game. But we broke down a little bit, and I think that was because of fatigue and that we played a good team.
"I have a lot of respect for Coach Orr and what he has done with his team. To take over a team the first year and get them to play as hard as they play, he has a lot to be proud of."
On Adam Ballinger's injury status:
"I think it will be weeks. There's no way he'll be back for the Stanford game. All they are saying is two-to-four weeks. It's a bad sprain. We don't expect him back until after the Big Ten season starts."
Seton Hall Head Coach Louis Orr:
"I just want to thank God for the opportunity to be out here playing Michigan State. We played hard and with good spirit. This is a tough team to beat at home. We gave ourselves a chance to win and I always tell our guys that when you play a team like Michigan State it is not going to be pretty and you have to scrap and claw to win a game like this. I give Andre Barrett a lot of credit because he was able to make some plays to get us back in the game and really put us on his back and carried us. We just have to understand that we have to scrap and claw and not be pretty if we want to win a game like this. Michigan State just out worked us today and when you come to a place like this (Breslin Center), that is how you have to play to win games."