Michigan State - Ohio State Postgame Quotes
1/9/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2003
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo:
"You have to give Ohio State a lot of credit. Playing without Sean Connolly hurt them, but it also hurt us too. It made our match-ups a little goofy. Some of the things that we wanted to do with the perimeter and switch-hit, we didn't do a very good job of. Early on, I thought we made some serious defensive mistakes that gave them some open threes. But we made some adjustments in the second half. We did a better job of our offense as it went on. It was a good thing that Maurice Ager came to play - you can see where we need another shooter out there. They did a good job of trailing Chris (Hill) around and taking him out of some things. I can't say we played great, but we played well enough to win, and this is the time of year that you have to do that."
On the rebounding:
"It was very disappointing. I don't think I've ever coached a team that got outrebounded by 10 on the offensive boards. Yet, you've got to give them some credit. (Ohio State's) Shun Jenkins came in and had nine rebounds. He hasn't been really playing a lot, but that really changed the lineups."
On the freshmen:
"I think that Paul Davis had his eyes opened to Big Ten basketball and what it's like. Erazem Lorbek also got to see it. It's very difficult."
On the free-throw shooting:
"You'll have to give the assistant coaches credit. They brought guys in a little extra. As I've told you, we are a good free-throw shooting team. Maybe not always 29-for-30, but a very good free-throw shooting team. Tonight we shot a lot better from the line, and Alan Anderson went 14-for-14."
Ohio State head coach Jim O'Brien:
On his lineup:
"We just put that lineup together this afternoon. Sean Connolly didn't practice the last three days. We just weren't sure what kind of contribution he could make. We've never practiced with that lineup.
"We were trying to get Brent Darby as many shots as we could. We felt that if we played with that lineup, hopefully we would match their rebounding prowess and try to cut back on their second shots, which I think we did. We also thought we would get more second shots, and we did.
"But we felt like we had to play zone. We clearly went into the game to try and take Chris Hill out of the game. We wanted to make someone else beat us, and to his credit, Maurice Ager stepped up and hit some big shots. We knew going in we would struggle scoring points. We had Zach Williams playing outside of the three-point line and he was like a fish out of water. But I'm really happy with how hard our kids played."
On Maurice Ager:
"With Maurice coming back into the mix for them, it helps them out immeasurably. He made some big shots. Somebody had to make some perimeter shots for them, because we weren't going to let Hill do it, and to his credit, he stepped up. I'm sure he's a welcome addition to their team."