Inside The Lockerroom
1/29/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 29, 2005
EAST LANSING, Mich. -
Michigan State Basketball Post-Game Quotes
Michigan State vs. Oakland
Jan. 29, 2005 - East Lansing, Mich. - Breslin Center
Final Score: Michigan State 92, Oakland 75
Head Coach Greg Kampe - Oakland
Opening Statement...
"For us, it is the end of our non-league schedule. I don't know anyone who could say that we could have played a tougher non-league schedule then we played. I am very proud of my basketball team's performances in all eight of those games against major conferences. We played our tails off. They didn't played very well in the first half against Texas A&M and we didn't play very well in the second half of the St.Louis game, but other than that, we had chance to win a lot of those games. Against Illinois and Michigan State, with five minutes left to go, we were within striking distance. Our problems today were our missed free throws. I think if we had hit those, it would have been a different story. Michigan State might feel a little more threatened at different parts of the game. It just came down to free throws."
On Oakland's 20 turnovers...
"We only average 12 per game. A lot of it occurred early because of the pressure. There is a lot of pressure in playing in front of the Izzone. This is one of the toughest places to play in the nation. I have a really young team. I have two veterans and the rest of them are all new. Most of them are from Michigan, so they grew up probably wanting to play here and this was their chance. I think we were a bit nervous and made some uncharacteristic turnovers."
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
On the game...
"Well, in a one-day prep, we had a couple of things we wanted to accomplish. One thing we wanted to accomplish was pushing the ball better, which we did. We also wanted to improve in attacking from the baseline and attacking from the wings, which we did a pretty good job of. We wanted to shoot it a little better, and we shot 50 percent, but I didn't think we really shot it that well. I think you've got to give credit to Oakland; they played a pretty good zone. None of our passes came from inside-out, of course, without Paul Davis in there. So I guess if I looked at what we accomplished, we did score some points and we played the game without Paul, which we wanted to do. Maurice Ager did an incredible job; we got a lot out of him. Alan Anderson played a very good game, even though he didn't get a lot of shots. But we've got a lot of work to do and that's what we're going to do in these next couple days."
Would Paul Davis play if this were a Big Ten game...
"Yeah, I think so. If we held him out, he could practice these next two days, and if we didn't hold him out, he would have to take tomorrow off, and we can't afford that."
On getting Chris Hill more shots...
"That was our goal, but if you get more, you've got to make more. It's no secret that Chris is struggling with his shot a little bit, but it was one of our goals to get him more shots and I thought we did a pretty good job of that."
