Post-Game Quotes
11/13/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 13, 2005
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EAST LANSING, Mich. -
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement:
"I think Shannon and Maurice got off to a rough start, but Maurice started to bounce back in the second half. I don't think there were many bright spots. I really felt that Nick Buck was able to get some good shots and Volcy took it to the hole pretty good. We did not defend very well. It was as bad as the other night. You just can't turn the ball over 26 times and let a team have 14 steals on you with the way Northern and Lake Superior pressed on us. I was very disappointed. I can't hide my disappointment, but we are trying to get a lot of guys playing inside. That group will get smaller but we're going to have to get a little bit more out of our point guards right now. We need to get more leadership out of Shannon, Drew and Maurice if we're going to be a good basketball team. We're not going to panic over this because it's all still in the experimental mode. But we're still disappointed in our turnovers and average rebounds. They hurt us by changing up defenses because of our lack of good guard play. All-in-all you have to give Northern a lot of credit because they came off of a tough defeat and played hard.
On up-coming trip to Hawaii:
"Hawaii is good. They've got good players they're coached very well and it is a difficult place to play in. there is no question that not many teams go in there and win. We'll have to play better than we have either game to win in Hawaii. We're not gonna win any games playing like we did today but I don't expect us to play like that either."
On the Zone defense:
"We knew they'd zone us a lot. It was poor execution on our part and we need to be better. We settled for long range jump shots or we just took it so deep that we just turned the ball over. There was no mid-range game; there were no driving kicks like the last game."
Northern Michigan Head Coach Dean Ellis
Opening Statement:
"This was just a great opportunity for our players. We just tried to do something that I'm not sure any other team has tried to do, and that was play Michigan on Friday night and Michigan State on Saturday night. They played hard, they executed well. From your first game to your second game you usually get better, which I thought we did with very little preparation time. I thought our guys did a good job today, I'm really proud of them."
"They're so dynamic. Ager was awesome, he did a great job with the shot clock down- he made that one shot, and he gets in the lane. He's just a great player, they've got a lot of great players. They're going to have a great season. Again, I just want to thank Coach Izzo for giving our school the opportunity to come down and play."
On exhibition games:
"The speed of the game is different, you move up a level in any sport and we learned we just have to play faster. You know what plays they're going to run, and then they're making cuts and you can't stay with them. In our league you can stay with them. If our guys can execute our stuff at that pace then they're more successful."