Post Game Quotes
2/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 20, 2008
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EAST LANSING, Mich. -
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement...
Well as you can imagine, it was a game we really needed - I think not only to win the game, but to get a lot of players involved, kind of bring our group back together, and get a little confidence in our shooting. I thought our defense was very good, and I thought we did a lot of good things, and maybe the best was the 30 assists on 35 baskets, because that's a lot of unselfish play, especially by (Kalin) Lucas and (Travis) Walton getting eight and seven. I thought Marquise Gray had his best game in a lot of ways. He had his best three days of practice, so they kind of go hand-in-hand. It was good to get (Raymar) Morgan back on track, (Drew) Neitzel played well, and I just thought everybody played well. It's hard when it's at somebody else's expense, but believe me, we needed a game like this after what we've gone through in the last couple of weeks. I'm proud of the guys for buckling down and getting a big win against a team who has been playing very good, I mean they really have. Those guards have been very, very good, and I thought we did a pretty good job. They made a couple threes early and they were tough shots, but I thought in the second half, we really beared down on them. As you can imagine, the 30 assists, Kalin and Drew and Raymar and Travis and everyone playing good was good, but seven turnovers is like music to your ears when you're at Michigan State right now, and that was maybe as important as anything for what we do in the future.
On using the team's depth...
We need to get Chris (Allen) and Durrell (Summers) in there more, and Marquise (Gray) definitely. He had a couple big-time rebounds, and I thought he played his best game. If you looked at his defense and you looked at his offense, he looked confident, and I swear that he's had the best week of practice that he's had in a long time.
On coming off of back-to-back losses...
Just like how I don't want to get blown away by when we play poorly, I understand that this is one night, but it was an important night because I thought our guys' confidence was a little shaky. But when you see guys shooting like that, and I know Neitzel and I know Morgan - how good they can be - and Kalin hit some big shots and ran our team pretty well and threw some great lobs. And then getting some subbing in there, where (Drew) Naymick can do what he does, and (Goran) Suton I thought played better with some great passes and then Marquise came in and subbed in for him, so it was a good eight or nine-man rotation that I think could still pay some dividends if we keep getting better.
On the team's pep-talk from Magic Johnson...
His talk wasn't all about fun, I can guarantee you that - he was perturbed with some things, too. I think the great thing for me is that Magic comes in Monday and Mateen (Cleaves) and Antonio (Smith) come in on Tuesday, and Antonio was here tonight. The guys care enough to come back. Earvin, as you heard, came back - he was going to Chicago, but came here and spent three hours with us, and his message wasn't all `put a smile on your face and have some fun,' it was `you have a job to do and you have some things to get after.' I wasn't in the meeting; I decided to sit outside and let him have them. I think those things are important; I think the players sometimes need to hear from players. How important, I don't know, but important enough that I might fly him in again this weekend.
On approaching his 300th win...
I thought about it two weeks ago when someone brought it up to me, but with the way we've played, I felt like we had 300 losses. I really didn't think about it, and I really don't know what the significance is. I know that there are guys with 7, 8, and 900 wins, and I don't think I've gotten that many practices in, so I'm not going to get too excited about it. I'm even more excited about seeing this team take a couple of steps forward, because I really think this is still a very good team. And yes, we still have to get better in some areas. Whenever (the 300th win) comes, that would be great. If it comes quickly, that means we're winning more games, and that would make me really happy.
Penn St. Coach Ed DeChellis
On the game overall...
I thought they played very, very well. And we were really, really poor tonight. I don't have any answers for that. I thought they shot the ball well, they passed the ball well and we looked like we were a step behind everything tonight. And even at halftime I thought we had a chance, then we come out and they jumped on us. They had a great start (to the second half). And we talked about having a great start but we just didn't do that and I think it just kind of got out of control. I thought they played very, very well and they were ready to go.
