Post-Game Quotes: Eastern Michigan
11/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 13, 2010
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Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo
Opening statement...
"Well, I'm trying to figure out where we are with that game, there wasn't a lot of flow to it because of all the fouls, but I thought EMU played hard and they will be a good team in the league. But at the same time how do we score 96 points when I don't think we played very well. We made numerous turnovers but I thought there were some bright spots, but we really haven't played together. Moving Draymond (Green) to a different position then back and moving Keith (Appling) in different times and playing a couple big men against a team with a small but efficient 4-man which made it difficult. We have a lot of work to do but I think we shot well even though we missed some easy ones. I was disappointed at the free throw line; I think we left a lot of points there. You have to give them credit, I think they rebounded very well, which was disappointing to me, but all in all in an opening game I guess there are more positives then negatives."
On Kalin Lucas' play since his injury...
"I thought early he was coming off ball screens better and shooting the ball really well. I'm trying to get him in and out a little bit but I don't want to play him for long stretches, but we were a little hampered without Kebler or Lucious which was tough. I thought he did a good job though. He just has to get back to getting used to being on the court. It's just going to take him some time, but I was pleased. I thought he played well defensively and pushed the ball decent and for the severity of his injury, he did an excellent job."
On Keith Appling's performance...
"I thought he started off rough but I thought he bounced back. He's a very efficient kid; he gets points at the free throw line. We don't even have half of our offense in yet. I thought when they came with some pressure he didn't handle it really well, but considering he's played one or two days of point guard this year I thought he too did a marvelous job. He and Payne both had their moments, for a skinny guy he (Payne) is a hatchet man, I couldn't keep him on the floor because he was fouling all the time, but you saw some explosive things he could do. I thought the freshmen did well, I just need those two guys to talk a little bit more and we can move forward."
On not having a defender like Raymar Morgan...
"Delvon has been really good defensively and he played the 4 today. I'm worried more about the 3 guy, who does that. If we can get guys to take 28 shots and making 10 of them like we did tonight I think were going to win more of them then were going to lose, but I think Delvon and Draymond can handle a guy like that. I think part of it was lack of preparation, there's just so many new things were trying to get in with guys at new positions and Draymond is one of those guys."
On the transformation of Garrick Sherman...
"He has improved, and I think he and Nix are by committee, they are roommates and they are two guys who are growing together and pulling for each other. They are making some progress. Nix started off a little slow and Sherman started off really well, and in the second half I thought Sherman wasn't quite as good and Nix was better. But you have to remember about Sherman that he was held back a little bit by his concussion. There wasn't many guys I was disappointed with, I think we could have played better, but there's a transformation there with Sherman for sure."
Eastern Michigan head coach Charles E. Ramsey
Overall outlook of the game...
"The better team won. We are going to go back and evaluate. We will take something from this. They are the number 2 team in the country and at times they looked like it. At times we did some things very well and at times we didn't. We will go back, game one of a long season, and see where we progress from here."
On Brandon Bowdry...
"It's a team game. I applaud his effort. Thirty-two (points) and 15 (rebounds), that's what he is capable of. But now we need to get people to give him more assistance. We didn't get that out of a couple of people tonight. A game like this you need everyone putting something in the positive column. He is going to have more games like this as the season goes on. We need to get him more help."
On MSU having trouble guarding Bowdry...
"He is a very good player in that sense, but on the flip side they had three or four guys we couldn't guard either. Three or four verses one, as you can see the better team won in that regard."
On not having assistance or depth on the inside game...
They haven't played a lot of minutes. They don't have a lot of game experience. To start getting experience and come into an environment like this, I don't think they will admit it, but they were a little shell-shocked to say the least. They early on had some opportunities to make easy buckets and didn't finish but I think nerves have a lot to do with that. If we can take whatever positives we have, and we do have some, we will take and build on that and get them game experience and go from there.
On Kalin Lucas...
"He looked solid. He didn't try and force anything. His numbers look very solid. He got to the free-throw line. He really put pressure on our point guard. Both are somewhat inexperienced and he really exploited them. I think if he stays healthy they are going to be very good. And then they get Korie Lucious back so that's something else where they will be more than fine."
