Post-Game Quotes: South Carolina
11/17/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 17, 2010
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Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement...
I don't want to take anything away from Darrin Horn, because he is not only a friend, but I thought his team did a heck of a job, but I was very disappointed in mine. We got screwed up with some lineups in there and part of the distractions that we deal with. I felt sorry for Korie (Lucious) because I think he was pressing to come back and play well, and struggled. Kalin (Lucas) hurt his ankle, it wasn't his Achilles, he just rolled it a little bit. We were in foul trouble and we couldn't get the right lineups in there. I didn't feel comfortable playing (Derrick) Nix and (Garrick) Sherman the second half because of the free throw shooting, but other people didn't shoot it much better. I think they had 18 rebounds, which means the ball's going out of bounds. They had 21 offensive rebounds, which I'm not sure has ever happened to us. We had five turnovers at halftime and ended up with 19, which is almost an ungodly number I have ever seen. You know, just put your hand out and throw it right through it. The crowd was phenomenal and I can't thank all of them enough. The students got here early and were here late, and on a late night, that says a lot, but we didn't give them what they deserved, that I'm very disappointed in.
On Delvon Roe's performance in the first half...
I think there were some performances. Draymond (Green) was very good. Delvon was pretty good. Kalin (Lucas) was okay. He didn't get any shots the second half. I would say in Delvon's case it was his best half. You can definitely see where he is more explosive. He is putting the ball on the floor a little bit better. He did some very good things defensively. So yes, I would say that was his best half. Maybe we should send seven or eight other guys to a play at the beginning and play the game after.
On defensively what they were able to do in first half that didn't transfer over to the second half...
Guard people. That's all. Just guard people and rebound the ball. We rebounded the ball a little better. We started off so poorly rebounding the ball, and then we rebounded it pretty well and got our fast break going a little bit. We just put some things together. We probably didn't turn it over. We had three turnovers in the first three out-of-bounds plays. And then we didn't turn it over but one time in the last 10 minutes. So that's one thing, missed free throws and turnovers I think decimated our second half performance. They hit some shots late. We still are up 16 most of it. I don't want to take anything away from them, either. I really like this team and I knew they would be athletic. I knew they would be tough. I knew they would play hard. They did all those things and deserve some positive things said about them.
On how big of a concern the poor free throw shooting is...
Well it's a concern, it has been a concern all year. I mean all year it hasn't been a concern in practice at all. A lot of those guys improved, (Garrick) Sherman improved so much. They guy I'm worried about is Durrell (Summers), he's the best free throw shooter we have, and he has not shot very well. I don't know if it is a lack of focus, or I think players get disappointed just like coaches do when they are not playing very well. I say that for the most part we have a 15-plus-point lead for three-fourths of that game against a quality opponent. I didn't think we played good from the start. I really didn't. We had a few stretches where we did. Part of that again is I'm trying to get these different lineups in to see who plays well with who. The free throw shooting did cause me to not go with certain lineups.
On how surprising was the guard play and how they struggled against the pressure...
Shocked. I really was. They took it at us, and we didn't handle it very well. I don't know if that was the rust on Korie (Lucious). When you have distracting things, they usually come back to haunt you a little bit. We are going to have to work through that with him and Keith (Appling), for his first game, did some good things. Remember he is just a freshman. Adreian Payne, he just struggled on some assignments, but he gets seven rebounds in 10 minutes. There are certain things he can't do and we are going to have to work him in more and as you said, Draymond and Delvon played very well. I thought Kalin missed some shots that he had open early, but his game, as far as his floor game, was actually pretty good.
On Kalin Lucas' ankle...
Well I think anytime he hurts something down there, for a while, he is going to have apprehension. I mean that is pretty normal. When he came over to the bench I said, `Is it your foot, your ankle, your Achilles?' And he said, `No just my ankle, I'll be alright'. I think he is going to go through those things for a while where when anything tweaks down there, it has to be a concern. I mean especially as freaky as an accident it was when it happened. But, he is a tough enough kid, he will get through that.
South Carolina head coach Darrin Horn
Opening Statement...
We knew coming into this game that the challenge wasn't just the players versus the players, we needed the X's and O's. Sixteen years of building a program, this environment, which is tremendous, and our guys being able to deal with that and handle it. I have the utmost respect for Coach Izzo. This is what we want our program to look like, hopefully 12 to 16 years from now, where we are committed to a style of play, and we believe in that. We have done it with recruiting in our area well, our kids getting better and kids graduating. We were right there, two possession game at about the 11-minute mark. Then the run happened and the crowd got into it. We have a young team and we didn't handle it very well. We let those little things that we control, getting back on defense, putting bodies on people, the kinds of things that we have worked on, not only in preparation of this game, but for a month of practice, and we didn't do them well. They got out to a big lead. I'm proud of our guy's effort in the second half. I thought that we were able to get the game going more in the way that we needed to for us to be successful. Ultimately, we ended up out rebounding them, which I think was good, obviously. But [we] did not take care of the basketball, and just in the first half, did not defend and get back the way we needed to give ourselves a chance. It is a learning experience for our team, one that we will take forward and get better from. One that we will be able use for the rest of the year. I don't know that we will play a better team in a better environment than we did tonight. We will take it and grow from it. Disappointed, not pleased at all that we didn't win. We came here to do that. But we found some positives that we can build on.
Half-court play in the first half...
Again, we didn't do what we wanted to in the first half. We didn't run at all like we were capable of. We couldn't press because we weren't scoring well. We didn't want to press too much early when we were, because we didn't want it to get too spread out. We really came out and did it by necessity to start the second half. Just to get the game going in a way where we could get the floor spread, and they couldn't execute in their half-court [offense]. I'm not sure that they ran one offensive set in the second half, because of how we defended. Obviously, that is a strength of theirs. Maybe we should have done that more in the first half. The bottom line is that we didn't come out and do the things we talked about in the first half. So, it might have looked like we were trying to play slow, but we weren't, we just didn't do a good job.
The wiped out three pointer in the first half...
I think it was huge. It was the right call, we had a great crew tonight, and they did a great job. But again, we are essentially in our first year because of all of our young guys, as we have talked about before. I think it really impacted us, that is what veteran teams and real programs do. They play through that and play for the next play. I don't think we did a good job of that, and I do think that was a big play in the first half.
