Michigan State University Athletics
Sweet 16 Practice Update: Player Quotes
3/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 25, 2010
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ST. LOUIS - Prior to Michigan State's practice at the Edward Jones Dome on Thursday, Raymar Morgan, Draymond Green and Durrell Summers answered questions from the media at the team's press conference. The fifth-seeded Spartans will meet ninth-seeded Northern Iowa Friday at 9:37 p.m. ET.
MODERATOR: Spartans of Michigan State are next up. Raymar Morgan, Durrell Summers and Draymond Green. Questions for the Spartans.
Q. When you were growing up, what did you all think was the absolute coolest thing about the NCAA tournament, and now that you've been in it, is it any different?
Draymond Green: I mean, winning the national championship, that's something that you dream of as a child, playing outside, at recreation centers, that's something you always dream of. And we made it there last year but we didn't win it, but I know the feeling is great to win it just by how good it felt getting there.
Durrell Summers: Yeah, I agree with Draymond, the coolest thing growing up was just winning it, being able to cut down the nets and have the bragging rights that you won it.
And just being in it now, just flashing back to last year, just knowing how it feels to get that far and all the hard work and focus you had to put in, just making you a lot hungrier this year.
Q. Draymond and Ray. They were talking about you two and how physical this team is on defense and with Kalin out you want to be careful because it takes down your depth, one. But the need to maintain that physicality, because they all reference it, the coach, the players, every one of them.
Raymar Morgan: Definitely, that's the way Big Ten basketball is played in our league. We show that every time we step out on the floor.
Draymond Green: We have to maintain physicalness, that's something that we do at Michigan State. That's just a part of what we do. So just because one player goes down doesn't mean we can't stay physical. We still have to stay physical regardless of what the situation is.
Q. For all of you, if you could answer, what's the impact of playing without Kalin for you, for your coach, for what you guys are going to do on the floor?
Raymar Morgan: It's huge. Just because he's our leading scorer. He's such a great distributor on the floor. I mean, he adds a lot to our team. But without him, the show still must go on and we've still gotta play the game on Friday. So we're prepared really well throughout the entire week, and I think the guys are ready to step up.
Durrell Summers: He's still with us spiritually, he's here helping guys and trying to help lead Korie to help run the team. He wanted to be here. He pushed his surgery back so he could be here and support us through the whole run. So hats off to him. And we are all here behind him.
Draymond Green: It means a lot anytime to any team regardless of what sport it is when you lose your floor general or your quarterback or whatever it may be. It means a lot to your team.
But like Raymar said, the show must go on. We have to play without him. We've prepared without him. You know, everything happens for a reason. We had to play without Kalin in a game earlier this year. So maybe that was to prepare us for now. So you never know what it was. But I mean, we're prepared to play without him and we know someone else will step up.
Q. What were you thoughts when Ali hit that shot against Kansas, them beating the No. 1 seed in the tournament?
Draymond Green: It was kind of one of those shots where you are like why would you do that? And it's like, oh, man, he hit it. It was a great shot. And it shows what type of person and player he is. He's got to have a lot of guts to take a shot like that in a game of that magnitude. So looks like he always is willing to take the big shot. So that's what we've got to be expecting.
Q. Raymar, did you come into this tournament with a little bit of a different mindset? I know last year you were trying to overcome some injuries and illnesses, and was that in your mind just to want to have a better tournament individually?
Raymar Morgan: Definitely. I just wanted to come into this tournament being aggressive. I felt that I had a lot to prove, and I just wanted to show the world what I can do. And so far it's been working out. And my teammates have done a great job in getting me the basketball in plays where I can create and score.
Q. For all three players, obviously your coach has a really good overall tournament record. What do you notice when it comes to the tournament time that's different or maybe just ratchet up a little bit about his preparation or things he might do a little differently?
Raymar Morgan: He doesn't sleep. He's a workaholic. He's in the film room 24/7. And he literally doesn't sleep to get his job done, have us prepared for that week.
Durrell Summers: And I could say just nothing goes undone. If we could just do something on the other team for the entire day, each second, he would do it, try to work rest in some kind of way. But he wants to make sure we don't miss anything. He's trying to get everything done to a T.
Draymond Green: I agree with those two guys. He doesn't let anything go undone. Like Durrell said, every time we get a chance to do something, if it's walking through the hotel or watch film, whatever it is that he can possibly do, he's doing it. And he stays in the office 24 hours, not seeing his family, his kids, his wife, but he's in there working for us to give us the best opportunity to win.
He never lets us overlook anyone. If it's a 16 seed or if it's a 1 seed, he never lets us overlook anyone. He makes sure we respect every team the same.
Q. A little bit along that same line, but this is a program that has tradition of overcoming adversity, and sort of rallying together when something goes wrong. With what's happened this week, do you guys consciously have that feeling that you're rallying together? And what is it about Michigan State that's been able to do that time and time again?
Draymond Green: I think it comes from our program, everything being based around family. When one person goes down, someone else has to pick them up. Everyone has to pick them up. And you have that tightness and that bond. You just feel like it's almost required for you to pick someone else up when they go down.
And I think that's one of the biggest things that makes this program really run like that, when adversity comes, we feel that we have to fight through it for the next man that did go down.
Durrell Summers: I think with help with that, even in practice, Coach sometimes just creates adversity and sees how we get through it, through offense or defense, having our scout team fouling us and creating game situations when things aren't going right. And if a guy, if one guy is slacking, we kind of just pick him up, like Draymond was saying with the family issue. I think that just helped us when real things happen and guys aren't able to play or something.
Q. With the story Northern Iowa has become, do you guys feel as if you're the underdog going into this game?
Draymond Green: It doesn't bother me being an underdog. It's really almost added motivation. Even though at this point in the season you don't really need any added motivation because you know what's at hand. But being the underdog, I like being the underdog for the simple fact, you get to prove the world wrong, show others what you're really made of.
I'm pretty sure if Kalin was in this game we wouldn't be the underdog. But with Kalin going down, a lot of people think we can't do it. And we know that we can. So we're going to come out and play like it.
Raymar Morgan: Definitely. Just add to what Draymond said. It has no effect on us. We have one goal and that goal is to get a national championship. And that's all we're focused on. We've really been practicing great. We're growing as a team and we're getting better each day.
Q. Going back to your coach again, I'm kind of curious, other than his high pitched voice, what is it that you guys like the most about Coach Izzo?
Durrell Summers: Probably just how much he cares. He still might yell at guys and do different things, you might not understand at the time, but when you really just get to sit down and talk to him off the court and things like that, you just realize how passionate he is for what he does and how much he cares.
Draymond Green: Like Durrell said, he cares about everything. It's not just about basketball with him. He's really building us to become men. And it shows on the court, off the court. And one thing that you have to respect about him is even when things are going wrong, you could have done something that got him cross off the court, skipping class or missing class or something like that, but it never stops him from pushing you to be the best that you can be.
He's also - 1 through 15 on our team, whoever it is, he's always pushing you to be the best you can be, and you have to respect and love it.
Q. Draymond, you guys are one of the best rebounding teams in the nation. What explains that, and just talk about your mentality when attacking the glass as a team?
Draymond Green: It's something that our coaches, players, everyone puts big emphasis on around our program. I mean, we do a drill called War every day which is simply based for rebounding. And we do it every single day. It's a tough drill. You get tired, tired of doing it it's so much banging and bruising, but it shows on the court.
We're always trying to go get the rebounds, and that can win games for you. So that's something that we really focus on, especially when you're playing against a team that rebounds well and always going to the boards, that's something that we really put emphasis on.
And player wise, we take that as a challenge to win the rebound. We don't just like win it by one or two on the rebound margin. We like outrebound a team by trying to outrebound them by double digits and that's something that we really take to heart.
