Post-Game Quotes: Purdue
2/27/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2011
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Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo
Opening statement...
I must say I'm disappointed, which has been a reoccurring statement this year. I give credit to Purdue because I thought they played with a tremendous amount of toughness and we just didn't match it. For some reason our players looked tired, even though I gave them two days off. Maybe they are just wearing down a little bit. We seemed to get down right off the bat. Draymond Green missed a few free throws early, which seemed to affect him. We had some turnovers early, although so did Purdue. And I thought we still had a chance to rebound, but the assistants said we missed eight or nine layup-type situations. As good as Purdue is defensively, you can't miss those opportunities and win. JaJuan Johnson, who is playing as good as anyone in the country right now, blocked some shots and didn't force anything. E'Twaun Moore also did a good job because he scored some points and got other people involved. No one else in particular hurt us, but everyone just seemed to do their job. I thought a critical stretch was when we were down two or three points in the first half and they hit two 3-pointers. Our biggest problems were our inability to put the ball in the hole, the layups we missed, and the fact that Purdue is a very good team. Holding them to 43 percent isn't great but it isn't awful considering the layups at the end, but you can't shoot 33 percent, make one 3-pointer, and think you are going to win a game like that.
On today's offense...
Green hasn't ever had a day like this, where he just doesn't make one shot. Delvon Roe's second foul was also a critical part of the game that hurt us too. It is hard to go with big guys because Purdue is playing smaller guys that are very mobile. We never gave our fans a chance to get into the game. I'm not sure we ever hit two consecutive baskets in a row. So we can never get any home court advantage because of us and not anybody else. That's what happens when you can't make baskets.
On moving on from this game...
We need to move on. But we also need to learn from getting punched in the mouth and not responding. If I wasn't coaching against it, I would really enjoy the physical nature of Purdue's team. Purdue does a good job of walling people in, and are just a solid team, and we need to learn from them. I don't know how we are going to move on because I gave them rest and they still looked tired, so maybe we will just do two-a-days. But we have a big game coming up on Wednesday against Iowa. We are taking this loss and going to find a way to move forward. We are going to prepare for Iowa and see where that takes us.
Purdue head coach Matt Painter
On transition runs...
Well in the first half I felt we got off to a pretty good lead, then Kalin Lucas got loose a couple times. That was my fear of him getting loose and creating for himself and creating for his guys and then getting to the free-throw line...but outside of rebounding, I feel it's most important when you play Michigan State (that) you have to keep them out of transition. But we did a good job, when you take care of the basketball and take good shots, it's really going to help stop them from getting transitions.
The big picture of the game...
Well I think anytime you are trying to battle back you lose a lot of energy to get back in the game. Anytime you can have some plays that are going to break your back, you know it just takes the wind out of your sail, and I thought those transitions were just too easy for us off of the rebounds and loose balls. Our guys did a good job of converting and that I think was the sequence of the game. I think the main thing was our defense. I think we did a good job defensively on their guys and we were concerned with Delvon Roe and Draymond Green and what they were doing on the interior and trying to limit their touches. I think it's a hard thing to do because sometimes you switch with the ball and we get a smaller guy and when to travel, not to travel, just different things...they put you in a bind. JaJuan was pretty special when you got a guy in there patrolling like that defensively with seven blocks, it's hard to.
JaJuan Johnson's interior game...
Whether he was guarding the guy with the basketball at the post or helping, I think he had some good decisions. He played good position defense, and then when they committed he challenged those shots, sometimes he altered them. The thing that jumps out I think is when Draymond Green is such a dangerous player he can pass so well, just trying to talk to your guys about letting him get the ball in that sweet spot and talking to JaJuan about not letting him stand up in front, I mean I think Jajuan did a great job with his decision making when to go, when not to go.
Anything different this time around...
I think Delvon did a good job in the first trying to dive and get the angles and then JaJuan was getting two feet in front and scoring at the rim using his strength against him. JaJuan did a good job of getting to the basketball, not getting himself out of position, but Delvon Roe had some nice moves in there. But for the most part JaJuan did a better job before he caught the ball.
