Post-Game Quotes: Michigan State vs. Eastern Michigan
12/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo
Opening statement...
I keep thinking someone is going to ask me where our team is at. Every time I feel good about it, something else goes wrong. The Branden Dawson thing, I don't know what it looks like. I think it's just a bad sprain so far. They will reevaluate it tomorrow. It takes the wind out of your sails a little bit. I thought we did some real good things and then we didn't do some good things. You have to give Eastern Michigan a lot of credit. I thought that they played to his personality. They got to a few loose balls that we didn't. Early on, they rebounded the ball better than we did. We were shooting the ball decent and getting it inside. We were running our break good and Dawson went down and we kind of lost a little wind in our sails and didn't play as good. I think that Eastern team is going to do really well in the MAC, so I'll put pressure on Murph. They can run it, they can push it and they have some depth. Their players haven't been shooting well. I thought Travis Trice for us played his best game. Poor Zel [Denzel Valentine] had one of his worst in a way and yet had eight assists and did some very good things. We just didn't give him enough shots and he didn't make enough consequently. I thought Trice ran our team; during timeouts he was phenomenal. That was his best game so far. I thought [Matt] Costello played pretty well. Marvin [Clark] was a little up and down. Javon Bess plays nine minutes and gets five rebounds. We're missing a tough guy, so we need someone to bring that to the table. As far as BJ, I don't know what the deal will be. You're welcome to call me tomorrow or whatever. He's going to miss some time here no question about that. If you would have told me we would have won by 20 before the game started, I would be as happy as ten men. I just thought we kind of let some things slip away when we got a big lead. Some of that was rookie stuff. That zone is tough and Marvin really struggled in it. Our two bigs kind of struggled in it. When we had Zel in the middle when BJ went down, we made a couple of adjustments there. I thought we looked good than got content with throwing it around the perimeter the last five or six minutes. There were way more positives than negatives because even though it was a 20 point win, that's a damn good team. They're going to win a lot of games this year, I really believe that. They're well coached and they play hard. I'm happy for Murph, it's been a great start.
On his reaction when Senior Forward Branden Dawson went down with an injury in the second half...
I just felt bad for the kid, I really did. He's been practicing harder and I really think this whole thing was coming together. He got through the semester and had a really tough class he did alright in, so it was a big day where we found out a lot of different things. He'd been doing such a great job in practice. We thought he was a big key in there. He fumbled a couple early and I told him at halftime he needed to take that shot right away. Things started going well and then he gets hurt. I feel for him, I love the kid. I don't think it's going to be anything really serious. It's just these setbacks are hard on him, hard on us. I guess we can kind of look at it now like we can get a few more guys ready. I feel bad for BJ; that looked painful. I saw the tape and that didn't look pretty. But he is tougher than nails, so maybe he'll bounce back.
On the tests Dawson underwent for his injury...
I think they did x-rays. It was just the football ones, so they have to go through the more extensive one. Everything seemed to look okay. It may just be a bad sprain. It is on his left hand. I hope to god he's going to be okay and I do think he's going to be okay, but I'm sure he's going to miss a little bit of time. I thought he came down on his hip; that was ugly too. It was a physical game.
On Denzel Valentine's performance...
Denzel got frustrated early, that's why we took him out to be perfectly blunt and honest with you. He just got frustrated; I don't know why. I think that zone can frustrate you. It is a pesky, very good, system. I would like to learn a thing or two about it, that's how impressed I was on how they play it and how hard they play it. I think that frustrated Zel and we couldn't get the ball to him a lot. We moved him into the middle and that was better. When he gets frustrated, sometimes he plays a little casual. He stepped it up and played a little better defensively and made some phenomenal passes. Guys weren't looking a couple of times. We still got a lot out of this game because it was a quality team. It was against a team that was very difficult to play. We did a pretty good job.
On Javon Bess' first game action...
I think he's going to be an Alan Anderson-type, where we are going to be able to play him at a lot of different positions. He's just got a nose for the ball. He's a warrior, that kid. I told you that when we got him and I told you that when we lost him. Truce said it best when he told me that this is the one thing we're missing. I think Javon went up for that one and he would normally dunk that. We're a ways away, but I think Christmas is going to be a good time for him. I'd hoped to give him a few minutes. Nine was more, but mostly because of BJ.
On whether Marvin Clark Jr. will have to step up if Dawson misses time with an injury...
Clark's got to play a little better. He got 11 points, but he's got to play a little more solid. Sometimes he's catching the ball and it's off like a hot potato. He's at a different position. I can play him on the wing a little more. In zone, he's not as good at catching it and making decisions yet. He'll get better at it. The guy has only had about four years of basketball, so he's going to improve on leaps and bounds.
On whether the prep for this game heightened the sense of urgency to come out and play well...
I thought it did. They played a couple of teams and I thought they just stood around like we did the last five or six minutes. We covered a lot of stuff in a couple of days. I just put things in to have it because I didn't want to get stagnant, which most of the game we weren't. When you put in new stuff and have players just coming back, it was hard for some of those guys to pick up I think. So we kept it a little more basic and then at the end started attacking things on the perimeter. I was pleased by the way we tried to be smart about it. We didn't over practice. We had a little walk through at the hotel and had a little film session over there. We did it a little more like the NCAA tournament. We were a little worn down from those six games on the road and I just think we're going to have to make some real giant steps without BJ.
On the team defense...
Statistically, it was good. I really liked some of their shooters. I don't think he [Murphy] was pleased with some of the shot selection. [Raven] Lee and [Mike] Talley and those guys can really shoot it with anybody. There shooting percentage has not been good this year, but they're all good shooters. I thought defensively, we played pretty well to hold them to 22 percent. I don't care what you're doing, that's pretty good. We did out rebound them by eight. So we did dome pretty good things.
Eastern Michigan head coach Rob Murphy
Opening statement...
Obviously, any time you lose, it's extremely tough. I thought Michigan State did a great job defending us and taking away our first few actions on offense. Defensively, they were very sound. I thought we did a poor job early on of guarding the three-point line; that's not our character. The struggles on offense forced us into being stagnant defensively. We wanted to keep the ball out of the high post tonight, and [MSU] did a great job of getting it in, kicking it out. Any time you're playing a great shooting team and you give them open looks, they're going to knock them down. A lot of credit to Michigan State tonight on both ends of the floor. You're not going to win too many games scoring 40 [points] in Division I basketball. We did a poor job offensively executing throughout the game. I thought we had a chance in the second half, we cut the lead to 12 a few times, but we just couldn't get the necessary stops. We made a few mistakes, missed a few layups, and before you know it [the lead] was back to 18 or 20. We have to go back to the drawing board. At the end of the day, I tell our guys it's not the end of the world. This was a great game for us and a great opportunity. The big picture for us, as I said after the Michigan game, is winning the MAC conference. We're 8-2. After 10 games, we've won 80 percent of our games and put ourselves in position to continue to be successful. We lost to a really good team tonight. I don't know the percentages, but I'm sure this team wins 90 to 95 percent of their non-conference games in this building. We were up against tradition, history, a Hall of Fame coach and all the things that come with that. I thought we competed late, but we just couldn't come up with the necessary plays offensively to put ourselves in position to win tonight.
On poor shooting being a result of Michigan State's defense or an off night shooting...
Michigan State did a great job of playing help defense. They took away our first and second action on all of our offensive sets. I attribute that to a really good defensive scouting report. We don't have guys who are great off the dribble. Ray [Raven] Lee went to the basket first play of the game, he had a layup. Could have been a different game if we start off 2-0. We missed that layup, he put his head down, slightly lose a little bit of confidence because he's disappointed in himself. It just continued to trickle down all night. Karrington Ward got an offensive rebound at about the 14 minute mark, he missed a put-back layup and was untouched. So we had our shots. If you go back and look at the open shots we missed, it could have been a different ball game. We played pretty good defense. It wasn't great, but it was good enough to be right there in the game. Michigan State scored 66 points, alright? Any time you can't score points against a Big Ten team, and again we got away with it against Michigan, but more times than not if you score in the 40s against a really good basketball team, high-major, low-major, you're going to be in a situation to lose. We have to score more points, we have to get better on offense, and we'll go back to the drawing board and do that tomorrow.
On his relationship with Tom Izzo...
We have a great relationship. When I was a high school coach, I was very fortunate to be part of two state championships. I used to work at a camp here, and I spoke at a camp here to the kids as a high school coach. He recruited [former Michigan State guard Maurice Ager] and through that we built a relationship. At that time, he hadn't been able to sign a player from Detroit. Before Ager, Steve Smith was the last [Detroit native] to play here, so there was a big gap. He came to me, was building the program with the "Flintstones", and said `Coach, I gotta get into Detroit, I gotta get these guys down here to believe in me.' It was a great fit for Ager, he wanted to come, and he came here and was successful. Over the years, we've continued to stay in communication. I know we play zone and I learned a lot from my years at Syracuse, but my program is built on defense and rebounding. It's the same thing Michigan State's program is built on; defense and rebounding. So a lot of his traits, a lot of his characteristics are in me. He's a great man. He's always there if I need to call him and talk to him and we've spoken throughout this season. He's a great person, and I appreciate his support that he has for me and helping me continue to grow.
