Post-Game Quotes: Maryland
12/30/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
Opening statement...
They had zero free throws at half time, and then ended up with 32. We couldn't cover anybody. Our guards struggled. We bounced back; a couple of guys came through a little bit. Not having Denzel (Valentine) in there hurt, not being able to play Javon Bess hurt against a team like this, who is so big on the perimeter. Our two guards just couldn't stop a guy that put his head down and went (to the rim). That's the way it was. If you want to know, it's my choice; I don't foul at the end. Maybe I'll change, haven't done it for 20 years and been pretty successful. We had a five-man switch, and we switched, we just didn't switch out. With two seconds left, they had hit 2- 19 from the three, so I went with my odds and if I get criticized for that, that would be fine.
On calling timeout at the end of regulation...
It was when Schilling had the ball. We had so many bad free throw shooters, that when Schilling had the ball, I said, `if Schilling gets the ball call timeout.' So that was my choice too, and it's open for a lot of criticism, but it was done with the percentages that I wanted to deal with.
On if it was upsetting when the bigs kicked it out more instead of taking it to the basket...
Yeah it upset me that our point guards were running the offense from half court. We just didn't do a very good job. I'll have to do a better job coaching them. When Valentine got in foul trouble, we just didn't have the bodies. We tried, but they kept rolling people in on us. They played one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 guys, 10 minutes or more, and we just struggled. I still thought we did enough by the last 30 minutes of the game where we played pretty well after scoring four or six points in the first 10 or 12 minutes. I'm just disappointed in how some of my guys played. I think it's uncharacteristic. You can see Branden (Dawson) is not in shape, and that's to be expected. Travis (Trice) had to go a lot of minutes, but 32 free throws in the second half and overtime is just mind-boggling to me.
On if this team is a good free throw shooting team in practice, or just a bad free throw team... Well it's a great free throw shooting team other than two guys, and two guys really struggle. To their credit they've been working on it, but it's just hard when you have to make substitutions. Alvin Ellis III is a very good free throw shooter, and you try to make substitutions according to when you say, `well I can't put that guy in, and I can't go to that guy.' It made it difficult down the stretch. That's what I have to do and I have to do a better job of it.
On if he had a good feeling going into this game...
No I don't have a good feeling because I don't know whose playing. I didn't find out until this morning whether (Bess) could even play. I had no idea what I was going to get out of (Dawson) to be honest with you. So that part is unnerving. Did I feel confident? I felt good about the game, but I don't feel confident about who I'm subbing, where I'm subbing, and when you get a guy in foul trouble, boy that changes everything, especially when it's a key guy.
On not playing Marvin Clark in the second half...
(Clark) isn't ready, he just doesn't understand the switching that we needed to do and he wasn't ready, in my mind, but I'm going to have to change that because (Dawson) isn't ready to go that many minutes, there's no question. It's not all his fault because he's been out, three weeks of the last month-and-a-half. It's just the way it is right now. That's a very good team. We didn't play very good and I don't think one of my teams has ever been outrebounded, 52-36, in the history of me. Our guards just aren't doing enough right now. They're not strong enough, they're not doing enough. It's hard to play 40 minutes and not get a rebound, and we did that tonight with some of our guys.
On if a signature win would boost the team's confidence...
It could have been (a signature win). There's no better win than to play bad and win; that's a signature win. We had our chances in regulation and overtime, and we didn't get it done. We had a couple of good shots, we had a couple of bad plays and a couple of ridiculous turnovers, but we had 13 turnovers and they had 21. We must have done a better job defensively than I'm giving credit, but it sure didn't look like it to me when the second half was just drive, foul, drive, foul. Even though their field goal percentage wasn't that good, when you get to the free throw line 32 times and make 26 of them, that's a lot of points and that's bad defense. Some stats sometimes, you can look at them and be fooled whether it's free throws or whether it's points scored. We didn't play good enough to win. They played better. They got the loose balls, they looked fresher, when you look at the minutes. You have to give (Maryland senior guard/forward) Dez Wells credit. He missed a month. I don't know what he did, but it was a hand injury. You have to give him a lot of credit. I love guys that are warriors. He's diving on the floor with a broken wrist. A broken wrist on his right hand and he makes the big three. My hat goes off to him. I was really impressed by how hard he played, how much he played, and he's got some dog in him. That's as good a compliment as I can give a guy.
On if playing Maryland could develop into a rivalry game...
I don't know what it's like in the ACC, but you find out there's a lot of rivalry games in the Big Ten. I think this is a good game. I think Mark (Turgeon) did a great job with his team, his kids played hard. They played well defensively too. What did we shoot, 30-some percent, 32 percent, if that? They shot 33 (percent). They were 18 and we were 23 from the three. It was a war, but both teams missed some good shots. They missed some good shots early and we missed some good shots early. I think they're the biggest team in the league, but they did a hell of a job on the boards, but we didn't. That's where I think we really got hurt on (Dawson's) conditioning. When (Valentine) went out he had eight boards. We just didn't do enough there. They're big, they're athletic and it's a good team; we lost to a good team. The sad part is I don't think we played that good, and we were right in it. The other sad part is, I'm not sure (Turgeon) feels they played that good. They missed some good shots and it was just one of those days.
Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon
Opening statement...
Obviously that's a great win for us. I'm not sure how we did it to be honest with you. We talked about a few things, one was transition defense. I thought for the most part we did that. We also knew we had to rebound to beat this team and I thought we did that better than we have done all year. Our defense was as probably as good as it's been. Offensively, we had poise. There is a reason this guy [Izzo] has been to so many Final Fours. They guarded us as well as anyone's guarded us. They made it tough on us and we just kept trying to figure out ways to score. We finally figured it out. We got to the foul line. Give them credit though, they're so hard to play against. Trice was terrific out there making shots for them. I thought our guys defensively played pretty smart.
On how the approach to the offense changed over the course of the game...
I just think that's what we talked about at halftime. We couldn't make a jump shot. We had to score somehow so we needed to spread it out. We had to run some things we really hadn't done in practice. They did a good job of taking away the ball screens, so we took away the ball screen and tried to drive it. It wasn't pretty, but it was a gutty win. We were 1-18 from the three. There was a timeout and I think we were down four. I said I don't know who's going to do it but we're going to make three three's and we're going to win this game. We made three three's. I thought we were going to win in regulation but we didn't. In the first overtime we were lucky. We had some free throws and Dez [Wells] hit the three. We really didn't have much going and Dez just stepped up and made us all look good.
On whether there was design late in the game to go back to Dez Wells...
Well, we had nothing going and I just kept telling our guys we're going to play through Dez and we were going to play through Melo. We were going to take turns. One guy got tired and we would go through the other. That's really all we had going. A lot of guys weren't their normal selves tonight. Maybe it was the first road game, crowd or whatever. We weren't quite as efficient offensively as we've been. Give them credit. Dez wasn't great at times; obviously with seven turnovers. He's our guy though and we believe in him. He played 40 minutes tonight and he was really out of shape and hopefully he's in better shape for next game. We have to go through those two guys right now.
On why this team has been so effective in close games this year...
The reason we've been effective in close games is because we have good players and we make free throws. Today we made free throws and that really helped. In the close games that we've won, we've been good defensively down the stretch in rebounding. You can't put a finger on it, the world is round. You lose a bunch one year; you win a lot the next. There is a lot of basketball left and we need to continue to win close games because we'll probably have a lot.
On Damonte Dodd's performance...
I expected him to be good defensively. He kept asking me for Dawson and I kept waiting and I kept waiting and I finally put him on Dawson. We threw it to him on the block and I'm like `no, no, no, yes'. He and Graham have been doing a lot of work with the coaches during this time off and these coaches continue to get better for us.
