Michigan State University Athletics
Coach Izzo Press Conference
12/12/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Michigan State men's basketball coach Tom Izzo addressed the media at his weekly press conference on Monday, Dec. 12 to discuss Sunday's meeting with Northeastern at 7 p.m.
Below is a full transcript of the press conference:
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo
Opening statement...
Well, the next 10 days, as we know, are pretty important to us. Not that there is going to be nearly the free time or practice time we have had other years, but somehow, someway, between finals and Christmas, we are going to try and get more opportunities to look at the things we have not been able to look at. We have finals this week, two games against I think a lot better teams than maybe the last four or five have been, and we need to continue to improve on the court, we need to continue to improve our conditioning and maybe our execution. Trying to keep perspective on this year has been probably a little hard for you guys and it's been very hard for me. I look at things differently. I'll give you credit, I looked at the officiating things that a lot of people were upset about after. I didn't think as much of it. There were some adjustments we have to make there. But, as a program, the standards that we try to set, I just think it has been hard for our freshman to understand that lack of upperclassmen that had that. We don't have the Denzel's, the Costello's and the Colby's, especially. So, we are kind of learning on the run as we go. Last week, we put a little more emphasis on coaching the little things. I think we made some progress. I think each week we make some progress, but it is the finger in the dam that we talked about before. We have had more than our fair share of adversity in this period, but I still think that is going to help us. We are going to continue to figure out how to get it done. I think the players... we had a good film session to try and show them, show them, show them. I sometimes forget myself that when you have a lot of those four-year guys that have been players for four years, they can explain it to them in locker room, on the sidelines and that is just not there right now. It is not going to be there. That is not the kind of team we have. We have to do a better job as coaches making them understand and making them see the things we want to see.
Northeastern is a concern. We played them out there last year and played pretty well and won by a decent amount. This year, beating UConn kind of gives them a little lift. I am not trying to put them in the same league as Kentucky or Duke, but I am also putting them in a higher level than some of the teams we have played. Every game they have been in. That is one big thing. Six games have been by three points or less. So, their 5-5 record is a little misleading. Their senior is getting 22 points per game, the Williams kid. Alex Murphy was a kid that started out at Duke and then went to Florida, so he has been around the block and been in some pretty good programs. And I think this team is very, very well-coached. I think he does a great job with his team. He did a great job last year. They will be coming off finals. I am not sure, but I think they have finals this week too like most schools do. How we respond to that will be another step in the right direction for us.
On what he tries to do with Miles Bridges mentally this week if he is not ready physically...
The last game, we sat Miles with a notepad and had him write down things that he saw that he liked, that he didn't like, to see if he's really watching a game to get better or if he is just watching it to enjoy the game. As soon as he is done with finals, him and I are going to go over those three or four games and then we are going to look at some of his games and see if things he is writing down and things he is saying to me... as I said to him Saturday night, he texted me a couple of things and I said, `Now remember two weeks ago? We were questioning some of those things about you. Are you doing a good enough job jumping to the ball? Are you doing a good enough job in transition?' All of those things. So, I think when you are extremely gifted athletically, if you can pick them up mentally, you can adjust even when you're not playing. It is not going to be the same, but you can get something out of it and that is what we're really looking for from Miles right now. He is starting to condition harder right now and we just don't want to waste a day, because we know the process of coming back is going to take some time, so, anything we can do. It is kind of a new thing for me too, to try and put a guy in that position mentally to be ready. Not many freshman of his caliber of gotten hurt or been out or played as many minutes, so it is another new area, but it is also kind of exciting and fun to do.
On Matt McQuaid getting back to practice today...
McQuaid worked out a little bit yesterday, because I guess that is the quote-unquote concussion protocol. He went through it pretty well today. He is going to try and go through some of the practice and then after he will try to do some running and shooting. I see no issue from what they tell me. Today and tomorrow will be big days, but I see no issues as far as getting him back. It has not been pronounced a concussion, it was concussion symptoms. I think he'll be good to go.
On Miles Bridges getting out of the boot...
He took it off a couple of times just to see how the pain is. Don't over read into that. I am just giving you the progress that I can give you. He'll have it on I am sure most of this week and then we will see if he can start taking that thing off and will gradually be back.
On starting all of his freshmen before a conference game or if he would do that for the first time in league play...
I'd be okay after. They are getting enough experience where it is not for any one reason, good or bad. Number one, it depends on how the upper classmen play. Number two, it depends on how much progress they make on the defensive end. That is maybe the biggest liability right now. I have three of them that are pretty much good enough on the offensive end to play more minutes and do more things, but as I told you with this damn sport, it's not like football, you have to play both ends of the court. As we saw with Nick, he didn't play any minutes in that game. When you have two fouls so quickly and you have only played a couple of minutes, then you don't get a chance to get in the flow of it at all and then you start making poor decisions defensively. All of those guys have to get better defensively if they are going to play in a Big Ten game as a starter, which is probably going to increase their minutes some. They are making progress.
On using starting as an award and the possibility of starting four freshmen at some point ...
I mean, I said it early and I meant it early. I said it could happen. I could be president of the United States someday, too. Things can happen. It doesn't mean they're going to happen. They will be earned. I don't know if it's a reward. I don't sit there and say, `Please play better defense so you can start.' I say, `Please play better defense so we can win.' That's the way I look at it and I am challenging them, too. I can't over-challenge them on things that there's no practice time to get better in those areas, so now we have some time. I'm really anxious to see if they take instead of baby steps like we've been taking, major steps forward. The only way we do that is if you can self-evaluate and decide that it's not what coach says, it's what do I have to do to be a very good player myself? That's the steps that I think will be taken if they really deserve to be moved up.
On individual meetings this week...
Cassius [Winston] and Josh [Langford] might be done with finals on Tuesday, where Nick [Ward] and them are done on Friday, so it never works out great. We are going to be able to practice at least three days this week. I think we are going at 2 today and one at 3:30 tomorrow, so we have some windows in there. I don't want to ever have them practice if they have an exam that night and they have tutoring sessions and all that. A couple of these days it has worked out and then as guys get done we will start having the individual workouts. A lot of the individual work is going to be conditioning. I think we need to get in better shape. Some of it will be on free throw shooting, surprise. There's some skill work that has to be taken care of, probably more on the defensive end than the offensive end. We will do that on a more individual basis or a small group, two or three guys, if we can work something early in the morning if they don't have a final until late in the afternoon. Some will be film sessions, that way we are not wearing them down any. These guys have been through a hell of a semester as far as academically. All of the classes they missed have not been easy for them, and I think we are regrouping pretty well in that area, but it has taken some work. We have to really judge how we are mentally and not just physically. Exams take a lot out of you.
On if there is any other season where he has faced this many challenges...
I've never faced the combination of the games, the travel and even the 10 or 11 games in a small period of time. I don't even know if we have ever done that. The travel, the injuries and the youth - that is not a very good combination to go through. If you have young guys, you need more practice time. I talked to some coaches last week that maybe their schedule wasn't as difficult because they knew they had a young team. I really didn't know what I was going to have, as I said when the schedule was made, if you have Marvin [Clark Jr.] and Deyonta [Davis], it's different. That wasn't really prepared for. If that is my fault or not, it is just the way it is. This will be good for me because three years from now if it happens again, I'll have that in the bank. I'll know how to deal with it maybe a little better and project a little bit better. Who knows what will happen with Miles next year? So I project a little better. Who knows what will happen with some of the other guys? Nobody can predict the injuries. As I told you when I sat on that bench before the game and four guys were sitting with me, I thought there was a good chance all four of them could have been starting this year. That's unpredictable. I don't care if I coach a million years. Some of those things are going to happen where all of your bigs are gone, which is kind of remarkable the way that Nick has adjusted to that. Kenny [Goins] has adjusted to that. All of the freshmen have adjusted, considering they don't have a lot of upperclassmen to show them the way. In a lot of ways this has been good for me. It makes me have to work harder. It makes me have to push my staff harder on things that we have to do. The attention to detail gets a little more cranked up because the minute you let something slip, there's not a senior in the locker room necessarily, there's not Denzel telling guys and there's no Draymond [Green] telling guys saying, `Hey you better do this or he's going to be on you about this.' It's just things guys don't know. Frustrating? Yes. Understandable? Definitely, yes. That's why there are classes. That's what there is progress, a system of progression in life. We are trying to speed that up under some different circumstances that I haven't been faced with before and I'm going to learn from it and they're going to learn from it. Now, we are keeping our head above water and that means we are moving in the right direction.
On the beginning of the Big Ten season being more difficult than it once seemed...
It kind of goes with the rest of the year. There have been a lot of different things this year that you look at. Especially looking at where Miles will be. Number one, if he's back or not, and more importantly when he's back, how long with that adjustment last? You kind of look at who has bigger teams and who has smaller teams and things like that. I can't say that I've had 10 seconds to look too far in advance other than what I've look at is I've watched Minnesota a couple times on TV. Last night they played my old assistant Mark Montgomery at Northern Illinois and I definitely think they are better. A lot better. I have seen Northwestern once or twice. I'm just trying to survive until Santa gets here and then I'm going to figure out how to adapt after that. Every one of those teams is better. Let's just put it that way. A couple of them are a lot better than last year.
On comparing Miles' return to Denzel's return last year after injury...
That's why we are trying to do the educational part because there's a big difference in Miles coming back than Denzel coming back. Denzel was a three-year starter and a four-year player. Miles hasn't been to one Big Ten gym yet. That part of it doesn't make it the same at all. I also think Miles is a competitor and a pretty intelligent player. He's chomping at the bit right now. Do I know it's going to work out? I don't know, I've never done it. I have him sitting out by me so that he hears what we're saying. Much more than his input, he hears what guys are not doing what and what guy is not doing what well enough. Hopefully those things all rub off. My assistants came up with the idea of the notebook, so he was sitting there writing things down. Kind of crazy, but trying something to speed that process up. Just about every year we have a game after Christmas to re-acclimate and this year we start out with two Big Ten teams before the 30th. It's a year of a lot of different things happening and would I wish it was some other year in that respect? Sure. At the same time it is what it is. Where I think I'm getting a little better is having more control, but I sure as hell can't control that.
On Matt Van Dyk playing a lot of minutes...
Well, it was a lot easier having him adapt to the five than Kyle Ahrens or Alvin Ellis to the four this week. But he has a heart as big as a lion. He's smart, he's tough. He isn't over-skilled or over-sized, of course. Yet, he knows how to play as far as positioning goes. He studies a lot of tape and knows his opponent pretty well. He is giving us everything that I could have asked for. The thought of him playing 20 minutes, 19, 18, whatever it was that he played, wasn't in the game plan at the start of the season and that is kind of the way the year has been. Matt fills a role similar to Colby, although Colby never played half as many minutes. But, he fills a role and he's going to be better if we can keep Nick and Kenny in the games because he is able to do things in five-minute, three-minute stretches. And then to have 20-minute stretches, I think that's asking the world of him.
On participating in any tournaments amongst in-state teams...
I don't have any interest in another road game if that's what you're saying. I have absolutely no interest in that. The difference is who we're playing. You can do those types of things when you're not playing top teams that we're playing. We're involved with a couple of things and the (Champions Classic) is a monster event, and we've been in a few others. There are only so many events you can be in. I think if I had to look back - I know I have been reiterating this a hundred times - but, it's not that I'm disappointed in who we played early. It's when you don't have control of some of those things that go into scheduling. Whenever you do games like that TV takes control, promoters take control and it's out of your hands. That's very difficult. You have the ACC challenge, you have some sort of Thanksgiving tournament that you'll play in every year, you have the (Champions Classic). All of a sudden you have five, six, 10 games that are suddenly out of your control completely. That amount of time on the road I think has been the one factor over the years that we have questioned. We've questioned teams around the country that played a lot of home games. This would have been the one year that it really would have benefitted us to play a lot of home games. Not because of the chance to win as much as the chance to practice and not take up the time to travel. I don't know. I'm pretty much game to anything so if you have something worked out with a promoter I would probably look at it, but not if it's so far away from home. Maybe if it was as close as Haslett High School or Catholic Central I would be jacked, but if it's another road game then we definitely do not need the exposure. We put our best foot forward as well as any team in the nation to promote college basketball and take part in events that benefit college basketball.
On second tripleheader against Northeastern...
It's a phenomenal event. It was fun going there and taking our guys to a hockey game and fun being around the hockey team and the women's team. It's great because you don't get enough time to be around the other sports and coaches. There's not a lot of hockey players that go to basketball games and probably less basketball players that go to hockey games and I think that's just a cool thing. We played out in a place where the Celtics played years ago, but it just adds on to travel, another road game. Mark Hollis is friends with the athletic director there and it worked out well. It was a good idea and a neat quirk. At the same time, they'll be a little more attention to detail on when we play and where we play, compared to who we play from now on. We'll play anybody, any place, any time. But there has to be at least some adjustments to make it far to our players. And probably you guys. I'm sure some of the travel is great. Some of your bosses probably don't think it's so good and probably some of your wives don't think it's so good or girlfriends or whatever, whatever, whatever.
On the progress Kyle Ahrens has been making...
You know, Kyle is about as tough of a farm kid as you can be. A smart, tough kid. He wasn't playing as hard up until this past game. I thought he played harder. You know, it's hard to play hard when you're not sure what you're doing. There has to be a comfort level to where you're not just always thinking but you're reacting. When you move positions and you are kind of put in different spots it's difficult. I don't have a lot of patience for that until the game is over and the locker room is done and I go in my office and look at the film. I see it, and ask myself what I should expect. That's the most difficult thing for me that keeps me sleepless. Not the games and not the travel and all these other things, but what can I demand and what can I expect. It's been a little more difficult and I've been sticking to, `At our place, we do this, this, and this.' Well, it's more difficult than that especially in the last couple weeks, and then the whole year altogether.
We're moving Kyle around. He actually played five minutes at center this past game. Is it the world's end? No. But is it fair to put a guy in that situation? Probably not. But, like I told him, he is in the same boat I am in. You can't worry about things you can't control. He has the opportunity to play and he has to make the best of it. I am willing to make a bet that within my career, 22 years, and if there's another five, 10, 20 years left, we will not be in this same situation again. It's just strange how it happened. But, like I said there is a silver lining in this that has made me look at things differently now. We have to come up with news things and better things. Every time you see that something doesn't work you have to figure out why. It's not as smooth for me or for them but we're all in the same boat in some ways. It brings camaraderie with your staff and players. It's not `us against the world mentality' but it's `us against the world to survive.'
We have to figure out that we're all grasping for some things even if it's not the norm or happens often. Let's see if we can get through it. We're making some progress, we really are. There were three 18-point-leads in the last game. The chances were there to make it 20, then all of a sudden it can end up 30. It was just some of the mistakes we made that didn't let it happen. The fatigue factors, not having the right lineups, coaching mistakes, whatever it was, we're just going to try and build on it and learn. But we did get 18-point-leads against a few teams that I think maybe aren't the best or are pretty similar to other teams around the country, yet we have played at least six games that I know will be in the NCAA tournament. Another two games against teams that are better than mid-quality teams around the country, not high, but if you look around the country, different high-ranked teams are getting beat. It's kind of funny because I was reading an article on North Carolina. They lost one guard and their team crumbled. They were down 15 to an average Tennessee team. One guy, and they have five other McDonald's guys and it puts things into perspective. It doesn't bring an excuse and it doesn't give you a hall pass, but perspective is what you need sometimes. The cool part is that even you guys, I think you're trying to figure out what you should expect out of this team. You're thinking what can you write about and be allowed to expect and what to be critical on. But you have to be critically fair. I've had a couple times where I've struggled to be critically fair because the bottom line is I have to win games. But I'm learning and adjusting. It's kind of cool when you're still learning something and I just got into the Hall of Fame. I feel I'm reinventing myself as a coach and that's okay. It's painful, but I think it'll reach some benefits before I'm done.
