Michigan State vs. Oakland Postgame Quotes
12/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo
Opening statement …
I have to start by giving Coach Kampe credit. Year after year we play them. In a lot of ways, they're close to a Big Ten team. Physical as the day is long. It was a fist fight tonight and probably a hard game to officiate. It was a hard game to play. What I'm most pleased about is that we played the hardest that we have in a while. Guys were diving on the floor all over the place. We had our moments, though, where we weren't smart enough. With the game on the line, and a 10-point lead, 30 seconds on the clock, we're throwing behind the back passes, those things. We're just not doing a good enough job. Cassius (Winston) starting, I thought he was pretty good. He struggled defensively in the first half, but I thought he was pretty good. Nick Ward, he has his goods and bads. At times he is great, and at times there is a big drop. That's where we need to start getting better. But credit to him, Dwayne Stephens, and Austin Thornton a little bit - that kid has lived on the free throw line. Even his misses looked good other than one today. He kind of got what he deserved, which is how life goes I guess. He has spent days on that free throw line. He even made 16 in a row the other day, which is a North American record. I was surprised with a couple of my other guys who are missing free throws. We'll get that sorted out shortly. Eron Harris bounced back a little bit tonight. I thought he played a little bitter. Josh Langford - I thought he struggled a little bit. That's going to happen when you start freshmen. A couple will be up, and a couple will be down. I thought we got a lot out of Matt Van Dyk. He had I don't know, how many offensive boards? Five? Seven rebounds at his size is incredible. Turnovers - both teams didn't do a very good job of that. They had 21 and we had 18. It was a good comeback for us after a disappointing loss, though.
On starting Nick Ward, Cassius Winston, and Josh Langford …
I looked at some things. As I talked to Tum (Nairn) about it, I thought back to when I played Tum instead of Travis Trice and I brought him off the bench. Rotations make a difference. Some guys are more comfortable coming off of the bench. Kyle Ahrens just was not comfortable starting. I laugh, because when I sit in a meeting a player will look at me that way, and I can tell by the look in his eyes. And I'm just saying, god, I would have given my right arm or left arm to start. That's just not the way it is for everybody. So, I think we figured a couple of things out that will benefit us. I'd like to get Kenny Goins going. I thought he was okay, but still has so much more to give. He did get eight rebounds tonight, and that was encouraging. He's a better player. Do we bring him off the bench or start him? I don't know. As Nick gets more comfortable playing more minutes, if we can get him into the 20s like that instead of the teens, that makes a difference in what I do, too. I don't know what the brainthought was. I didn't like the way some guys played, and I challenged them. One thing I'm starting to learn is that they don't like it. They're starting to learn how to get up off the mat, be challenged, and respond. And that is critical, especially for a young team.
On Oakland star Jalen Hayes only playing 12 minutes …
Jalen - if you think I'm going to feel sorry for anybody after what has happened to us this year. Jalen is there as a body. I don't even have bodies sometimes, so I'm not going to do that. I have great respect for that kid, though. He goes out and hits a three, I think he has hit one or two all year. I know the game is important to him, and I know he was really well-coached in high school. Carlton (Valentine), as I look at what his guys have done as they move on - there is a guy that deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. He's done an unbelievable job with so many different kinds of players. I told Jalen after that I was proud of him. They made some stupid fouls, and so did we. Then there were some bizarre fouls. They say it was a hard game to officiate, a hard game to coach, and probably a hard game to write about. I'd much rather have hard games where you win by 12 than where you lose by a couple. So, I'm going to just take this, and get to spend a few days on Christmas.
On being able to close out the game tonight …
Well, again today we were up 10, then we come down - sometimes I feel like I'm having an out of body experience. Things don't make sense. We have a couple turnovers, they hit a two and a three, then it's a five point game. And that is something that we do way too much of. So, we're getting to practice more, watch more film. We're coming back and getting three more practices in before we leave for this Christmas Big Ten game on the 27th, which I think is a shame. I have voiced my opinion on that. We do a lot of things for the student athletes, but there are some things that shouldn't be done. That would be one of them.
On Nick Ward hustling on defense…
Yeah, Nick is, his mom and dad are here and I just talked to them for a little bit. He was just never able to do the things that he's able to do now. He's just starting to figure out what he can do. And he can run, and he can run hard. And he can jump. There were a couple of other layups that he could've had earlier and he lost the ball. He hits a couple of our free throws and it's a 30-point night. He wasn't great, but he's getting better. That's the one thing I tell our entire team. Nick does drive me certifiably insane at times. But, what I love about the kid is he's getting better. So it's maybe three steps forward and a step back, maybe four steps forward and two back. Some days it's one forward and one back. But at the end of each day, I see him making progress and so it's kind of fun. I know the game's important to him. We went into this game tonight and said we have to be tougher. Alvin Ellis gave us a little more toughness. Matt McQuaid, Matt Van Dyk and of course, Nick Ward. We still got some other guys that Santa's got to bring some. To hell with those toys, computers, cell phones, we got to bring some real stuff. So, we'll see if he does.
On the rotation and players coming off the bench…
I think they responded very well. You know, Tum struggled a little bit. And, you know, he's got to find himself a little bit. Trust me on this, there's no quarterback conflict. He was the first one to bring it up about him taking Travis' spot. But again, one of the problems is when Tum was in there, a couple of times I had some weird lineups in. And if I have guys that can't score with Tum, then he looks worse. So that's kind of still what we have to figure out as a staff. DJ and I have to sit down and see if we can ever get a rotation down. But, as we get a better understanding of how you got to compete, then we'll move forward.
On Nick Ward's productivity…
Don't be fooled by some players in the NBA that score a lot of points and their teams never win. You do have to play both ends. But I think the biggest thing that Nick's had to go through is the conditioning part. And like I said, part of it was the loss of all that weight and part of it was all the travel that we had and him never getting to work out. Part of it isn't his fault. If we're going to be a good team, we can't say 'Oh we'll just be good on this end.' Remember the night he had the flu on one end and he was a million dollar man on the other? That damn arena. Remember when it was cold on that one day? If you watched him those last five minutes when he went out there and guarded like a big-time player. Nick's got quick feet. He's just got to stay focused on what he has to do and realize that he's got a new body which we all would like to have. And it takes some time to readjust to it. If that's not on his mind everyday going harder, doing this, doing that then it's not going to work. I don't want to dampen anything because I love the progress he's making but there's a reason why he never played 25 minutes most games. It wasn't his play always. It was what he could do and if he could stay in that long.
On Oakland's progress in the future…
I think that that team has taken a big step and has showed tonight that they are a much, much, much, much better defensive team. They take chances, because they have length. They turned us over 18 times, but we also got some shots because of it. I don't know what his team's like, but they have enough guys that can shoot it, enough guys that can handle the ball. They've got decent size inside. The kid that impressed me hasn't been playing, the Hill-Mais kid. I mean, he was a horse in there. So, I thought he did a pretty good job. I think they're very close. I mean, last year it was an overtime game. They've taken a lot of teams right to the wire, Pittsburgh. But you know you got to win sometime. But hey, I have great respect, I love Greg. I love the way he coaches. I love his energy at the end. We should've tag teamed and put one of those octagons in there and all went at it, it would've been cool. So, I appreciate that about him. I think they're very close. We've been a pretty good program and we're not the same caliber right now, but that's probably the next step, you know? He's having trouble beating Michigan State. I don't know if he's beaten Michigan or Ohio State, I know he's been close on some of those games. We've had a hard time beating Duke. I understand his frustration at times. But, they're knocking on the door, they're competing and they're right there. There are a lot of good things for Oakland basketball.
On Miles Bridges' ankle…
You saw him tonight, we put the boot back on him just because my trainer was afraid that somebody was going to come over and step on his foot or something, seriously, and the way that game went, you never know. I wish I had a boot on some of my players that were playing. It was a physical game. I think Monday they will check him out again. He is making progress, but it is very slow. We have him in the pool running on an elliptical like thing, he is starting to put some weight on it and feeling decent, so your guess is as good as mine. I know one thing, Santa doesn't have to stop at my house. He can go to Miles and give him a fix and that would be perfect.
Closing Statement…
Let me close by saying that I know especially in the Spartan Nation there was a lot of concerns when the season started. In September, I had hoped we'd be 10-3 now, looking at the schedule and who you can beat and who you can't beat, who you should beat and who you shouldn't beat. Coaches do that just like fans do. I got my plus one, which was 12-1 and my minus one which was 9-4 and we are one off of that. When I did that, though, we had Gavin [Schilling], we had Ben [Carter] and we had Miles. I don't feel very good about where we are, but I wouldn't get too nervous out there because this team is getting better and they're starting to compete. They're starting to learn what to do and we are going to get better. We are going to dedicate this Christmas time, I wish we had a little more time, but we won't, but we are going to get better. We are missing that guy that was 35 minutes and 17 and 10, so I think that is going to help us. We will get him back. When, exactly, I don't know, but we are going to get him back and then these guys can go back to playing their roles. I told some of our media that was there the other day that there's Batman, Robin, there is the butler, there's the guy downtown - we have all of those guys and some of those guys had to move up two notches and that's sometimes difficult. Disappointed that we're not at least 10-3? Considering what we have been through, I tip my hat off to my guys and figure that they just have to hang in there around Christmas now so when we are able to get back we will go at it. We are going to get better and I hope that each and every one of you have a great holiday, whatever you celebrate, and it's the time of year where hopefully you get to spend some time with your families and some of you with young kids, do a hell of a job Christmas morning, those days are over for me. For those that have those days, cherish them, have fun and see you on Monday or Tuesday.
Oakland Head Coach Greg Kampe
On this Michigan State team as a whole…
Well, there's a lot of talented players out there. For people to sit there and say that crap about them is ridiculous. This is a gold standard basketball program in this country coached by probably the best coach in the country. If you think that they're going to fold in December, you guys are crazy. That guy can coach and he's got talented players. Does he have some guys missing? Yeah. Is that great player missing? Yeah. All that is going to do is make those other guys better, so when that kid gets back, they'll be better. I guarantee you they will be there in March and they will be there. They're no bubble team. They're going to kick a lot of people's rear ends.
On Jalen Hayes only getting 12 minutes…
If he played 40 [minutes], he probably would have had 36 points. It was pretty evident they couldn't guard him. You know, our offense runs through him. It was pretty evident that they were struggling to guard him. I mean, he had 11 points. He has four shots and 11 points in 12 minutes. His first foul was 94 feet from the basket. His third, fourth and fifth foul were just ridiculous. Obviously, if things are getting called and you sit there and say, "I didn't do it" - you're not going to win that battle. If you're a freshman, okay, I understand that. But if you're the veteran on our team, the go-to guy, you've got to not put yourself in that situation. His fifth foul, he says he didn't touch the guy, but he ran in there and slapped him. Maybe he didn't touch him, but he ran in there and slapped down. Why? We need him on the floor. Hopefully it's a learning thing for him. You come home, you want to play well here. I'm sure he does. It's his hometown. I'm sure he wants to prove a lot of things. It's hard to prove them sitting next to me if you let your emotion get into you like that. I've never seen him - I mean, I'm a yeller, but every kid is different. Some yell back, some don't. Some don't like it when they get yelled at, some love it, some want to get yelled at. Jalen is one of those guys who just always looked at you. Tonight, he was actually talking back. Not talking back, but trying to explain himself. I've coached him for four years and I've never seen that before. Obviously, he was hyped to play here and wanted to show. Unfortunately, he went about it the wrong way because they couldn't guard him. I think it's the single most important factor in the outcome of the game - was he played 12 minutes.
On how this week will help Oakland down the road…
It's not going to make a difference. We're going to be a completely different team in January and February than we are now. These are all learning experiences. We were blowing teams out, now we've played a couple close games. We've made some really drastic errors the last two games. I always think that you learn better from these games than you do from blowing people out. Over the course of the year you're going to play a lot of close games and you learn and you go on. All this is is about record. RPI and record. Unfortunately, in this day in age, that's what people care about. They care about what your record is, and they care about what your RPI is and they want to tweet and write on the message boards and all that crap about how - the reality of it is that, for Oakland, is we have to win the Horizon League Tournament. Because if we don't, it's not a successful season. We won 23 games last year, we got to the finals of a post-season tournament, and there are a lot of people who think we had an unsuccessful year. So the truth and the reality of it is - yeah, if we beat Michigan State that's something in recruiting we can hang out hat on, that's something that down through the years, seven years from now, no one is going to remember Miles [Bridges] didn't play, just like last year people didn't remember [Denzel] Valentine didn't play, you know. So, yeah, in the state of Michigan, this game means more than any other non-league game we play. But, the truth of the matter is, how we play today will have no effect on this basketball team in March when it counts. We're not going to say, 'Remember at the Breslin Center when Jalen you fouled like that?' There will be so many things that will have happened since then that will effect our team.
On positives from tonight's individual performances…
The good thing for Brad [Brechting] tonight is that he had to play. You saw what he could do without looking over his shoulder and stressing and making stupid plays and knowing he's coming out and things like that. Maybe it's a coaching point for me, too. Just let the kid go. Maybe I learned something tonight from him. I thought he played extremely well. He missed a couple box outs in the first half, but, other than that, I thought he guarded well. He rebounded. He is still a little limited with the ball. The more touches he gets, the better he'll be at that. I thought he played extremely well. I don't think Stevie had one of his better games. He turned the ball over six times. We turned it over 21 times, that's not us. We're one of the top teams in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio. Alright. You can sit there and say, 'Well, that was Michigan State's defense.' If they want to say that, fine. If you want to write that, fine. I don't believe that. I believe that that was us. That was us not playing well. That was us forcing things. You know, not running offense when we got in trouble. The thing about these two teams, the coaches have all coached together. Dwayne [Stephens] was on my staff. Drew Valentine played for me, was their graduate assistant. We know everything about each other. So, obviously, we're going to take stuff away from them because we know it's coming. And they're going to take stuff away from us because vice versa. So, what play do you make? And we didn't make the next play. We just tried to force things. I can't take anything. Maybe I better coach Brad better. Maybe I better coach him like you're not coming out for a stupid play.
On the officiating…
Well, there were 54 fouls called. I have one, two, three, four guys foul out and another guy with four. I'm not a very good coach if I'm happy about that. It may have been the best reffed game ever, but I can't be a good coach if I'm okay with that. One of the things when I said Jalen was talking to me, one of the things he said was, 'Why aren't you fighting for me?' The players were frustrated by it. I was frustrated by it. The shot at the end - if that goes in - he got fouled, so he would have had three shots and that would have cut it to four with 30-some seconds to go. And Michigan State is not a good free throw shooting team. They shoot 62 percent. In a pressure situation, what would have happened? The game was not over. Now, as soon as I got the technical, it was. But I got players asking me to fight for them. What am I going to do? I can't lose my team. Do you think that kid got fouled? Is there anyone here that's going to tell me that he didn't get fouled? I can't say he didn't or did because I'm going to get in trouble. I'm asking you, did he get fouled? Okay.
Michigan State freshman forward Nick Ward
On the team's toughness...
We had a mission to prove everybody wrong. They're calling us soft, saying we don't play hard. So, we played the opposite. We played hard, and we played as a team. We felt like we had something to prove.
On starting the game...
I was ecstatic; it was my first start. I didn't know what to expect really, but we just played hard to get the win in whatever way possible.
On controlling the game...
We just had our balance with buckets, turnovers, defensive stops, and rebounds. We just balanced everything out. We weren't too heavy on one side. I thought we did a pretty good job.
On heading into Big Ten play...
It gives us a little momentum. We needed this win.
On the break...
It's a holiday to spend with our family and our loved ones. We'll take advantage of those two days. We'll take advantage of every second and enjoy our holidays.
Michigan State freshman guard Cassius Winston
On the toughness...
It wasn't a pretty game. We played hard. If there's anything you get out of that game, it's that we played hard. We made a lot of dumb decisions and made a lot of mistakes, but our effort made up for it. We would turn it over, but we'd still get after it and get the loose ball to make it up. There are a lot of things you could say about this game, but the one thing you can say is that we played hard.
On improving as a team...
We have to compete. That's the one thing that they keep saying, that we need to compete. We have to be the hardest and toughest team out there playing. We don't have the most talent, and we're going to struggle in certain areas. We're going to struggle with certain things, but we have effort. It makes up for those mistakes and those lacking abilities. We just need to work harder to get it done.
On controlling the game...
It was a big game for us. We just lost one at home. We needed this win, and we needed a good win too, not just a scraper. We needed a solid win with us playing at our full potential. Tonight wasn't our best performance, but we went out there and competed.
On going into B1G play...
We know how to play. We know the intensity that we have to play with. We know the effort we have to play with. Stuff isn't always going to go smooth. There are going to be some rough areas. There are going to be some bad calls. There will be a shot that they hit that they shouldn't have, but we just have to keep pushing.
On the holiday break...
These coaches are great and all, but sometimes you need a breather. You need a little time to relax and enjoy your family a little bit. You can't relax too much. You still have to stay in shape and take some shots a bit because we have to turn around and play. To get to see your family, after being away from them for so long, that opportunity is great.
Michigan State redshirt senior forward Matt Van Dyk
On starting the game...
It was pretty different. Cassius (Winston) and I were joking that there's a lot you have to know before the game. We know the first four plays that we're going to run. We know the tip play. You don't have an opportunity to see the guys and see what they have before you get in so you have to know the scouting report a lot better. Once things got rolling, it was the same thing as always.
On the effort...
We've been talking as a team and we really want to make an emphasis to get back to our identity of diving for loose balls, getting every rebound, and playing tougher. I think we did a great job of showing that we do have that. We played as a lot different team than we did earlier in the season, and it was great to see that.
On answering the other team's made shots...
In the past, we've gone on runs and then they'd hit a big shot and slow us down. Tonight we made sure that if they made a big shot, we got back to our principles and did what it takes to get the win.
On going into B1G play...
It's huge to get back to how we always play right before the Big Ten. Playing a team like Oakland who really knows our stuff, it's like a conference game kind of. They have Drew Valentine who knows our stuff inside and out, so it's kind of like a conference game with scouting. This is a huge game to have before conference play. To have our mojo back and get stuff rolling and to hopefully keep it rolling.
On the holiday break...
We've been grinding every day for the past five months. It's going to be home and see our families for those who can go home. It'll be nice to step back and take a breather a bit and let our bodies heal up a bit. I'm really looking forward to going home and seeing my family and spending time with them. It's going to be a quick turnaround, but once we come back we're going at it again. We're going to start back right where we left off ready for conference play, ready for Minnesota, ready to head out there and get our first B1G play.
