Michigan State vs. No. 20 Purdue Postgame Quotes
1/24/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo
Opening statement…
It's hard to feel better and worse, but we played a lot better than we've been playing. I thought if we played that well in the last couple of games we would've won a couple of the three. The teams are going to have to learn. We had an eight, nine point lead, whatever it was, in the first half. If anybody wants to know when I subbed with everybody in foul trouble, Matt Van Dyk just gives me everything he's got, he had a steal and really went to work in the post down on that. Nick [Ward] got into foul trouble and just didn't do the things he needs to do. We thought we could go to him in the post, they did a decent job doubling him and he did a poor job in executing what we wanted to. I thought we ran in some great stuff, we scored. Miles [Bridges], it's a shame, had an incredible, efficient game and yet we didn't have enough other guys that played well against six guys in double figures and the fouling is just sickening. I give them a lot of credit on a lot of things they did but displacement is displacement in that post and that really bothered me. So that was the only negative I have for people, other than that they outplayed us. "Biggie" [Caleb Swanigan] was great. He did a nice job. Miles was great, he did a hell of a job. I thought the game was kind of lost in that eight or nine point lead when we, we just had no players left.
On seeing both the potential and shortcomings this game…
Very good way to put it. High end potential. I thought we played damn good in a lot of ways, a lot of ways, defensively even. Some disappointing things. Eron [Harris] struggled and gave up three threes that he shouldn't have gave up. We told Nick [Ward] that we're going to give Swanigan a shot, we're not going to give him a ready-shoot shot, he's playing him at the free-throw like Shaquille O'Neil. The first half it was the subbing of… we just had no bodies left. In the second half, we cut it to four, we missed a shot and they get a rebound, kick it out for a three and then we get it in the corner and kick it out. A couple of mistakes by Josh [Langford]. They capitalized on the mistakes which we didn't. Crowd was awesome, players played with a lot harder. I do think there's a lot of potential there. I thought there were good enough players on our team that played hard enough, and I thought there were a couple of players on our team that played hard enough but not smart enough or good enough. Can't do that against a good team and there's no question Purdue is one of the better teams, I think, around, especially with those guys inside and it's about impossible to cover at times.
On the play of Miles Bridges…
It's one of those things where I see a lot of things in Miles and I've tried to explain it. People jump off bandwagons and on bandwagons. This is the first time where I saw Miles not huffing and puffing. He looked like he's about 90-percent back to the guy that was there before, and he's starting to feel comfortable. As we said, we see him do things in full-length court drives and that, he's capable of doing that, but for a couple of weeks he was trying to do that and his brain was telling his body what to do and his body was telling him to go to hell. So he wasn't there but the last guy on my team I'm worried about is Miles Bridges. He's not overrated, he's not this. He's one of the most special players I've ever had because he's learning how to compete, he's learning how to be, maybe, as versatile as anybody. I think he has to do a better job of posting up, I just told him that because he's been scoring a lot with that right hand jump hook. He's got a lot of ways he can score, he's got to get to the line more and palm those offensive boards a little more but Miles Bridges will be a special player here and it's sad that he has a night like that and we don't win the game.
On the points in the point, offensive rebounds and points off turnovers…
It was 30 to 26 us. The points off turnovers, which has been the biggest nemesis of our year, was 18-17 them. It happened. Josh turned it over and went down and gave up a three. We got to learn how to let a play go and come back. This time the second chance points got us. And a lot more in that stretch when we had a tired Miles and MVD in there. We had MVD and Kenny [Goins] in there, against that team, it just wasn't as good, that was one of those tough matchups for us. We knew we were going to run into those things, probably one of the worst teams we could play and yet we did enough good things. I really struggle with the displacement rule in the lane. I don't know how that's going to be called or how it should be, but I didn't like that. I think displacement is displacement.
On the disagreement between Eron Harris and Ward…
Well, Nick, he just didn't run what we needed to run and - We got a lot of guys in there that don't have much experience, it's hard to - we can't just diagram something. We want to run something because of the way they were covering it, they were switching so we had to play set and ran it wrong. You know that's a good thing, that's a good thing. Players start getting after each other a little bit is a good thing. But that was no big deal, it was just, we got a little more at Eron. Defensively he's got to accept that he's got to be our stopper on the perimeter. We gave up some things, that we didn't give up, we said we were going to dig onto the big guy but we weren't going to dig onto [Carsen] Edwards and gave up the three early on. Just things that you can't do. We felt like at half time there were sixteen. MVD had a layup and he kicked two out and both were turnovers for layups. You can't do that against a good team. In our situation we were really stuck in that stretch, I couldn't take the chance of getting one of those bigs a third foul, just couldn't do it. I made the choice. I should be the one criticized for it.
On the plan for defending Swanigan…
Well we wanted to try to force him out a little bit and he does a good job of pushing and getting the inside. Again, I think some of it is he's really good and some of it there's displacement there and I just don't understand the rule. To me, if we hit their guy and he goes out, that's displacement, and if he hits our guy and he goes in, then that's displacement and if he stays the same, it's not. So, we're not going to cover a 7-2 guy with a 6-5 walk-on and get anything out of it. Van Dyk did everything he could. In Swanigan's case, if I had to do it over again, I probably would've put Miles on him more. I thought he did a decent job, but Miles had to do everything else so I think that was good. And Nick got in foul trouble and it made it worse. We thought we could go in on him and instead of posting deep, we posted too far out, they doubled him and he had a couple of turnovers. Those were freshman mistakes that we're going to have to get better at.
On outside frustrations reaching the team…
You know the good thing about me? I've never BS'ed one of you in my whole 22 years. So if I say that, the good thing is that you know it's the truth. Because, if I say they're not playing good, I tell you just like it is. Sometimes it gets me in trouble. This is one time. We played good enough. I thought we got the short end of a couple of calls and I thought that made a difference and we just didn't have the bodies. So, I'm not worried about anything but the next game. I'm not worried about them until I get done with tonight and tomorrow. When I break down my game, I'm going to worry about the next game. It's not coach speak, it's not anything else. If people want to complain, I don't care. I really don't. I know what I'm doing, I know what this team is doing, I know what they're going through. I know what they're going through. Nobody knows what they're going through because nobody's had to do it. I've been here before, too. Been here before, and got to the tournament. Do I sit here and everyday think 'Boy, this is going to cost us getting to the tournament?' I don't do that. I really don't. I've had to win three games in the Big Ten tournament to get there and done it. Do I like where we are? I don't like where we are. Do I understand where we are? I do understand where we are. Am I going to worry about what somebody says that has no clue what this team has gone through and what we're doing? I'm not going to worry about that. I feel their disappointment. You know what? They have to be disappointed. Nobody should have been disappointed in the effort those young guys gave tonight. Nobody should have been disappointed that I had to throw some guys in there that just probably aren't ready to play, aren't good enough to play in those situations. I had no problem with that. That's not insulting to our fans. I thought that the fans that were there did a great job. If some are at the local pubs and are complaining, that's their freedom of speech. It's a great country, freedom of speech.
On lack of a 'Robin' with Batman being Miles Bridges…
It's there but the problem is, we're just getting Batman back. It's really hard when you're moving all these guys around and you're expecting them to do this. You have to run a play for him and you have to run a play for him and it's a little more difficult. We'll get a Robin. I think Eron (Harris) has been playing better. Started out great tonight, didn't do as good of a job, even missed his first free throw. I thought the disappointing thing for me and our guys, other than McQuaid, none of our guards rebounded really good and that's what we said we had to do. We said we would battle the bigs and have our guards come in and clean it up. We didn't do a really good job of that. Josh Langford didn't get one rebound. He has to do a better job. He's been playing pretty well, that's just the way it's going to be. We're going to learn. Nick has to learn from tonight. He got posted up tonight. A year ago, we weren't doing that either, so we'll get better.
On what this game says about the bigs…
We have to stay out of foul trouble and did you use plural? It told me a lot about Nick (Ward) and Kenny (Goins). I think we will get back though because I think Kenny broke his nose. We can wear masks. When Peterson wore his cast, he was tougher. When Kenny had his broken nose last year, unbelievable second half against Louisville. Like I said, these things are all going to make us stronger and tougher. We went against two of the best big men in the country. We really did. It's hard to cover both of them. And then you come in with a four man who can shoot and so you're always mixing coverages. I thought Nick held his own in some ways. When he got in foul trouble and when he got the ball stolen he just got frustrated. Then he kind of lost some focus and that happens. It's going to happen.
On Miles Bridges' performance…
It'll be interesting. It'll be interesting when Miles talks to you. Miles wasn't very happy after the game. I just learn more about this kid every day. What I learn about him, I love more about him. Did you tell me that was a freshman record? He could care less. He really could. It's not for show. It's not for you. It's not for me. Unique kid. What Miles has to do now is he has to take on some leadership that we don't have. He's one of our best players and he's capable of doing that. So, I'm going to throw more on his plate. Miles is going to be one tired dude when this year is over because I'm going to keep throwing stuff at his plate because I think he can handle it. I think he wants that. So, it was a shame. He was so efficient tonight. He did so many good things. That is a very good basketball team that plays very well and is very well-coached. We had our chances and we just didn't do enough things. We can't make those, I think that as a parent or as a coach the 'My bad' phrase, if I could stick that somewhere, I'd stick it there. I just hate 'My bad.' When you hear it, you're hearing it over and over again. Sooner or later you can't make the same mistake and we did on some things. But on other things, as you said, we executed really well. We ran some big plays to take open shots, we got the ball to our hot guy, we got the ball into the post and if Nick would have stayed down in there I think we would have had some things there. But our youth showed, too. Josh-- he's just a better player not to get a rebound. He can't do that. We have to be better than that. The turnovers were decent enough. Of all of the things, Nick had three (turnovers) just getting the ball doubled. And Van Dyk, who never has a turnover, had two and one he had a layup. I asked a lot of that kid tonight. I don't know how many minutes he played. It wasn't as many, but it was in a couple of critical times. I'm just disappointed. It was disappointing because of the way we played I thought we deserved more than that. But give them credit, they were relentless at the free throw line. It seemed like they shot a thousand and it was only 24. It sure seemed like a lot more than that.
Purdue head coach Matt Painter
On how they planned to come back for the next half after halftime…
At halftime we talked a lot about Miles Bridges. We tried to stop him, but we just wanted to establish our inside presence. We didn't think we did it early in the game and obviously Michigan State is trying to knock out our inside presence just like vice versa, we are trying to knock out Nick (Ward) and not let him get going down there. We just tried to get the basketball inside and tried to get those guys to make simple decisions. If Michigan State wants to double or over-help, they have to pass the basketball. If not, they are going to play one-on-one and we wanted to be aggressive, but I just thought we did a better job of getting those guys in a scoring position.
On whether or not Michigan State can overcome their size issue to play at a high level…
I think so. We are a little different, obviously, with our size with Isaac (Haas) being so big. Those guys, they gave us a lot of trouble. (Kenny) Goins gave us a lot of trouble, Nick gave us a lot of trouble, and Matt (McQuaid) letting us get deep in there. Tonight it might not look that way, but our big guys had 13 turnovers. They had all of our turnovers. So obviously Michigan State gave those guys some trouble even though we were fortunate enough to get the win.
On stopping Miles Bridges…
We were trying to stop him even though we weren't. He is a good player. You put him at the four and that puts people in binds because he is so athletic and he can drive and shoot threes. Tonight, he really got his three-point shooting going. It's a good point because I kept talking about (Eron) Harris, (Joshua) Langford, the other guys. We were going to double Nick as much as we could and just not let them get shots. We allowed Langford to get the one three and we fouled Eron Harris on the shot, but we really just wanted to bottle them up as much as possible. We were trying to stop all of them but after a while, Bridges was making such tough shots. We did talk about not letting those other guys get loose, especially the three-point shooters.
On how they could limit Michigan State in the second half, but not in the first half…
You have to tip your hat to Miles Bridges. They have Goins and I thought the first shot they made in the first half was a tough shot. We had it contested. They get in transition and good things happen. When we score the basketball, you're going to limit someone's transition. When you take care of the basketball, you're going to limit their opportunities. At times, we were careless with the ball, and at other times, we just got going. We had to get a good jam on the ball. We also had to score. The more we could score, the better we were.
On how Caleb (Swanigan) played tonight through a hostile situation…
I thought he was good. He is getting better all the time. He goes after every rebound. He showed a lot of poise, and he showed a lot of maturity for a young guy and really played well. He had a lot of turnovers, but we will work on that and try to get those things corrected. He is taking shots in rhythm whether they are the perimeter shots or the post. He holds the ball and takes his time, and that's just what he needs to continue to do. If they're doubling, pass it, if not, take what they give him.
On the balance with his shooters…
When you have good big guys, if you don't have shooters, they're going to sell the farm and just go after it. With us, we just try to have good spacing. I thought PJ Thompson's threes in the second half, Dakota Mathias had a reload on one where he missed and got it back, he knocked that down and I thought those were some huge shots for us. When you have that balance, they have a decision to make. Our threes were identical as their threes; I think they shot a couple more than we did. When you have that inside presence and you have the balance of the three-point shooters, I think that puts them in a tough spot.
On the second-chance points and how they wanted to be offensively…
We wanted to try to flip it on them. They are so good at offensive rebounding and we were able to hold them to four offensive rebounds in the game, but they have zero at half and we thought that was a big plus. But on our end, we just wanted to get more opportunities. And obviously "Biggie" (Caleb Swanigan) got on the glass and gave us a couple of those opportunities late and that was huge.
On getting a road win…
Anytime you can get a road win. I thought our last time on the road against Iowa we had a chance to win the game at the end and we couldn't get enough stops. They made one more play than we did and you just can't put yourself in that position to where it could go either way. Tonight, we didn't put ourselves in that position even though it was close, coming down to four minutes. When you get into three and four possessions there at the end, one play is not going to break you. When you get it to where it is a one-possession game, one play can break you, especially on the road where you normally don't get that one and it was good for us. It gives you a lot of confidence and hopefully we can build off of that.
On the importance of the play with Dakota and what it meant to the bigger picture of the game…
Obviously it is an extra effort play. Anytime you are able to steal a possession from an offensive rebound and then Dakota having the confidence to shoot it even after he just missed one. That's what we need. We need those guys not to hesitate and take open threes.
On P.J. Thompsons threes…
That was huge. PJ hit the one three in the opposite corner, then he hit the one in front of our bench. All they were doing was trying to come in a little bit just go give a little bit of help as we overloaded the side. I think it was actually a breakdown off of a play that we didn't get. But that was a huge three. If you look at our guard play, we didn't have any turnovers from our guards. They were very, very steady. All of our turnovers were from our big guys. Those guys, between them, had 12-13 assists and no turnovers. And that is what we need. Michigan State came into our place about four years ago and hit 18 threes and made us look like fools. We didn't take care of the basketball and we didn't make open shots. Sure, they were good. They had pros and it was difficult. At that time, we said that we have to restructure what we were doing. Maybe we were not the most talented group in the world but we can get some guys that can make shots, think the game, and not turn it over. That's what we got. It's enjoyable to coach them. They want to be coached. We have a healthy balance right now and we just have to keep building off of it.
On Purdue's court performance versus Michigan State's bigs…
I thought we were pretty good. Obviously I mentioned the turnovers that we had, but Swanigan showed great poise and he had big time effort. We want to get Haas more touches. He is so hard to guard; he is so big. You go through college basketball, you guys cover college basketball, and if you get up next to him, he is just a humongous individual. He is hard to defend. They are fouling him every play, literally every play. It's hard to keep him from getting three feet from the basket, but we have got to get him some more looks. I thought Vince Edwards had been banged up a bit, but stuck it out, fought, and did some good things for us. We have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball, and we really wanted to try to neutralize Nick Ward. We recruited Nick Ward and we have all the respect for him. He is hard to handle. We wanted to double him as much as we could double him, but we sometimes get worried about our rotations and what we double. We just couldn't let him wheel and deal down there and score whenever he wanted. I think that, for us, was the major concern. I look at Bridges like a guard. He can do everything. So people think about their big guys, we are thinking about him.
On Purdue's defensive effort outside of guarding Bridges…
I thought we did a good job. I thought that in the first half, the ball got in the paint too much. It's hard to stop Nick from catching it at times, but our dribble containment wasn't as good. I thought we did a better job. A couple times there, where (Cassius) Winston got in the paint late, he got stuck. But a couple of times he made some nice plays. We just can't let people get that deep because when they do and Nick's diving to the rim and they are stretching out with their shooters, that's really hard to defend.
Michigan State freshman Guard Cassius Winston
On his feelings on the game…
On our end, we played well enough to win that game. It was a lot of little things. They out-rebounded us. We need to rebound better. They shot 24 free throws so we have to play without fouling. In terms of effort and hitting shots, it was a game that we could have won, but it didn't fall that way.
On Purdue's size…
It was a huge focus. That's probably why they hit some of those big threes in the first half. We were so focused on getting it out that they hit some big shots. For a team that big, you would think that they'd dominate us. In a way, they did, but we fought and played our hardest out there. We just came up short. We can take that we played hard and take that on to the rest of the season. If we played hard we could have won a couple more games already and we'll win some games in the future.
On raising the team's effort level…
We have to play with that intensity level. We have to bring that to every game. If we had brought that all season, we'd be sitting with a whole different view on our team right now. We have the capability. We have everything in our hands. We can't lose faith in that. We can still do it. We can still make that big run that propels us to where we need to be.
On learning from today's game…
You have to know what you did wrong, but you have to take what you did right and have things to build on in the future. The game's over and we can learn from it, but it's just learning. We can't let it bring us down. We still have a long season ahead of us and things that we want to accomplish so we need to keep building and learning.
Michigan State freshman Forward Miles Bridges
On his feelings on the game…
It was a tough game. They're a big team and they out-rebounded us. They made crucial plays in the last few minutes. We just needed to execute, but we did play hard.
On maintaining a consistent effort level…
That was our main focus; to just play hard for 40 minutes and stay focused for 40 minutes. That's what we did but we came up short.
On Purdue's size…
Caleb Swanigan, he's a great player and made a lot of veteran plays. Isaac Haas is 7'2" so there's nothing we can really do about that. Like I said, we fought as hard as we could and if we play like that every game we'll win a lot more.
On what to take from today's game…
We just need that confidence to know that we can lock people up. We have to start playing that type of defense every game. It can't be just for the big games, it has to be for the smaller games because we need all of these games from now on.
On the crowd…
I think we have the best fans in the country, The Izzone. They did all they could. That's the loudest it's been and I would just like to thank them.
On the team moving forward…
We have a tough team. If we can fight through adversity, that's what championship teams do. We have a lot of goals in our mind and the season isn't over yet. We just need to fight through this. March is the time that Michigan State starts rolling, but we need to get it earlier because we have a lot more losses. One of our main priorities is staying focused for 40 minutes and playing hard for 40 minutes.
