Michigan State University Athletics
Coach Izzo Press Conference
1/9/2017 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, Jan. 9 to discuss Wednesday's meeting with Minnesota at 7 p.m.
Below is a full transcript of the press conference:
Head coach Tom Izzo
Opening statement…
Well, where do I start? Disappointed more in how we performed than the score or the win or the loss of the game. When you look at the Big Ten right now, we are two weeks in and I think everybody is going through the same thing, trying to keep their team focused on the task at hand. Hard to believe, but I don't know if I've ever seen the league where everybody has a loss after two weeks. That is the way it is right now. I don't know if that is ultimate parity. I don't know if it means it's not as good at the top. I know this, the bottom of this league, I watched some of the Rutgers game at Iowa, is probably the best it's ever been. I don't know where the top is right now. The way I look at it, I still think there are four teams that are above the rest right now, with a couple of others that are in the middle. What I mean by that, I don't think there is any question that Purdue and Wisconsin are still the class of our league, Indiana is right up there and I think Minnesota has proven now that they are one of those teams. You look at all of those teams, there is a lot of experience on them and pretty good depth. I think in Minnesota, that is one thing they have. They have three or four good inside players, they have one freshman playing and he's getting better each game. The mark of this team has been their guard play. (Nate) Mason is playing at a very high level. There is no question that Minnesota, I would think, will be ranked today when the polls come out. I'd be surprised if they're not. Since our game, they have beaten some very good teams on the road at Purdue and Northwestern and beat a good Ohio State team at home. Last night, if you watched any of the game, they jumped all over Ohio State early. Ohio State did come back. But I think we learned a lesson up there on how to win when we're behind. I don't think we executed that as well the other day.
For some reason, we are getting off to some slow starts on the road in this league. Again, everybody tells me that is what happens when you have younger players, but I am not liking it too much. I didn't think our attention to detail was good enough. I wasn't happy with the way we played. I think we have got to get just a little more sense of urgency. That seemed to upset some people in the press room when I said it. What I mean by that is, I understand that freshmen are freshmen. This time of the year, you can't be a freshman any more. I thought for the most part we played pretty good after that 12-4 start. That is kind of the way the game went the rest of the game. We had a couple of chances to come back and we did. We went a few plays where we just couldn't get a basket. I think we learned how to win when we were at Minnesota and we were down. I'm not sure we learned how on a consistent basis.
In the Gophers, as I said, (Amir) Coffey and Mason are averaging a 33 or 34 points between the two of them. The (Dupree) McBrayer kid is getting 10. (Jordan) Murphy got 21 rebounds against us last time, which is a lot. They have been the best defensive team in the league right now. They lead the c
onference both in blocked shots and defending the three. So, this is a very good Minnesota team. As far as we go, I think some people, I know Miles is surprised that he is not back to where he was. I am of no surprise to that. We went back and looked at some film on Denzel (Valentine). He missed four games as a senior and it took him three games to get back on track. So, Miles is doing alright. He's healthy. He will continue to improve with practice, but he is nowhere near the guy that we left six weeks ago. That is going to be a work in progress. There are some adjustments we're going to have to make and that he's going to have to make. He's got to get back in shape and we have to learn how to play with him again and that is what the next couple of days of practice are going to be for. I think now, he will be able to go the full practice, so hopefully we can make some progress there. This Minnesota game will be the best opponent that has been here. I thought Northwestern was awfully good and they have proven that to be true, but Minnesota just brings some more size and athletes that we're going to have to compete against.
On if this is the most difficult January he has had to face with all factors considered…
Yes, I think so. I think there are a lot of good teams out there. We are just not where we need to be. It is not of any major surprise. It is hard enough to play freshmen, but it's even harder to try to work them out, especially when one of them was out. It has been an interesting year for these guys. Every time we take two steps forward, we seem to take one step backwards. I guess that is kind of the way it is going to be a little bit until we get more consistent. The surprising part to me is that the defense has been decent. If you look at statistically, we aren't far off from where we were last year. Our offense has struggled a little bit. If you look at it, when guys don't play together, that is usually the area that hurts the most. Yeah, difficult January, but we're 3-1. We're not 1-3 and we've beaten some good teams already. We have a great team coming in here on Wednesday with an opportunity to move forward and that is what we are going to try to do.
On Nick Ward saying the players overlooked the Penn State game and if that can be part of the maturation process…
I think anything these guys to, when they get in a hotel room on the road, it's never the same hotel room. For these freshmen, everything is new. There is a lot of uncharted territory out there for them. We talk about it every day and I heard Richard Pitino say it last night, we are just working every day to keep the noise away. Some of that is what people say. Some of that is what people think. Players have to learn that they have to play every day. This league, right now if you think about it, I guess by far the worst team in the league has proven to be Rutgers so far. And I watched them could of, should of beat Iowa yesterday. We don't even play them again, so there will not be a game on our schedule where anyone in the right minds is sitting at home saying, ‘Well, they are going to win that game.' It is just the way it is. Part of it is our team. Part of it is the parity of the league. I don't think some of the teams that Nebraska beat thought they were going to lose to Nebraska. I don't think Indiana thought they would lose at home to Nebraska. I think the road teams right now are 13-11 and that doesn't happen in our league very often. Usually the road teams would be 20-3 right now, meaning home teams are winning and its 13-11. There is more parity and there is more inconsistency with a lot of teams around the nation. When I write my book on Twitter about inconsistencies, everybody will laugh, but that is an issue right now where a lot of teams are struggling to stay in focus game after game after game. Our young team, I think we do that. If Nick took them for granted or somebody else did, I don't think we did in general, but did they put the same emphasis on that and that is what happens when you've never gone through the league. We will keep harping on that. I don't think I'll have to worry about that since Minnesota beat our brains in for three quarters of that game. If somebody is thinking that this week, they are on ‘dial-a-clue.'
On Matt Van Dyk saying he feels that every day he gets to put on a jersey and play for a Hall of Fame coach is a blessing and what it is about him as a person that makes him so special…
Well, I wish I thought that way about the Hall of Fame coach. I look in the mirror and don't like the guy that I am looking at right now. For Matt, he gets it. He grew up a farmer, which means he worked 15-hour days. His first year when he was here, he would farm half the day and then drive here for play at night. This summer, he was going to work because it is a profession â€" it is a big farm â€" which he will probably take over his father's business. He's a very good student, by the way too. He knows how to work and yet basketball meant enough to him where him and his dad and I sat down and worked out something where he could be here enough. He is undersized, under skilled, under-everything except he has a heart as big as this podium. He has a very intelligent way of looking at things that has helped him. He gets along with everyone, too. They players love him because he does all of the dirty work. You always need a guy like that on this team and I think the first half I didn't play him much and we have to figure out a way to work him in a little bit more because he brings some things to this team that maybe this team lacks a little bit.
On if this game vs. Minnesota is more difficult than the last meeting this season despite this game taking place at home…
Yeah it does, because I think they're a better team than they were even two weeks ago. I think they are getting some confidence. Their win at Purdue, I mean nobody wins at Purdue, and their win down there was very good. I think nobody argued the fact that Minnesota was a lot better. They had a lot of players back. They get a great freshman in there, but the majority of their team is juniors and seniors and guys that have been around the block. This will be a difficult game. We're not going to have many that aren't difficult, but I still think that this is one of the top three or four teams in the league right now and maybe playing as good as anybody in the league as you saw with wins at Northwestern and at Purdue.
On the options he is considering with Miles Bridges…
I think the first option is that we have to get him back to condition. He thinks he is at 80 percent and we think he's at about 60. He might be up to 70 percent there. Then he has to get his feel back for the game, which will take a little longer than it would take a ‘Zel who was a senior and had been through four years. Players have to learn how to play with him, too. We will be moving him around a little bit. I thought we were very stagnant offensively. Some him, some us. But, I have to look at what I can do to help him, because I know what kind of player he is and we have to get him more involved, as I said after the game. That will go with our players and our coaching staff. Miles has been great. Everybody made a big deal of his frustration. That is the weird thing about me. Give me a kid who is frustrated and shows it or give me a kid who is frustrated and doesn't show it, but I'll take any fist fight there is, whether it be in the huddle. It's been that way since Draymond, since Mateen and I could go down the list of huddles. In Miles' case, he thinks everything is going to come back immediately and it's not. Yet, he's in here yesterday. He said if I gave him a day off that I was soft. I said ‘Well, the NCAA makes me give you a day off and they're soft, so I agree with you, but I have to go by the rules.' That is his kind of mentality and I think you'll see Miles improving each and every game now.
On if this is the deepest middle of the Big Ten that he's ever seen…
I think by far this is the deepest this league has ever been. I guess if I looked at today's standings, Ohio State is like 13th. They have five good players back. It's amazing how good I think the league is. I don't want to say the top is quite what it was last year, because we had like three or four teams ranked in the top-10 a lot of that year. I think still that Wisconsin, Minnesota, their records show it. Indiana is very good. They stumbled a little bit, which everybody can do, but I think there are four teams that are very, very good. But the middle, if you want to call it the middle, I mean what is the middle? Are we in the middle? Is Nebraska in the middle? Is Penn State in the middle? Those are all pretty good teams, but I guess they are in the middle if you looked at it, even though the standings today they are on the top. I think what you are saying I am agreeing with. It is by far the deepest. When I saw that Rutgers game and I watched the last 10 minutes, they really could have beaten Iowa and Iowa has been playing pretty good lately. There is going to be a lot of weird games. A lot of head-scratching games this year. I just hope I'm not on the top end of all of those games, because I think there are going to be a lot of tough games.
On his players saying Penn State outworked them and if that bothers him…
No, that was the truth. I'm embarrassed to say that. They did. Is that surprising? There are other good programs out there. People don't go to programs and say I'm not going to work. They don't go to different jobs and say did someone outwork you? You never want somebody to outwork you. You never want someone to play harder. It wasn't that we were awful. It was that for their team, that was a big game for them. It was an important game. They had just come off a tough loss that they probably played 35 minutes of good basketball. The only thing that disappoints me and it disappoints me about society now is I don't think our players understood the significance of the game even though we took them up there and took them around. The significance of the game you could argue is that it's one of maybe the two greatest basketball venues in the country and the world maybe. When you play in something like that, anyone who is on that wall, I am almost playing for them. To players, I am not sure it's the same, especially if you are not from that area and you don't understand it. But, Penn State did and they came out and played hard early. We had our chances and cut it to five. It was an eight or nine-point game most of the way. After the start, we cut it to five three times. One time right before the half, it was a four or five point game and we had the ball with 1:50 left and we go down 12. A couple of bad shots and a couple of bad turnovers. That is what happens when our experience isn't the same as what it needs to be at this level. Those freshmen have to get more experience quicker and our upperclassmen have to maybe hold them more accountable on the court and the coaches have to do a better job. It is all three parties â€" the freshman, the upperclassmen, the coaches. For what we have been through, we are in a position where we have a better chance to improve than go the other way. For that, I am grateful and I feel good about. What I am disappointed about is maybe getting a group of guys to compete at a level that they have no clue how to compete at. They are going to learn or they are going to get their brains beat in a little bit. We got them beat in early. I think we are making progress. It was tough with Miles out. He didn't get any time at Christmas that all of the other guys got. We've dealt with a lot of things and it is what it is and we're going to keep battling. We have a good enough team that we have beaten some good teams already. Penn State is one of those teams that are going to win a lot of games because they have a couple of veterans, a couple of rookies and a couple of guys in between. I think their veterans are playing pretty good. We have to get a little more out of ours.
On the confrontation between Tum Tum and Miles…
I guess (Dan) Dakich made a big deal about it on TV. I don't know if he ever watches Michigan State. Walton would threaten, Cleaves would undress a guy on the court, Draymond was, you know. I am like you, I was so excited for Tum that he went over and told him what he should have done. When Miles saw it on film, he felt a little different. Those are the problems with having 13 cameras in an arena now. We are having all of these fricking things going on. That was nothing like what happened in most of the games that I have been involved with here. Miles and Tum are probably the closest two guys on the team. It just blows me away how people don't understand that, but I guess in this day we blow everything out of proportion. I would agree with you. I was more excited, because I told Tum that he is one of the great leaders that I've had here. But, he's such a good kid. You can be too good of a kid sometimes. That wasn't a problem for Cleaves and Walton and Draymond. It was a little problem for Denzel at one point in time his junior year. He got his senior year where he did more coaching than I did some times. But I thought that Tum needed to take a step to hold the people accountable to how we need to play to win. When he did that, our team will be a better team because of that if he can do that on a regular basis. There is enough respect for him where if you ask Miles today after practice how he felt about it, he'd probably give you the same answer.
On if it is easier for Tum Tum to lead when he is playing well offensively…
If he can play offensively like that, he has been more aggressive. That is something Cassius has to do more of. He has to be more aggressive. I have one that is not as skilled and one that is more aggressive. There is a combination there. There is no question that Tum brought some energy and he did bring some more offensively. I think the one area that we have not been as effective on is our break. We're not scoring as much on our break. Sometimes that happens when you don't rebound quite as well. These bigger teams we're playing without any size that we have, that has been a problem. Plus, I think we wore Nick down a little bit. Nick can play so many minutes. One of my assistants brought up in the NBA, and you guys know this, I have always scripted my times. This year, I don't have a script. It's, ‘Is he healthy? Okay, we will play him.' When we are playing Nick too many minutes in a stretch, he still does some good things. Nick has still been the biggest surprise and most pleasant one as far as his rebounding. He's leading the conference in blocked shots. But, he has so much more to give if we can get him to continue to get in better shape and then learn to play around him, too. He has got some things he has to do that I think Tum can help him with. We are making some progress, guys, it is just been slower than you'd like or I'd like.
On women's head coach Suzy Merchant returning…
She's joining in with society there for a minute. I was scared she was getting soft on me there for a minute (joking). I feel bad for her because she puts a lot into this job, too. Doesn't get maybe the same credit as a Mark Dantonio or a Tom Izzo does, but she works a ton of hours and parks right next to me. I think what it does is it teaches you that she has gone on this workout kick. She has been working out for a couple of months religiously. As they say, you have to have a little bit of everything. Working out, you still have to eat right and you still have to get some sleep. She doesn't sleep much, I guess. I don't think she eats real well because she stays thin as thin. Some of that is good and some of that is bad. I think it was an eye-opening experience for her. I think she's going to be 100 percent okay. Any time that happens, I think all of us kind of look and refocus. It's like all of the things. You do what you can do to be as healthy as you can be. Like with the cancer society, it is about awareness. It is about doing the things that give you a chance to have a chance to be successful. I think as she sat back and she came over to my office a couple of days later, after I kidded her about being up only three and she goes down and they win by 20 that they are better without her, I figured I had to be a human being and tell her that maybe she has to take a look, just like players do, just like every one of us does, and when she was trying to make excuses for what she was doing, I said, ‘You have to get more rest. You have to do this. You have to do that.' I think she will. She's a hell of a coach and a good person and I think she'll recover fine. She's fine, she's just a little run down. These jobs, believe it or not, are not as easy as you think, although, neither is yours. I think everybody goes through things in their jobs. She takes things personal and takes them to heart and when you do that, you don't let it go when you go home. I think that is one of the hardest things to do, so maybe I will learn a little something from her.
On an injury update on Gavin Schilling…
I told you we would probably make a final update by the middle of the month, which unfortunately is coming and it is looking slimmer. I have not met with the doctors on him. We've kind of gone in two or three week intervals. He has not been able to do anything as far as running or anything. He is doing more and more with the strength of that leg. It is going to come down to now, is it fair for Gavin? Forget the program, is it fair for Gavin? And you just look at Miles or you look at Denzel last year and you look at all of these different athletes. That amount of time, how long would it take to come back? I promise by my next press conference that I will have a more definitive answer and we will probably make a more definitive decision.
On how Kenny Goins is feeling after rolling his ankle vs. Penn State…
We had an academic meeting last night since we started school today and he was walking fine. He said it was a little sore. I saw it on film, but it was a little distorted. I talked to a couple of guys who said he really did turn that thing bad. He couldn't go back. We tried to get him back in right away so that it didn't swell up. It was a pretty good sprain by the end of the day. It doesn't seem to be a major problem where I think he'll play. Whether he will practice today, the trainer will probably let me know that by 1 o'clock.
On the status of Ben Carter…
Ben, I think is 100 percent done. I guess I didn't make that formal, but I kind of have said the whole time because of the previous injury. So then the decision will be made on what he will be able to do. Unfortunately, the way that process goes, it will be by the end of the year before they let you know. There is a sixth year of availability sometimes. I don't know how they determine that. I don't know why you can't determine that in the beginning of the year, middle of the year, end of the year. For some reason, you petition it and give them the information. One of them was by injury and one of them was by transfer. That's where it is a little different. Ben has been an unbelievable kid as far as how he came in here. It is almost criminal how it has worked out for him. He has been such a good teammate and such a good guy around the building. We love him. Hopefully things will work out for him one way or another. I think he is a guy that could definitely go to Europe. He was born over there, so he was a lot of things he can do over there if basketball doesn't work out for him here.
On going back to it being one of the toughest Januarys he has ever had…
I don't know about the schedule, because the schedule is always tough. What's difficult is that we think Nick has made great progress. Josh Langford made some great progress over Christmas. Christmas, when you can have two-a-days, when you have no buddies, your girlfriend is gone and you get to really become a basketball junkie and you get to spend a lot of time on the game. Miles has missed all of that, so that is the hardest thing for him. If you think about what he missed, he played in arguably our six toughest games when you look at Arizona and the three down in the tournament and Kentucky and Duke and Wichita State. He has played in all of those. To use a Jim Boeheim thing, you hope to get healthy and feeling better about yourself against teams that aren't as good. He played against Mississippi Valley State, which we beat handedly. Other than that, he has had no games to play average in the first half and regroup in the second half like people get to do when you win by 20. Miles has had maybe the toughest, of any freshman I've ever had here, in that respect. He missed those - I don't say this disrespectfully â€" easier preseason games. Then he gets thrown right into the fire in the Big Ten without a Christmas. God, that is hard for him. Of all the people that I think can handle it, and I had a meeting with him this morning, I think he can handle it. Is it more difficult or most difficult? Well, it is more difficult, but I think every year it gets more difficult because of all of the noise we have to deal with. But I think it is one of the most difficult because of the player of that caliber and the other youth that we have. We just do not have a lot of veterans that have been through the war. We're talking about ‘MVD.' He's a lettuce farmer walk-on that didn't even play basketball for a couple of years and the guy is starting on a Big Ten team. I am not making fun of the lettuce. I happen to like lettuce and I'm going to eat a lot of it because it's going to keep me cancer free, right? But, I think it kind of shows you what we have dealt with. We looked at Nick and his stats and I think he averaged 15 minutes per game his first seven or eight games. Now, he is averaging 25 or 26 minutes per game. We have been through the grind. And maybe Mike Garland said it best, ‘We got pretty good at learning how to grind.' We are not always pretty, but we're grinding it. At Penn State, we didn't grind the same and that is what we're disappointed in. That is what young guys have to learn. That is what inexperienced guys have to learn. We as coaches have to do a better job. We have to understand that, too. Patience is not one of my great virtues and I don't plan on it ever being, just so everybody knows. With that come some difficulties, too. There is a process to this whole thing. The key is how you speed the process while staying in a realistic realm and that is what we're trying to do. We're making progress. People think because Penn State came in 9-7 or whatever they were, but their starter (Josh) Reaves missed five games early and they lost two games to teams they would beat nine out of 10 times. So, all of the sudden they are 12-5 coming in and we might look at them a little differently. That is going to be a team, I don't know how many saw the Michigan game where they had them down 14, but that is a good basketball team. Northwestern, I watched some of that game yesterday and that is a real good basketball team. Minnesota is a real, real good basketball team. I kind of agree with what you guys said, which kind of irks me to agree with what you said, but it is the deepest, if you want to call it middle. I'm not sure what the middle is. It might be just the deepest that this league has ever been since I have been here and that has been a few years.
On coaches in the Big Ten…
Oh yeah, we have great coaches in the league right now and I think they keep upgrading the coaches in this league. I have said that before. The guy at Rutgers, he's done a hell of a job. He's getting guys to do things that they didn't do at all that way last year. There are less bad shots and things that are going on. I think they're getting better every day. He's a proven good coach and he's going to be a good coach in this league. They're not young but they have got a lot of sophomores and juniors and by next year they'll be a very good basketball team and I still think this year, I promise you they are going to beat some decent teams. They did that on the road yesterday so, that's a pretty good basketball team.
On Coaches vs. Cancer…
Yeah, I would like to address that. We have a little advertisement we're going to do after this. You know what? I don't do everything right, you know. Like I've never smoked a cigarette in my life because I feared it and I never eat as healthy as I should because sometimes I don't understand it. And I think more than anything that's what we're all trying to do is just bring more awareness to what is right and what is wrong and what can give you the best chance to be successful and unfortunately there's the guy that works out every day that dies at 50 from a heart attack. You know, it happens. We're not stopping all of those things. We're giving us the best chance, just like we do with players. You give each person the best chance to live a healthy life. This is the one part that I've learned in this, we all take for granted what we do. I mean, yesterday I didn't like my job, not one bit. And really what I was doing was taking for granted what I do because I love my job. It's just that there are moments, and I think we take for granted our health until it hits home. I've been one of the most fortunate guys, so far, that it hasn't hit home very often. When it hits home, it's too late. That's the problem. I spend a lot of time telling a player, ‘You know, it's okay if we make this gradual. You can become a freshman and a sophomore, then junior and senior. But, you have a four year window. And in that four year window there's not a lot of margin for error.' For our lives it's kind of simpler. We can't just fix things the senior year when something has happened. There is preventative management to all of this and it's about how you work out, how you eat, how you take care of yourself, preventative things, early diagnosis. All of those things are really simple compared to what you have to deal with at the end. I'm just proud to be a part of it, a very, very minimal part of it when you look at the big picture. But, when you do get to go places and see things, I went out to the east coast this year to do a big deal for a couple of coaches out there and it was so impressive. If you want to do something really impressive, I'm sure there's someone in this room, but talk to people that have been through it. You'll have a better appreciation. You kind of scratch your head sometimes and think ‘Why wouldn't I do a better job of getting some rest? Why wouldn't I do a better job of this? Why wouldn't I do a better job of that?' So, if I can have a little bit of a podium to talk, as you've granted me today, I would just say that this is a fight that, I just can't think of one that's bigger. I continue to watch the Jimmy V deal when he's said, ‘It might not save me but it might save my kids.' His daughter had breast cancer, I believe it was. When I look, the only negative thing I think we're doing, I don't know if it's us as a group or us as society, I don't think we're appreciating the success we've had. I don't think we're pounding our chests on what's been accomplished. There's a lot of cancers right now, and forgive me for saying it this way but the UP in me, we just blow it off because we'll get by that. There's so many that are curable now. Whereas if this happened 25 years ago, we were just counting the days. We've made so much progress it's incredible what they've accomplished. Unfortunately, it is about the dollars. You have to raise money to do that part of it. The neat thing about the American Cancer Society is they're about awareness that doesn't cost anything. There are two battles here: one to be aware and one to keep raising more money. Sometimes awareness helps you raise money. So it goes hand-in-hand. That's what I appreciate, because I had my mother-in-law at the very end a little bit but I can look at my family and realize that I haven't had a lot of things that have happened, in that respect. I can look at one of my good friends Flip Saunders and I look at it a little differently. If I could say one thing, don't wait until it hits home. Because when it hits home we probably waited too long. Let's be on the preventative side, let's try to do what we can do to not only help ourselves in what we do and what we eat and what we drink and how we rest and how we handle our life but from a financial side let's give, because we're really giving to ourselves. If we cure it, I guess before my era it was polio or tuberculosis, I mean those things are like a cold now. Well, I shouldn't say that because it sounds so trite, but I'm just saying that somebody's going to get to the point where cancer will be that. You know, that's what you pray and hope for in your lifetime. But it's going to be in somebody's. Why not get it done early? Why not let me live a few more years so I can be miserable with my losses? I would enjoy that. That would be a great thing to have happen. Let me be miserable a little longer. Thanks, Fred for bringing it out and Lisa and everyone that's here. We're going to do a few things. Again, try to spread the word of giving them support both financially but also spread the word. What I appreciate about the American Cancer Society was everybody's asking for money. I go through more things in a day where people are asking for money, I do. Everyday my salary's in the paper I get more people asking for money. That's the way it is, and I understand that. But, they talk a lot about awareness. They want to help prevent you from being in that position. So, I think it's a great double edge sword and I think if I can be an itty bitty itty bitty spokespart of this whole thing that helps cure arguably the most dreaded disease there is, but the cool thing it beats the hell out of playing a game I'll tell you that.
