Coach Izzo Press Conference
2/13/2017 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, Feb. 13 to discuss Tuesday's game vs. Ohio State.
Below is a transcript of Izzo's press conference:
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement...
Well good luck trying to figure out this league or the country right now from some of the games I got to see a little bit of yesterday. So I just gave up worrying about anyone else but us. I think right now we still have a couple of good stats, a couple of average stats, and a couple of poor stats. Our field goal percentage is still very good. Our 3-point field goal percentage is rising actually. On defense we are ok. 41.9 (opponent FG percent in Big Ten games) is higher than normal, but if you look at the entire league we are in third or fourth, but I think the disturbing stat is, we are 36-something (percent field goal defense) with teams we've beaten and 50 percent in our losses defensively and that is a problem. The other problem has been the turnovers. We have shown that we are not getting a lot better, although we were prior to a couple games ago. We had four straight games when we averaged 12.5 turnovers a game and then it kind of sky-rocketed the last two games. It is limiting our chances as a scoring team because we are shooting so well. We are shooting almost 50 percent, which means every two turnovers is costing us a chance for a basket. We are constantly trying to correct that. As far as Ohio State goes, they have been playing pretty good on the road, they beat Michigan and giving Maryland a heck of a game without Lyle (JaQuan Lyle), who I think will be back for our game. They have five players in double-figures. I thought our game down there we did a decent job defensively on everyone except Lyle and probably a poor job offensively. With Lyle and Loving (Marc Loving) both shooting over 44 percent from the three in the league, that's concerning, but the biggest thing is every game they've been in. They've got a lot of veterans on that team. It is a good basketball team, it's not the deepest team (Thad Matta) has had, but it is a very good basketball team. They are getting more play out of Jackson (C.J. Jackson) now, Thompson (Trevor Thompson) I think is playing a lot better than he played early in the year and Loving and Tate (Jae'Sean Tate) have been pretty steady and have been good go-to guys. As always we have our work cut out for us and that's the way it's going to be all year, but I think we are improving. I thought getting to the offensive board against a bigger team was good for us. I thought both Langford (Joshua Langford) and Miles (Miles Bridges) did a very good job of getting there. That's going to be one of our points of emphasis. You can rebound a little better, you can usually run better and we think that would help our running game, but the basic, simple fact is that you have to defend, you have to rebound, you have to run, you have to take care of the ball. We are starting to do three of the four better. We have to do the fourth one better if we are going to get to be a real good team.
On the importance the alumni reunion and Paul Davis coming back coming back for the first time in a long time…
The reunion is, like I said, I know there are a couple of teams trying to do more of it since we have more publicity about it. Some have them in small places. I guess you had to be there, but the place was packed at my house. I have an area downstairs that is big enough to handle a lot of people. I never thought Paul was mad at anybody, but I do understand in what you're saying in that he was gone a long time and when he came back last summer, I asked him to talk to the team. He gave a very educated, a very thoughtful speech. I think what happens to 99 percent of the people, including myself, I have said to you guys a lot of times, I thought Jud was certifiably nuts on some of the things he did and how he went about it. I caught myself saying a lot to Laurie, especially the first 10 years in the job, 'Now I understand why Jud did that.' I think what happens to players is, they understand when they get away that you can't be just a normal guy and be here. There are a lot of things that you have to change. You can be fairly normal and play at a Division I school, but not at a competitive one. Not where you are getting tested every day. You have to do things beyond what is a comfort zone for you. Paul had a comfort zone, and I think he has realized through pro ball, through his breaks. He spoke at our rebounders club and said some very interesting things that I didn't know. The injuries he had, the timing of the injuries. One team he was with, a point guard got hurt and they had to cut him to bring in another point guard because they couldn't sign two of them. It was really interesting and he started figuring out that world isn't always fair and there are different reasons you do different things. It has been fun to have him back around this last year, this summer and the fall some, he watched practice the other day. I do think that what I try to do at my house is to just bring back as many players as you can possible bring back. Many managers, we had more than a few parents back at this one again. We all laugh on how much I listen to them talk and I just shake my head, because now some of them are telling their kids what we were telling them. Now, some of those parents are telling me that maybe what they didn't like hearing back then and how they are handling their grandkids differently. It is all good. I probably was the same stubborn way when I was there. I was the same and confused on how to do things at 18-years old. It's just that the platform they are on is so much bigger now than it was even five or 10 years ago. That has been an adjustment. I am going to stick to this all year. I still think that is why you see… Someone asked me this morning, 'Who is the best team in the country? Who are the top teams?' And I said, 'Who in the hell knows?' I have never seen anything like this. I still think we are all trying to make adjustments to things. The weekend was great. It is always better when you win. We have only had one or two that we have lost at, so I always enjoy them more when we win. But, it was a lot of fun. Paul was a big part. Do you remember Mario Izzo? He came back for the first time in 26 years. Not for any bad reasons, but (Scott) Sekal, and (Steve) Polonowski and 'Pep' (Albert Peppler), they do a great job trying to lasso guys and bring them back. Vernon Carr, who was so good, it was just different guys that maybe haven't been here in a while, most of them for good reasons. To watch them have fun at an event like that is priceless. It really is.
On if the challenges he saw midseason are still as monstrous or if he has seen tangible improvements…
Well, I have seen some improvements on things, but the challenges are still the same for almost the same reasons. Back then, it was Miles just coming back and all of that. But, the challenges of going into each and every game worried about any kind of foul trouble up front in any way, shape or form won't change from now until next year. So, those are challenging. Like I said, it is hard to give the 'rah-rah' speech and 'Go kick somebody's butt,' when you're giving the, 'Keep your hands off, sit back, make sure you don't do this, make sure you don't step out on the ball screen wrong.' It seems like you're telling them more of what not to do than you are telling them what to do. It is not their fault, it's not our fault, it's not anybody's fault. It's just the way it is. So, those challenges are still there. What I am starting to see though is, when we start making some improvements and I have some players saying to me, 'Man, it felt good to go to the offensive boards.' That's what Langford said and, 'I think it helped my running.' Yeah, that is what it does. I am seeing them start to understand things a little better. The one area that I think I have done the poorest job in my career on is the turnovers. It has never been great. As I learned today to my surprise through Jimmy Boylan, does anybody know who the two highest turnover teams in the NBA are? The Warriors and the Spurs. At least that is what he said, I didn't research that. I know the Warriors are high. But, we know we are trying to play at different speeds and this and that. The way we have turned the ball over blows me away, especially when I know that I have guys that care and it matters to. I just don't think they understand. I don't know if this is part of that process of the AAU and the number of games and that possessions don't matter. It is really poor coaching. It is one of the two or a combination of both. We are trying to stress it and we have done a better job. I will say this, we have done a lot better job from the beginning of the year to close to Christmas on, we went about eight or 10 games where we were doing a great job consistently. We have had two major setbacks from that. Hopefully, we can clean that up.
On Nick Ward going MIA in the last game at Ohio State and if this game will be different…
I think it is different because we are aware of Nick going MIA. Nick is still becoming more consistent. He is still a work in progress. We are seeing a lot more consistency in practice and in games. Now, he has been through his own rivalry game and you handle those in two ways. You either get too up for them and lose focus, or you go the other route. Last game was a struggle for him, but I am not concerned about Nick right now in that I think he understands what happens. He is the one that explained it and he is coming off of a good game. He is coming off some good practices, so I think right now Nick is in a good place and I think he will play a lot better and I think he has to play better if we are going to win.
On Nick Ward's move to the bench being related to the Michigan game…
Yeah, I just didn't think he was as focused on what we wanted to do. I am always trying to push him academically too, so I had a chance to combine the two together. To be honest with you, it was more of (the Michigan game). When you practice well, which he really practice really well on some of the things we were going to do, and went into the game and did just the opposite. That means you are not taking it there. I can't keep talking about it, so I have to start finding other ways. I don't know if it was good for him or bad for him. He was in shortly after. That was the intent. It wasn't a punishment, it was just to try and get him to really focus in on what he has to do. I think it helped. I don't plan on bringing him off of the bench every game, but if I have to do that, I will. I don't think that is going to be necessary. I think he understands where we are coming from.
On what he thought he would get from Joshua Langford during the recruiting process and why Langford didn't get that early in the season…
I loved Josh Langford when we recruited him because he was an athletic kid who could score. He had beautiful size for a guard. He could play a couple of different positions. I thought he could be a great defender, great rebounder. I thought he could be a very good shooter and would constantly get better with the ball. We also knew he didn't play in a league that was as competitive, but we would see him in the summer. I thought all of those things, and then you add in an unbelievable kid, unbelievable student. Josh Langford is going to be a hell of a player here. Has it taken a little long for him to adjust to the intensity and the passion you have to play with here? Because, again, playing in a league that wasn't as good where he could get away from things, so yeah, it has probably taken a little bit longer. It didn't help with the month injury or three-week injury right at the start of practice. I look at these injuries and listen to these pro teams talk about them. I was talking about the Bulls today and you look at Indiana right now and everybody forgets they are missing (Collin) Hartman and OG (Anunoby). They just get (James) Blackmon (Jr.) back. You're going to play different. I think the injury really hurt him, because when he came back, it was no exhibition games and right into the wars of Arizona and Kentucky and then the beat goes on. He went through a period of not being as confident, not understanding the intensity level having to be picked up a lot, but he is a very talented kid. He is a very smart kid. He is a very good kid that I just think had to realize that the running… running the lanes and running on your cuts and running to the offensive boards and all of those things that have produced guys from (Charlie) Bell and (Morris) Peterson, every great guard (Maurice) Ager and (Shannon) Brown, Gary Harris, Denzel (Valentine) and all of those guys that ran those lanes and offensive rebounded so well, Durrell Summers. All of those guys had the same kind of bodies, give or take something here or there, some of the same abilities, and they got a lot out of the break, the offensive rebounding, which set up the rest of their game with the plays and all of that. It has taken him longer to buy into it, longer to see it, longer to do it, because he didn't even start running, running until the middle of December. Even when we got him back in the middle of November, we couldn't let him go full in practices and I think it just set him back. I think you're going to see a real good player, it just has taken a little longer. The other thing that I think has hurt the speed of guys getting to be sophomores quicker has been that we just don't have as many upper classmen to show them the ropes. I love Josh Langford. He is going to be a damn good player.
On whether or not the Spartans are going to make the tournament and if that drives the team...
It doesn't drive me in a negative way. I'm appreciative of them wanting to know that. I mean, that I appreciate. What motivates me; it's not even the streak. It's really not. Streaks are meant to be broken. What motivates me is sending seniors out the right way, so they have a memory maker to leave with. I don't want it to be a negative one. What motivates me is giving freshman a chance to do something they've never done. I mean, when you have a streak like we have, that's an odd streak. Is it in the back of my mind? But that's not my rah-rah speech every time, don't break my streak, don't break our streak. Because number one, we've already decided that we're in the 'Me' era of the world. So, it doesn't matter as much what you did 15 and 20 years ago with a lot of kids. It just doesn't. So I would rather stay in the moment, and the moment is to make sure these guys get to experience some things that, either number one they've never experienced before, or number two, as they leave here, what they're going to have to take with them. And that really is what's important to me. I think about that every day.
On if he has ever had a team with the turnover issues this young team is having and how he was able to speed up the process and correct that...
That is a good question, because it's not the freshmen. In the last game, I think Eron had five of them [turnovers]. It's just been more of I think people feeling that they have to do more, to make up for things we don't have. There are no secrets. This is not as solid of a team as we've always had where we know where everything is coming from, and we know what we can do. It's just not going to be that way all year because of things that we've been through. The injuries, the youth, or whatever. So I think some guys are trying to do more than they can do. I think some guys think that we're getting casual on things, like one-hand catches and one-hand passes. But can it change? Well it changed half way through the year. We went a stretch where I thought we were pretty good. And we went a stretch where I said, 'Well at least that part is over with.' And it's weird, it's ugly. At Michigan we had five offensive fouls. I mean, that's borderline ridiculous in itself. And that's sometimes the way they're called so I don't put all that on them. The answer, yes. I think we can, I really do. And if we do, then I think we really take a major jump up. I mean, the stats show it. We're shooting almost 50 percent. If you have an average turnover day of 14, that's seven less. That's a minimum of three or four buckets, one of them could be a three. That's six, eight, ten points possibly. And when you've got six, eight, ten points in a Big Ten game, that's going to win or lose most of them for you. The good news is, to have a 21-turnover game and beat a decent team by 11, or whatever we beat them by, there's something positive in that, it's just hard to see through all those turnovers. So I do think we can. This is one time, in cases like this, I should call all my friends in the social media, tell them to just tweet that out, that 21 turnovers is ridiculous, and maybe if our players see it in that way, then they'll take it in the right way.
On the strength of the Big Ten and if there are any concerns for teams on the bubble that strength on top can affect the number of bids on the bottom...
Personally, I've told you a long time that the strength is schedule, I see it, I understand it, I don't believe in it as much as I used to. Ours is decent this year. Strength of schedule works if you win a game, it seems like to me. I've always said it'll help you maybe one game. I don't think it'll help you two games. I think what you're seeing this year is a lot more parody in every league. Now granted, there are a couple of leagues. Whenever you're top heavy, we were last year, whenever you are, it bodes better for your conference. But, I look at the ACC, not now, but a long time ago, they were always top heavy. It was like two teams, you know? It was like the Big Ten in football, it was Michigan and Ohio State. And for years and years and years, when I was in college. So those got talked about, because you didn't care about the others. And what we have now, we have more strength at the bottom. It just seems like, maybe because I live in Big Ten country, but when Northwestern beats Wisconsin, it means the top is down. When somebody does that in another conference, it means that the parody is up. I'm not going to apologize for the Big Ten. Are we as good at the top? No. In my humble opinion, we're not. And we still play some of those teams, so if someone wants to use that against me, I don't think we're as strong at the top as we were the last couple of years. But are we stronger at the bottom? 100 percent, yes. And so what makes a good conference? The way I look at it, you had to get up for those top teams last year. But, then, if you had a bad day, you could beat somebody in the bottom. Now, you can never have a bad day. You can't have an off day, because somebody is beating you. I mean, Rutgers, that guy has done a hell of a job there. He is a damn good coach. And he's done it a little bit like Wisconsin, back in the day when they played very possession, good defense, they rebound the ball pretty well, they made less threes than anybody I've seen at a major college level. But, they are a hard team to beat. And I just think the bottom is so much better. Will it hurt us? I don't think so. I think basketball people realize that right now in the four, five major conferences there is a lot of depth and people are beating each other. I mean, you go to the PAC10, you go to the, Duke has won a couple of games by this much, and they're 7-5 I think, or 7-4, they could just as well be .500 in the league. That's with a lot of veterans. You watch Virginia lose yesterday. You're talking teams with a lot of veterans. So, I don't even think that there were worse teams. I think that a lot of noise is affecting a lot of people. I'm going to stick to that until I die. And there's a lot of consistencies, but I think there's more parodies than there's ever been in college basketball, by far. I mean, nobody. You could take the best sixth man on a team, and he's looking to transfer if he's not starting. So there's going to be more parody, because there's more movement. And then what happens when people move, is maybe the stronger teams come down a little bit because, you know, that happens. And the weaker teams grow a little bit, because that happens. And then you have parody, I mean, that's my humble opinion. I don't know how many teams will get in, and I'm sure as hell not going to start politicking. We've got a lot of work to do, I said that. But I think there's going to be a lot of good programs, and a lot of good conferences, that are going to have maybe more .500 teams in, or below even, from what I'm hearing from guys that I respect at ESPN, or the different networks. Just because, maybe some of the other leagues aren't as strong as they've been. It's kind of funny isn't it? I hear it a lot that the other leagues other than the big five are down a little bit, and nobody thinks that in the major leagues that there's a sure cut. Who's saying where Kentucky was a year or two ago, or where even Wisconsin was, or even where we were last year? There don't seem to be a lot of those teams where everybody is saying, well they're in the final four. You're taking Gonzaga, I don't know, I mean Oregon is playing pretty good, what, UCLA was the flavor of choice a couple weeks ago. I just think that you're getting a lot of parody throughout the nation, and isn't that what we're seeing in the NFL? You know, everybody is 10-6 or 9-7, is that good or bad? I don't know, but that's reality. So I think you're going to have some different things that happen this year, and that happened a lot of years in the league. All thats being said, when I didn't even get a chance to talk to my AD, who is the head of it, before he went to Indy, and I haven't had a chance to talk to him since he came back from New York, so I had no clue. And as I looked at that group, I had a couple of question marks. And sure I thought of Purdue or Wisconsin could be in that group at the time, but I wasn't sitting there saying, 'Man, that's awful.' I mean, I thought there was some reasoning for most of them, and I think there's a lot of basketball left to be played. And again, the last thing I'll say, is in the scheduling, as I've said a million times in these major conferences, some are back-loaded, some are front-loaded, you know, who you play, there are just more confusing things than we had five years ago. So, I know this, I have enough trouble trying to figure out how to turn the ball over less, so I sure as hell am not going to get into that mess, because they're going to have problems. I think as fans in general, everybody loves parody. As coaches, I don't really love parody, because we have to get up for every single game we play. And you can say, well that's the way it should be, that's not the way it's been over a hundred years, I can promise you that. And that's when I say that some of those schools that don't play good schedules, it's easy to get up and win a couple big games, and that's all you've got in a year. But when you've got them every single night, that's a lot more difficult. And right now in this league, if you pulled 18 coaches or 16 or 14 coaches I guess, I'm figuring the league will probably grow by the time I get off the podium, but if you did, I bet you'd get 14 coaches that, behind closed doors, wouldn't say, well God, at least we only had to go to this school, we get to go to them twice so that's a break for us. I don't think anybody feels that way about anybody right now. I sure as hell your coach doesn't feel that way about anybody. That's the way it is.
On Mark Hollis cancelling his two-week NCAA tournament trip…
Well, first of all, I love having him back on campus. You know, I feel bad about the trip because he was looking forward to it. As far as all the other stuff on campus, whether you believe this or not, I can look everyone in the eye here and you can read my body language. You know more than I know for two reasons. One is that in this day-in-age it's better to have less knowledge than more knowledge, especially if you're the people on the outside. And second of all, I've had so much work to do to keep track. You know, Mark, who will normally share a lot of stuff with me, I didn't even talk to him before he went to Indy. And then he came back and went to New York. I mean, I always talk to him. So, I don't have anything. If I did, I probably wouldn't tell you, so I'll be upfront about that. But, look me in the eye, I don't. I think that's well-done on his part. He knows I have a job to do right now. He doesn't want to be the chair of that thing and not be looking at his team up there somewhere. So, I just know this - I have absolute, positive, complete faith in my president, AD, and coaches that are going through things. That's all I can do. I have faith in them and I support them because I have faith in them. I wouldn't support them if I didn't have faith in them, I'd just stay neutral. But I have faith in them. I'm telling you, it's not easy. It's not easy to manage things when everything out there is… you're responsible for. Yet, that's our job. We keep trying to do our job, but the leadership of my president and my AD are second to none. So whatever Mark Hollis decides, that he's cancelling the trip or not calling me as much, then I know there's a damn good reason for it and I know that he'll work on it and we'll get it straightened out and move forward because we have good people in place.
On if there is any concern with Cassius Winston playing against a longer defensive team like Ohio State…
No, because listen, Cassius Winston has been under as much scrutiny as anybody. Because you can see some things that he does do, there are some things that he still struggles at. But, what I'm starting to really love about Cassius is that even though it's taken him a little longer than I thought, for him to realize the things you have to do is great. He's made so many changes and adjustments, but the one thing I told him is that he has to be more aggressive offensively. I told you guys that I thought he could shoot better, there's no question on his offensive things. In that last game hitting those two threes were big. But, what it does, is that it changes his defensive perspective on things as it did Josh Langford, who could be a great defender. We are human beings, and other than maybe Antonio Smith and Mateen Cleaves in my 20 years here, offense affects about every player. If you're playing well on offense, you play better on defense. That's about as normal as it gets. I've had a couple - Gary Harris, really could do a lot of things without having much, but he was always pretty good offensively. It's just part of the deal. So, Cassius plays better offensively and that isn't a selfish thing. I just think he's learning how to play harder and you know, they're playing different people too. They've kind of changed up their lineup a little bit, and I think Cassius will see a lot of minutes in this game. I still say that I did it a little bit but not much, I think those guys will play together some too. But, I'm never satisfied with the progress, but here is what I'm starting to see. Have you done any research? Has there been four freshman score in double figures? How about you research, gurus? I do think it's the first time in many, many years that four freshmen have scored in double-figures. I'm only proud of that because I think our freshmen have deserved to put their name somewhere on something. It's not easy to do but they are making progress. Nick is making progress. I mean, Cassius is making progress, Josh is making some progress. As I said, progress gets slowed when you don't have enough people around them to show him. I keep using Duke because today is Mike's (Krzyzewski) birthday and I do respect what that program has done. But, you look at those veterans that are helping bring those young guys around. They have five-year, four-year, and three-year guys that are key players. Our guys have to learn a little more on their own. I don't want to always understand them because I have a job to do. But, when I sit back and see it, that's what I try to share with you guys. It's a little harder than you think as some of the people doing it. I am proud of the fact that our freshmen are stepping up. I still think that Kenny didn't play his best game, but he did have 10 rebounds. He gave us something. Eron (Harris) has been practicing. You know, it's sad because Eron Harris a hell of a job on (Peter) Jok. He really did. But he had five turnovers and didn't shoot it great, but he helped us win the game and I think that's starting to mean something to Eron. Alvin (Ellis III) helped us win the game. But, not as consistent as we needed them. If those three guys - Alvin, Eron, and Matt McQuaid - shoot the ball like the way I think they can shoot the ball, and if we quit turning the ball over, that's where I think we can take some monstrous steps. And you asked if that's possible; those two things are possible because they have already done it in the past. Some of the other things are going to take experience and everything. You know, we aren't going to grow a seven-footer over night so we aren't going to have any more size. Nobody is going to sprout out in the next three weeks so we're stuck with this. This is what we are. But, those two things, I think we can take giant steps in and we will. I think they're working at it and we're working at it.
