Post-Game Quotes: Louisiana-Monroe

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo

Opening Statement…
It was kind of a strange game with kind of our game plan was to go inside and then Nick (Ward) went out, sprained his ankle. I don't think it's anything serious but disappointing the way we shot the ball, encouraging the way we defended better. It's a hard team to defend. I like his team, they run a lot of good stuff, they really cut had and I thought that was definitely an upgrade in our defense, definitely an upgrade in the turnovers, downgrade in our shooting and thought we had some good shots too. I thought our passing was poor tonight and that's what led to some of those average shots. We didn't hit guys where they were ready to shoot it and I think that Josh got in foul trouble that hurt his productivity a little bit, had to play McQuaid more and McQuaid got a little tired but we shot the ball poorly. Cassius was sensational; second half he was really good but first half he guarded better. Xavier, I thought was very average the first half and we talked about him being better and he was better the second half, getting out points off our bench was good and Kenny (Goins) getting 15 rebounds was great, but when you don't shot the ball well you don't look as well and yet this team I watched them take Texas to a 10-point game the other night. They'll win some games, he's a very good coach and we've got a lot of work to do still so questions.

On the severity of Nick's injury and when he'll be back…
I don't know, I mean he was limping around in there a little bit, but they hadn't put a cast on him or anything. I think he'll, I mean it's swollen, it's a low ankle sprain not a high ankle sprain. I'll know more tomorrow, I really have no idea right now to be honest with you except that I know it's not severe.

On how missing Nick factored into the 3-point shooting…
I think so, I think we took too many, what did we take 19 the first half and 2-for-19 that's, hell I could make 2-19 I think, but we panicked. I didn't think Xavier did a great job of second half he posted deeper, but I'll give those guys some credit too because they made some adjustments and we settled for threes. I just was disappointed that I didn't think we were ready to shoot. I didn't think we made good passes to shoot and we've been shooting the ball pretty well so that part was disappointing. I think you're right, I think that was a factor with it that we were used to going inside to Nick and Nick is starting to pass it inside-out a little better, those are the best shots. We didn't get any inside-out passes until late in the game.

On why Cassius was so explosive to start the second half…
I think we moved the ball better, then he hit a couple and once he hit a couple, then he was ready to shoot. He shot a couple off the break and then we went to him a few times, then he got tired and we took him out. We just didn't have a lot of good flow to the game and I don't want to blame it all on Nick, but I just think our rotation, we were rotating in guards to play inside and with their smaller guys. Guys were kind of out of position, so Cassius is capable of that a lot and when he plays pretty good defense and he ran the team, he ran the break pretty well. We're still, I don't think, got off a ton of shots but what did we get off 70? You guys got to read them to me because the NCAA and their infamous ways , still 70 shots are a lot of shots, but we only had seven turnovers. We did do a hell of a job on the offensive glass in the first half and usually when a team's not shooting well they can get down about that. I thought our energy was good the entire game, so it wasn't the energy it was they made some tough shots and we didn't make some good shots I thought.

On their zone defense contributing to MSU's three-point shooting…
I actually thought we attacked the zone pretty good, but I'll have to look at the film because you might be right. I just thought we settled, you know we just settled and moved the ball around. We settled for threes, we didn't have anybody inside and when Xavier wasn't in there, we just didn't do a very good job of that. We could have thrown it in to Kenny and thrown it back out, so I've got to take the blame for that and do a better job of getting it in there and not even as a scoring threat but maybe as a passing threat.

On what he saw from Marcus and Thomas…
Well, it was a tough game for Marcus because even though he blocked a couple nice shots and that, but those guys are moving so quickly. Thomas figured it out a little bit better, but we're about seven deep right now and the next one or two guys, I mean Foster had a moment or two but he's got to improve. Thomas has got to improve. Marcus has got to improve. So, you know if we have Nick, it really changes the rotation, but it's probably good that those guys are getting some time to be honest with you. Now is the time to get them some time.

I wouldn't say I'm comfortable with anything right now, but I'm experimenting. It's kind of good, something we knew we were going to try sooner or later, but this was a smaller team too. They didn't post their guards, but they were a cutting/slashing team. I mean, I thought it was okay. Unfortunately, I should have had this press conference tomorrow because I'm going to have to look at that film. It was such a different situation going in there thinking we were going to pound it inside because of their size deficit. We didn't really do that. So, maybe that led to some of it too and maybe it was. They came in here really guarding well. They were giving up like 36 and, I don't know, 20-something from the three. He does a hell of a job, I think, with his team. They play hard as hell and I was impressed in that respect, but at the same time I was disappointed that we didn't shoot it better.

On if it's fun to see the pieces he has on the team this year…
It was fun until the shots didn't go in, then it wasn't any fun. Fun is a three-letter word that I felt like it was a four-letter word when I was going through it. You know, it is fun. It's fun to see. I've really been pleased as you know, with the development of Nick (Ward), and it's fun to see some guys. Maybe this will get Cassius (Winston) over the hump. Josh (Langford) was more aggressive. Quaido's a guy that we got to get shooting it a little better because he is a good shooter and I didn't think we did a very good job of getting him shots. Sometimes I played him at the point a little bit. I mean he got six shots. He got a couple of them late. You know that'll be some of the chore for us too – figuring out 'how do we get everyone involved?' because we could have five guys in double figures a lot. It'll take a little bit of time to put all of that together.

On if Cassius' burst was due to him stepping up when Ward and Langford were out…
I hope so. That would be a good thing for Cass. I think he's got to know he's got to take over and yet I thought he forced one shot, which a guy like that, that's pretty good. I just thought he played within himself, threw some good passes, he drove some, he shot the three. He looked like he wanted to score and that's the one thing that I was disappointed in. He didn't look like he wanted the ball at times but I think second-half did a better job. Cassius did what great players got to do. You know, he's got to get the ball rolling and he did get it rolling; Everybody picked it up a little bit and then Josh came in. We were really dysfunctional because of the foul trouble, the injury. We didn't have a very good rotation tonight.

On Xavier's leg…
I think he just bumped it. I don't know – injuries. I mean, he was ready to go back in three minutes later so I think he just got hit in the thigh or something. Nothing big. I got hit by the referee as he ran by once and my knee is okay. Yeah, day-to-day and we'll figure it out tomorrow.

On the flagrant two issued…
Yeah, again, I'll have to look at it on film. I just… I don't know how us little guys are going to box out big guys, you know, if you're boxing a guy out and he jumps… I mean, we're just going to be smaller. I saw it, I didn't see the whole thing, I have to look at it on film. My same worry of the other day, I don't think that was an intentional thing in any way, shape, or form. I'm just worried that it's going to happen to somebody in big games, that's unintentional. I mean, if it's intentional, hell, suspend them for two games. But if it's unintentional, accidental, I don't know how you coach to correct that. I just stick with the same thing – I feel sorry for the officials and we need to get more basketball people on rules committees; That's what I learned from… Actually, a couple of you guys sent me the list of people. No insult, but I don't see how an AD or a conference guy could be on those. I mean to me, I'm not even sure a coach should be on them. The officials got to call them, they're tough. They don't want to… I mean I told them, 'Oh don't call that,' – They have to. I don't know. I ranted and raved the other day so I'm not going to do that anymore, but I feel for those guys. I feel for the opponent or me if it happens to us, in a way where, I mean God, it's not like they went down there and chopped the guys' legs off. It's, they went to cut out at the same time he went to jump, from what I saw. Now I didn't see it in a replay, you guys might've, and that makes it awfully tough. You know, awfully tough. I don't know – it is what it is. A lot of funny rules when people that I think don't play the game are making them. That's just my opinion. Anything else guys? Alright, see you Sunday.

Michigan State junior guard Cassius Winston

On what he was thinking coming out of halftime…
Just be aggressive. We were struggling to get points on the board, and I was just letting the game come to me while taking my shots. I didn't let the first half take away from my confidence, because I knew I had to come out with confidence. With Nick going down that took away from our inside scoring, so I knew the scoring had to come from somewhere.

On what he got out of a game like this…
I think on the defensive end we really sat down. I think if our first half shots would have fallen, we would have been up 20 points early. We forced them into tough situations and forced them to take tough shots, and for us that was good. We didn't let our offense determine our game because we played defense through it all.

Michigan State senior forward Kenny Goins

On what he took away from the night…
This was one of those games where it was won on the defensive end. We saw early that our shots weren't falling and we were struggling to score. So, we had to bear down on the defensive end and now we know we can get into people and check when we have to.

On setting a career-high and leading the team in rebounding…
We thought we could have had a better game on the glass. It really hurt not having Nick in there because he's always a big person on the glass for us. But our guards came back and got a lot of rebounds. "X" (Xavier Tillman) did his part by crashing the offense glass like crazy, so it really was a whole team effort to dominate the boards.

On the emphasis of making free throws…
After the last couple years, we have been struggling from the free throw line. So regardless, coach has always been getting us to try and make them because it's something we can semi-control with repetition. So there definitely has been an emphasis these past couple weeks and you can see it paying off.

Michigan State sophomore forward Xavier Tillman

On what a game like this does for you and this team…
It shows we can bounce back. Only being up 6 at the half shows that we all can step up and compete.

On how coach challenged him to step up…
I wouldn't say this was a break out game, but this was a game where coach challenged me to have more of an inside presence. I think I responded well, and now I got to keep that in the back of my head and not have to force coach to yell at me, but instead start the game with the mentality that I need to have more of an inside presence.

University of Louisiana at Monroe head coach Keith Richard

Opening Statement…
I saw Coach Izzo's press conference after the last game talking about the referees. This would be a good time for me to go off as well, don't you agree? With my kid getting a flagrant two tonight. He was just trying to block out. It's a bad rule. I hate it for the kid that he has to miss the next game. Tough, tough, tough. Anyway, let me tell you that first of all, the reason that we are here playing Michigan State is because I am a huge fan of Coach Tom Izzo. I have been wanting to come here for years. I've been a head coach for 18 years and I've always wanted to come play in this venue, which is Michigan State and all that has come with it so we really enjoyed being here to compete and play. Our team played good the first half, really competed well. To hang with them for 20 minutes is a really good feather in our cap, something positive we can take with us back to Louisiana. As you could see out there, we're not a very big team, we're not a very thick team and we played without one of our better guards, Daishon Smith, a transfer from Wichita State. He's been out with a hamstring injury. I thought that the first half there's a lot that we can look at and learn from and use moving forward. The game got away from us. We gave up way too many layups in the second half. They started driving us. I know the kid (Cassius Winston), the point guard who made some shots, he got going. There was too many layups. They drove us. They're bigger, stronger athletes who kind of wore us down and you just can't give up that many layups to win any college basketball game. You've got to hit a bunch of three's to offset that and so we weren't able to hang in there very good in the second half. All in all we can use some good things out of this to move forward.

On opinions about Michigan State…
I think that the system is at a high level in terms of what they do from year to year. This group of players, some of them have grown in this system. Obviously the big kid (Nick Ward) getting hurt and moving out. They need him I believe. With him inside, the three-point shooting on the perimeter, the push. They've got a chance to really be an elite team this year. I don't think that them going 2-of-19 is going to be something that, they can't shoot the ball that poorly and beat really good people, but I don't think that they'll shoot that poorly very often. These are some really, at least three of them are really, really good shooters. Post play, dynamic post player, three point shooting, great system, great coach. They've got a real chance.

On the absence of Nick Ward and crediting ULM defense…
We tried to put an emphasis on closing out to the three point line. We did. I don't know if it was us necessarily or them, but it's obviously easier when he's out because then we don't really have to double the post anymore like we came into the game doing. We don't have to help on the weak side as much. You can stay a little further out. Those kinds of things. They need both for both of them to work or somebody's just going to take one of them away. Hopefully he's not hurt bad or anything. Really, really tough to guard.

On Ward injury influencing a change to zone…
No, we had decided coming in the game not to play very much zone because of the shooting. We went to it maybe two or three times. We played an in-line out of bounds. I went to a two-three one time. They got it right to the sharp corner pass and layup dunk, which because we were so spread. So, played a lot of zone against, half and half against Texas the other night. Worked really well, but didn't think with their shooting that zone would be something for us to do tonight.

Players Mentioned

Kenny Goins

Xavier Tillman Sr.

Nick Ward

Cassius Winston