Post-Game Quotes: Tennessee Tech

Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo

Opening statement…
Alright, two good victories tonight. That was a pretty good win for us and a great win for Damon and our soccer program. Really proud of what those guys have done. I went out there and it reminded me of home. I went out to the game on, what was it Friday or Saturday? Friday. When I went out there and saw the orange ball and snow about four inches deep, I felt so good I sat there and watched every goal and enjoyed myself. So hats off to you Damon and your team and good luck as you move into the Sweet Sixteen, right? And go get Georgetown. As far as our games goes, I thought we went into the game with three or four goals; Improve defensively, not foul the jump shooter, not turn the ball over and get a little better ball movement. I thought at times we accomplished all of them. It's a shame at the end there that we had two turnovers and all of a sudden it was seven or eight; A couple of foolish ones at the end, but for the most part we played pretty good on that. I thought the only negative of the night, to me, was the number of wide-open three's that we missed in the first half. I told my guys I thought we were shooting them from three, four feet behind the three-point line and once we started getting up to that line and getting a few inside-out passes, I thought we knocked down some big three's in the second half. Turnovers-assists, 25 assists on 37 baskets is pretty good. That team, not only struggles, although that post player played really well at North Carolina, but they just came from Carolina on Friday and flew in here. I thought for Steve (Payne), that was a tough… It's almost as tough as the gauntlet we're going to go through in the next six games. Wanted to accomplish some things; Wanted to try Gabe (Brown) a little bit more, wanted to get Aaron (Henry) some minutes; Wanted to see what our freshmen could do and if you ask me, our freshmen aren't ready yet. So what does that mean with our playing group and what we do in the next, because there's not one game that you're going to breathe in, in the next six and that's going to be the hardest thing that we have to deal with as a coaching staff, but it's also exciting to look at. UCLA and either North Carolina or Texas and then Louisville on the road and then I think it's Rutgers on the road and then Iowa at home and then on the road at Florida. That's interesting scheduling, I think (Mark) Hollis did it before he left and I owe him one. I really think we finished better tonight and I feel a little better about where we're at.

On if he's seeing little things from Nick Ward that impress him...
I told you, remember after the Kansas game, I said, 'You know, I'm really pleased with Nick.' I think the great news is when I'm not, I say it; Been pretty transparent about that and when I am, I say it. I was shocked at that Kansas game just because he'd been so good and he just kind of tried to do too much at once. In practices, all spring, summer and fall, Nick has been better. The ankle, I think, in all honesty, it was – when it happened and you watch it on film and it was the normal ankle tweak, but I think when you've never been really injured, you get scared and by the next day I think he could've played. Now, I held him out and I was going to hold him out of this game to be fair about it but he practiced good the next two days so I knew he was good and I knew he is improving the right hand jump hook; He's not getting as frustrated with the double teams. He's getting back with that little quick jump hook of his is getting lethal. He's worked so hard on his free throws and then he just shot them a little different, the first two, and then he straightened that out and made some free throws. So yeah, I think Nick's making some progress. We just… You know, Kenny (Goins) has been playing so good and then all of a sudden Kenny doesn't score a point. Part of it is our rotation; Part of it is when you play teams like this you're trying to get a view of some different people but Nick has been sensational. He really has. He's even guarding those ball screens a lot better. We got hurt a little bit because he got dragged out a couple times tonight but it'll be bigger teams now coming up, that's for sure.

On if he's told Nick that the stars have to get more stats during the non-conference games…
I did. And you know what he did? He listened to me on the offensive end and then on the rebounding end he kind of said, 'Hell with coach.' But no, he… You know, I do talk to my guys. I said that you got to figure out how to play the game, not play the team. Playing the game is really what I always want him to do. So I thought in general, we make a couple of those shots early I thought we could've got out to a lead. That's what happens when you don't – You're upset, they're upset, the other team is excited. But I thought we handled it pretty well and I thought Nick did. I thought Cassius (Winston) after missing a couple easy shots, he made some great ones. Just got to get now – Just got to get Josh (Langford) who had a better second half and (Matt) McQuaid who… You know, I don't know, what did he end up with? 6-2-6. Not bad but I think Quaido's a little better and I think Kenny's got to do a little more. But we subbed a lot of guys too, you know, and that was part of it.

On the advantage of the schedule after playing Kansas…
I hope we're doing the punching. The other really important game we played was Gonzaga. That really helped us. I'm not sure that game – They might've been… They were really good. I thought Florida Gulf Coast was pretty good. The last two games weren't as good but everybody else is doing that too as you just said. I think at least we have a base to go back to and look at, but we're going to have to play a lot better. We're going to have to continually move the ball a little better. I did think our defense was better tonight in taking away what we wanted to take away.

On what Jack Hoiberg has brought to the team…
I'd like you to call Jaren Jackson and ask him what he thinks of Hoiberg. Those guys, Tum (Nairn), Jaren, Miles (Bridges)… He's a coach's son, he got a scholarship to play golf. He wanted to come here and I don't know if it was because of Jimmy Boylan, I don't know what it was, but they came up here and kind of, I think fell in love with the place. He's an unbelievable kid. He's a phenomenal student. He's tougher than nails. He's not as big; I don't know where or what happened to his size. His dad's got good size, his mom's got good size. I think the good Lord didn't shine down on him in that respect but that's probably why I like him too. He's somebody I can talk to, you know. Try talking to Marcus (Bingham) when you're in a huddle; It's hard to get up there where the air is thin. I love Jack.   I think our whole team loves Jack. He has been a good scout player. Early in the year I said, if we had to play him, I mean I play point guards that didn't run things like Jack does and I just have the utmost respect and appreciation, but what is really cool is a lot of those other guys do too. I bet there isn't a player on our team that doesn't think the world of him. But those superstars that we had, and it wasn't because they thought his dad would draft them it was genuine. He is just a tough, good kid. I am hoping he is around for a long time.

On what has changed the most with the defense…
Well some of it is the competition, I am not going to lie to you. I think some of it is us. I think Cassius (Winston) played much better today against quicker guys. I thought we did a better job of shrinking the court and not giving up threes. This wasn't a great three point shooting team but I thought that helped. I just thought we got a little sloppy in those games. We really have spent a lot of time on it. We spent a lot of time talking about it. It is not very often that people are shooting what they were shooting against us after a couple games. To the players credit and my staff, I think we worked on some things harder, we talked about defending without fouling, we talked about not giving up those straight line drives. We talked about not letting it get into the post so easy, we did a better job. We are going to figure out where we are here and there is going to be no room to breathe. It is going to be one after another after another after another and are we ready for that yet… probably not but it is hard to say if those teams are ready too. I am kind of anxious to see how that plays out.

On using the freshman…
With Aaron Henry, I told him before the game that I am going to give Gabe (Brown) a chance first today.   Aaron has a chance to be…those two guys have a chance to be special. They remind me so much of Morris (Peterson), somebody has got to light a fire under him. I guess that is the job I get to do and I am more than happy to do that. In Marcus we are just trying to get him some minutes to see if he can play against different types of people. It is hard, it is hard for any freshman to play. It is hard for freshman that are not the elite of the elite to play. I say we all get screwed up by Kentucky and Duke just because those are some of the best freshman, or if you are top 10 or 12 freshman it is different than being a top 50 or 100 freshman.   At the same time I really like where all of them are going. I just want to speed the process up but when you have a schedule like ours it is hard to do that.

On considering the underhand free throw…
When I was at the Hall of Fame I spent some time with Rick Barry, I was on the phone with him just a couple weeks ago and he was telling me about one of his son's that is still doing it, the youngest one is still doing it and I said sometime maybe I have got to learn.   If you watch Nick (Ward) tonight his free throw, even when he missed it looks really good. He has got his arm in and he has really changed his shot, I am really proud of him for that. Xavier (Tillman) is shooting better. If those two guys shoot it well, the rest of the team is a pretty good free throw shooting team. I thought Gabe (Brown) tonight shot it flat, I don't know where that came from. I never really thought of it, to me it is almost...I don't know… I didn't want to give into it but let me tell you something, if they can shoot it behind their back and it goes in, I am game man, I am game for it.

On the defense…
I think we put a little more into it. I think it starts with the head. The head of the snake. I think Cassius (Winston) knows that he has to get better at it and I thought he did a better job. No matter what kind of team they are they had some quick guards and those guards could penetrate. I thought Cassius did a really good job of not only running our team, getting people shots. I don't know how many did he get, 12. Actually he missed a free throw and that's illegal so I will have to talk to him about that. What I really feel bad about, is that he is getting six assists, and I think he is throwing passes to get 10 and 12 assists. That is what is great about a team sport. Everybody has to do their part to make the other guy look better. One of Cassius' deals is that he has to lead the country in assists. The only way you do that is if guys are making shots. The damn NCAA won't let you throw it to yourself and call it an assist so that is the only way we can do it.

On the freshman...
I did think Gabe (Brown) and Aaron (Henry) had their moments. They looked a little jittery with the ball and that bothered me in a way. I thought we got the ball into Nick (Ward) a little bit better tonight. I was pleased that when we did get in and doubled him that he kicked it out a couple times pretty good. I think we are going to see a lot more double teams and things like that. We should be a good enough shooting team to be able to take care of that. It is going to be interesting to watch the film and chart those then I think I would have really felt good about the night because we didn't turn it over and we guarded pretty well. You have to be able to shoot the ball too, especially when we know and everybody else knows that somebody is going to put a lot of emphasis on Nick. That is good because he is capable of passing it out and doing better things. I like some things we did but I think the consistency… Can we get Kenny (Goins) to play well at the same time we get Nick to play well. Xavier (Tillman) is going to play well because he is going to do his job. He is going to rebound and defend… I would like him to score a little more but he is going to do his job. Kenny has got to do his, he had a couple of turnovers and he has been playing so well. I think he was leading the conference in assist to turnover ratio at 11 to one. I would like to see more of that.

On Marcus Bingham...
That is why we play more or less of a gap defense. Some of those freshman just don't understand the concept yet. I thought there were times that Josh (Langford) and (Matt) McQuaid and Cassius (Winston) … they had a wall up there man. That would help a guy like Xavier (Tillman), but you're right, he (Bingham) has got to do a better job of that. Most of the time now he will be playing against bigger guys too. He won't be playing against a 6 foot 6… that guy, number 22 was...let me tell you something, he is one of the better athletes that we will play against, he really is. I watched him on film and he drove a lot of people, so he drove us a little bit.

Junior guard Joshua Langford

On why the guys were having so much fun…
We were most definitely having fun. It's always exciting to see everybody on the team get in and be able to play. With "CG" (Conner George) and Jack (Hoiberg) being able to score it's always exciting. I think this team and the chemistry we have is like no other. I just feel like this team is a great team, and everyone is always pulling for each other.

On how getting the ball down to Nick early got the offense going…
Nick is almost a for sure bucket every time, and I think it's good for him to get his game going before we start these other games. For Nick to come in and rattle those buckets in for us really got us going because our outside shots really weren't going in, and we all picked it up in the second half and Nick really carried us in the first.

On the job the Izzone did in the game…
The best fans in the country, hands down. It's always great to play in front of the Izzone, because they always get us going. Even when we felt like we were going through a dry spell the energy that they carry, carries us throughout the game and we know it's always great to play in front of them.

Junior forward Nick Ward

On what his game spoke about him…
I know I'm not going to give up, even though I did roll my ankle. I'm just not going to sit down and quit, and I'm going to keep pushing it forward for my team.

On the team's approach on the glass…
We just got to keep doing it. We got a tough game coming up against a big team in UCLA, so we know we got to keep pushing forward and keep playing Spartan basketball.

On the team's tempo throughout the game…
We just got to come out and play Spartan basketball, because that's what we do. Defend, rebound and run and we emphasize that. If I'm running and all our fives are running, that's going to suck in the defense and create opportunities for our guards.

On the mindset going in to the upcoming tournament…
We just got to take each game, one game at a time. We go in with the same mindset, which is go as hard as we can, play smart and most of all play Spartan basketball.

Junior guard Cassius Winston

On his thoughts coming out of the game…
We got a lot of shots up and started knocking them down in the second half. I think our defense was really big getting stops and creating shots for us.

On how it felt to see the shots go in…
It felt great to see them to go in. To see the team have so much energy and get the shots that we wanted and to see them finally go in was a good feeling. With our upcoming games we know we might not have those opportunities and we will have to stay hot and carry that over.

On what he learned about Nick Ward after his ankle injury…
He just shows how tough he is and how far he has come. Mentally he is on a whole different level. Just to stay locked in this whole time and not make any tough decisions and play the game of basketball and let it come to him, has shown just how far he has grown.

On the upcoming opportunity to play high caliber teams…
Three-four games in, I feel like we are a whole different team from our game against Kansas. That was our first time being thrown out into the fire and trying to figure it out. I feel like now we know our roles and we are looking forward to these upcoming games because it's a whole different caliber.

Tennessee Tech head coach Steve Payne

On assessment of Michigan State University…
Yeah, we said coming in… they're a team that could win a National Championship. There's no question. They're that every year. Year in and year out. We played a lot of these same guys two years ago. They're just older and a little better and added some length and some talent with the younger guys. We weren't surprised by that. That's their program.

On what games like this and past North Carolina game does for program…
I hope that we can take something out of this and learn from it and get better, but right now it's hard to see that from our guys. Of the eight guys that played tonight, five of those guys really hadn't played college basketball and there's moments that we look like that. What you can't do is let it get you down. They're embarrassed. I'm embarrassed. We didn't play very well… but we played hard. Our travel this week has been brutal. On those young guys, it's even worse. I think some shots that we missed will end up hitting, and make games like that a little closer. I'm an idiot because I'm going to say this after we got waxed like that… we did… but there were some minutes in the first half where our defense improved. It looked okay. We came out in the second half and got a trap… did a good job coming out of the trap and contested a 17-foot shot, which is a shot we wanted to take and the kid just hit it and they kind of just got rolling. We're unable to make enough shots to slow that down and they're just really talented. They're very big, very physical and very experienced. Two years ago, those guys in the post were freshman and we came in with Ramsey… fourth year junior… and he scored in the post on them and we just have to get better. Hopefully we'll learn. I do think these last two games has made our transition defense better at least… we know how hard we have to run. We've probably played the two best transition defense teams in the nation. If nothing else, it gives us a taste of how guys have to really run every single time. I usually like these games because I think it puts pressure on you to do everything just right and every time you make a mistake you feel like it costs you points. Right now, they're just not ready enough to play consistently and well enough to keep it competitive. It's a lot more fun if you get a chance to win within the last ten minutes. Hopefully we'll learn something from it. The only choice we really have right now is to learn and get better and play.

On guys that surprised him on his team…
We haven't played long enough for me to say. I think there's some pretty good young guys that I know of… our freshman guards are able to get in the lane. Clay… he's really quick but he's pretty frail physically. He's got to be able to make some plays in the paint once he gets in the paint. We needed to play well. The most important thing for us is to get better for our conference and we want to win every single time. We've been up here and had chances to win before. Tonight we didn't. You keep playing these guys and they'll put it right in your head that at some point they're going to get you. They got us pretty good. I don't think anyone played in the manner that I didn't think they would… on a positive side. I thought some guys played a little worse. What I had to do is stay positive and coach and try to improve and teach as we went along and I saw some growth from some of our guys. There's some positive moments… there's just too few of them.

Players Mentioned

Conner George

Aaron Henry

Jack Hoiberg

Joshua Langford

Nick Ward

Cassius Winston

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