Post-Game Quotes: Purdue

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo

On Tyler Trent…
Well we ordered 24 of these shirts and I was going to wear it in here, we were going to have our team wear it – Just didn't think it was maybe the correct thing to do in some ways, but we ordered them because my equipment man and myself we decided we wanted to give to the fund and foundation and send our condolences to his family. It kind of hit home for me with Lacey (Holsworth) and all the things that go on and it was awesome. So all of us, every player will get a shirt. I think Matt (Painter) and the football team did an incredible job; It was such a great story – I think the funeral was tonight. My heart goes out to those people, the family and everyone in the Purdue family.

Opening statement…
It was a strange game. I think the score was not indicative of the game; It was a war and Gene Keady would've been proud, Jud Heathcote. It was a tough, physical battle that I didn't think we did a very good job in the first half for the second game in a row and I think we had some guys that played an incredible level. Cassius (Winston) again had to play too many minutes, but if I had to go for a star of the game, Kenny (Goins) rebounded well. Nick (Ward) bounced back; Had some incredible stats for a game I didn't think he was as sharp in. Matt McQuaid was unbelievable, you know? We guarded him (Carsen Edwards) the way we wanted to, we ran him off screens, we had our big's help out. I thought everything we were going to do was foot, step, chase. That kid is a hell of a player. I just think that Matt, and in the second half, I thought Aaron Henry also did a good job on him. We weren't sharp early; We win the tip and watch the ball go out of bounds; Give it to Nick on the first play, shoot an air ball. We just didn't seem as sharp. To their credit though, we bounce back second half to the first half and just weren't quite ourselves in the second half. That is a good team. That is a 9-6 team, but you look at their losses – at Michigan, #2; at our place, number whatever we are; at Florida State, #9; at Texas. Those games were by one point, a couple of those games. Then Notre Dame and Virginia Tech, another top 10. They've got to have the best strength of schedule in America. Purdue is a good team and you'll never have a game like that again, I bet because (Carsen) Edwards, he's only been under 20 points twice all year until tonight. It was partly us, but I think he missed some shots too, maybe, like Cassius, you wear down when you got to do so many things. I was pleased with the win. It was a wild game though, and I was a little disappointed in how we were early; We got to figure that out. We looked really tired and boy, we didn't do much in practice. It'll be good; We have a little longer extended stay here with tomorrow completely off and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I'll meet with my captains and figure out what we've got to do to get our energy back a little bit.

On Purdue…
No, if you look at their stats, they hadn't played this good of a defense. Most bigger teams to me just haven't been as physical. I think Gene must've called that because I thought they were; It was a war. It was Cassius. Boy he…. The minutes he played, the banging and everything; It was a tough game for him. I thought he did a pretty good job when McQuaid went in foul trouble. It seemed like their defense just kept climbing down, but they missed some shots too when it got to seven. They were a much better defensive team than I've seen all year too, so hats off to them.

On Matt McQuaid's defense and Cassius handing the defensive pressure…
I'd agree with you on that. They tried to post him and he did a pretty good job on that; All of a sudden he had to cut him out. I think they got some offensive rebounds and I don't know about Nojel (Eastern) but Cassius did a pretty good job on that. Matt did relish it. This summer and this fall, him and Josh have been such good leaders in a different way. I mean, they really tried to say, we'll do what we have to do to win. It wasn't about his points or anything like that; He made a commitment that he was going to try to guard him the best he could guard him and I thought he did a…. He was all over it. But our other guys did a good job too. Kenny (Goins), X (Xavier Tillman), even Nick some, did a pretty good job as far as helping out on those constant curls and swivels. I think he wore down; He wore down chasing him, but I think he wore down, missed some shots that I've seen him make. Physical, physical game.

On how pivotal the end of the game was for Cassius…
Yeah, that's what great players do and he did do that. I was worried, I guess, that the long time out when… I don't know if anybody saw the hooking, I didn't see it at all so the only good news about that is it was a long time out and it gave Cassius a chance to rest a little bit because he was winded. He was… I mean, he gave me everything he could give me. We got to get Foster (Loyer) in a little bit more but as you say, they have 6-6, 6-7, 220-pound point guard, more or less, and we weren't going to put him on the other kid. Then when we were about to do subs a little differently, McQuaid got in foul trouble, so it was an interesting night.

On the impact of Aaron Henry…
You know what, I'm working on Aaron. I keep telling him, though, that he kind of struggles to figure out what he needs to do. The first half he was really struggling. You know we challenged him at halftime. In the second half I thought he played harder and better, played really good. He got some big rebounds, but he two-guarded. Quaido was on the bench I don't know how many minutes, but it was an extended time there and Ahrens hurt his back. He hadn't practiced the last two days, so his shooting was a little off and then we got whacked on that, I thought it was a charge, but on that play so I don't know where he'll be now. It was really Aaron who was the only guy left and he did a good job when it was on the line, but he's just got to keep working. Gabe, I thought did okay when he was in there; hard to put those freshmen under fire like they are, but they all did a very good job. Aaron's exceptional because he's a little more experienced playing.

On how they handle the pressure of Purdue's defense…
We did talk about that. I think we knew they were going to try to deny the outlets, they've done that for 20 years. I thought what they did a really good job of, they ran him a lot you know and kind of wore him down and we started screening for him a little bit, but it's good if you get it done and they had some people get it done. Cassius did a pretty good job staying patient as he was a little frustrated at times and I thought he did a pretty good job getting patient. You know as disappointed as I was in Nick the first half, to his credit he wanted to go in there at the end and he made a couple big plays to have, I mean I look at the stats and I said who the hell is that? He had 16 points, nine boards, but as we say when you go 6-of-6 from the line that changes a lot of things and right now he's making his free throws and that's a big help for him.

On Kyle Ahrens condition…
I really don't know, I didn't ask him, but he got hurt last game and he sprained that ankle a little bit. I think when he started hopping on the ankle and still played and probably threw his back out, so he didn't practice either day and it's kind of funny. Everybody knows he came in for three days straight and shot free throws, free throws, free throws and that's why he's making them you know where you have to keep doing that and poor Ahrens couldn't practice at all and it's hard to not practice and then play. I thought he had some great looks and he just missed them, and he's been making those shots. We're still not shooing well from the three and that's a little disturbing for me because I thought Kenny had some great looks, Ahrens had some great, great looks, Cash had to force a few because of shot clock and he still went 4-7 and McQuaid did a pretty good job hitting his, but I don't know what Ahrens will be like. I think it's some nice time to have a couple days off.

On how prepared he and Cassius are for tough defending game-to-game…
Well that's very true and I mean I'm prepared for it and Nick told him the same thing you know they're going to beat the hell out of you, they're going to try to frustrate you, they're going to do the things they do, and they did them very well. For Cash there's not many guys that can do that. There's not many 6'7, 220-pound point guards that have the ability to do that. Now Nojel, we recruited him, he did a very good job of trying to hang with him and do it and then he brought in a little freshman guard and he was quick, and he did a pretty good job. I think part of it was we're not getting Cassius the rest and he's still trying to push it I mean we still score 77 points, we still give up 58 shots considering we had a decent amount of free throw so we're doing some good things and I think if I gave Cassius a little more rest here in some games where we have normal sized guards it would help.

On the resilience that he team has…
I really am I just don't think I realize really how worn these guys can get when we're running like we're running and we're doing what we're doing because like I said I just couldn't believe how we started out. We just looked tired, forget how we played, and I was seeing fresh in the walk through, we seemed fresh in other things. When you start doing this, you get back and school starts, everybody's back and there's a lot of distractions now. We had that nice Christmas with none, so players are going to have to learn. It's just like learning how to deal with this. Teams are going to have to learn to deal with we're a Top 10 team now and we've earned the right to be one but I don't think we played like one in parts of these two games and that we've got to correct because maybe that first half you don't get up late in the half, you got to win that game on the road and now what do we got four to five on the road so things get a little hairy here in the next two weeks.

On the veteran leadership helping his team excel…
Well they did say that, and I think part of the reason is the experience we all have. You got Kenny out there, Nick and Cash and Ahrens and Quaido I mean their seniors and juniors. They've been through these wars, they've been through these games like this and finding ways to win is very important part of this whole ordeal here but playing good enough and playing to a level where you are taking care of things is also a part of when you go on the road so this will give us something to really talk about, really look at, really try to analyze why the last two games we've had a little slower starts. Nick was really good at Ohio State. He even said he felt tired today, just felt out of it so their allowed to but my job is to keep pushing them in a way and this week it wasn't in practice and maybe that's part of the problem so I'll analyze with captains, then I'll analyze with my staff, then I'll look in the mirror and not like what I see and try to make a better decision.

Michigan State forward Kenny Goins

On the physicality of Purdue…
They just always try to come out with toughness and rebound the basketball, which is what we want to do. It's like two positive forces going against each other; we'll always butt heads. Another tough one, but we're happy to come out with a win.

On the team's mentality after the slow start…
We just brought more energy. Some guys just got their act together and it just seemed like as a team, we underestimated them a little bit. You'll get in trouble when you do that, but after the first five minutes we realized that they were just as tough as any other Big Ten team so we had to pick it back up to our level.

On the effort of the team today…
Well you know you gotta be proud of a lot of guys on this team. A lot of guys stepped up. Cassius did his thing and McQuaid with his defense. Also, he's one of the most prolific scorers in the league right now. Kyle Ahrens put his body on the line even though he's had back issues. Just everyone top to bottom really gutted one out, so you gotta be proud of the fight they had in them. We fought through and made it to the end.

Michigan State guard Matt McQuaid

On Purdue's start…
They punched us in the mouth in the beginning, but we responded later. They're a really good and physical team. They're really good shooters, they have one of the best scorers in the country in Carsen Edwards who's always tough to guard, so they're a really good team.

On guarding Edwards and the team's defense…
The coaches gave us a great game plan and the scout team did a good job at imitating him, and that really prepared us. So it was a team effort because you can't stop a guy like that with just one guy.

On what he took away from the game…
We gave up 19 offensive rebounds, that's something that really stands out and that's not like us. So we gotta fix that and quick.

Michigan State guard Cassius Winston

On the physicality of the game…
It was a war. They're physical and they crash hard, but we did a good job at combating that. We made some big plays and made some big stops.

On the team's mentality after the slow start…
We did a good job at settling in. They made their big push and then we stayed steady. We started pushing and got in transition. We got some easy ones and then put some stops together.

On Purdue coming within four…
They battled the whole game. It was a grind just building leads and then trying to maintain them. They kept battling and they kept fighting the whole game, but then we made some big runs and some big pushes.

On what he took away from the game…
Just credit to us being together. They made some runs, but we stuck together and we made the plays that we needed to to win that game.

Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter

On Purdue's defensive intensity…
I thought they were just so much quicker to the basketball when the ball was loose. I thought we would do some good things and have some good defensive stops but what does that mean if you cannot get the rebound. I think that really deflated us at times. They get an offensive rebound and (Matt) McQuaid would hit a three. They get a team rebound that would go out on us and then execute an offensive play and score. You have to be able to finish plays. The one thing that Michigan State is going to do is embrace the physicality of the game. You have to learn to be able to match that without fouling and getting them to the free throw line... also being able to disengage from it and go and get the basketball. They were better than us at that.

On Cassius Winston…
He is a really good player. Him and Nick (Ward) were a big key to our game plan. Trying to bottle up Nick with some double teams and trying to wear him down. Have a guard come and pick him up to make him handle the basketball as much as we could to make it hard. He (Winston) does a great job and is crafty at breaking you down and scoring for himself and creating things for his teammates. You have to give him credit, I thought from an individual standpoint he was the difference tonight for them.

On what went wrong down the stretch...
A little bit of everything. Cassius Winston had a lot to do with that. Not being able to get some stops and get rebounds. It was hard for us to get any continuity on either end tonight to be honest with you. We do some good things but we just weren't consistent enough getting stops or getting rebounds or making shots. We are going to have to shoot the ball better but with that we have got to make better decisions. I thought when we probed the defense, which didn't happen enough… and we move the basketball we got better shots. When we settled for threes and some tough threes the outcome was a lot of times a miss.

On Carsen Edwards...
I think he kind of guarded himself to be honest with you. I think Michigan State is one of the best team defensive groups that you will see out there but I thought when it didn't go his way… sometimes you have to be a little more patient. Get to the free throw line a little bit more. Get to the rim a little bit more. If they are not going to let you do that then move the basketball. He gets into these stretches...a very confident and a very talented player and at times he doesn't let things come to him. When he starts to press he makes it worse. He has always gone in and out of this in his career to be honest with you but at the end of the day he is going to shoot 44 percent from three and 50 percent from two and 80 percent from the line. He has such high peaks that sometimes he has a game like this about every three weeks where he just wants it so bad that he just starts pressing. Then you get in a tough environment with a good defensive team already and it makes it even worse. He always responds and is a very competitive guy so I know he will respond to this.

On the defense on Carsen Edwards…
I thought their help was good. You get that way. The one thing with Carsen is that he will get that way. He will try to split help and try to knife through there and a lot of times with guys that are strong and quick like that...you can have some success with it but I thought Michigan State did a really good job of closing down on those gaps and not letting him get in. A couple of those shots or turnovers that he had, he had to get that out of his hand and get that ball moving. Anytime you can get two people on the ball in basketball, the ball has got to move and move quick. When you try to split them...especially against that type of strength you are going to end up with some tough shots and some turnovers. You have to give them credit.

On Matt McQuaid's defense…
He is a good player. He has worked really hard. When he first came in the league you could tell from just a competitive standpoint that he is a guy that is going to help them win. One thing that coach Izzo has done here with guys is not just on one end of the court. You are not going to come in and be our shooter and that is going to be it. He is a good player and that is what I told our guys. His ability to drive and shoot a floater with his right hand. He can make shots, he is tough. Guys like that sacrifice to help a team, a lot of those guys do... (Kenny) Goins, they sacrifice and do a lot of the dirty work to help the team win. I thought their team did a good job… when he was driving it seemed like there were two or three people sitting and waiting on him. That is kudos to those guys because they really sacrifice and become a great team.

On Purdue overall...
We have really fought hard in this league to stay in the top half of the league and win the league. Obviously two years ago we won the league and last year we won more games but Michigan State still won the league. We fought really hard not to be competitive...you know what I mean? You say ah they are going to come in here and give them a good fight but we want to come in here and win. I am glad everyone of those guys are in our locker but tonight it wasn't good enough. They were physically and mentally tougher than us so that is where we leave it. We go to Wisconsin on Friday night, and we have got to do a better job in those areas if we expect to compete with those guys and try to get a win. The ultimate goal is to win and we didn't win tonight.

On defending Nick Ward...
We wanted to double Nick as much as we could but you also can't allow them to go high low all the time where Nick is right at the basket. Nick has done a very good job of getting his body in shape and has worked hard. He runs the court and is doing more things now to help his cause and put himself in a better post position. We wanted to keep him away from the rim and if we didn't double him we wanted him in a post move instead of a dunk or layup or letting him get to the free throw line. We missed on a couple times when we should have doubled. He is not the only player on their team and that is what is tough. We obviously have had a lot of success with big guys and people that double us...sometimes it is the best thing for us. You have got to be careful when you go to get him because you have to double him but have a quick double. That is what we tried to do and obviously he got in a little bit of foul trouble in the second half so he didn't play quite as much. Nick, we have a lot of respect for him. He has worked really hard but we just didn't want any layups, or dunks or free throws. If he could make a post move or two or double him and get him frustrated that could help us a lot. I thought in stretches we did but we just weren't good in rebounding the basketball and those other areas that I mentioned.

Players Mentioned

Kyle Ahrens

Kenny Goins

Aaron Henry

Matt McQuaid

Xavier Tillman Sr.

Nick Ward

Cassius Winston