Michigan State University Athletics
Photo by: Ben Solomon
Tom Izzo Weekly Press Conference Coverage
12/2/2019 4:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Michigan State Head Men's Basketball Coach Tom Izzo met with the media on Monday afternoon at his weekly press conference, talking about the Spartans, the team's matchup with Duke on Tuesday night and the retirement of Draymond Green's jersey that night.
Opening Statement
Well, for us, it doesn't get much bigger or better than this. I think it's a great opportunity for our team and to challenge ourselves against one of the premier programs in the country. Besides that, I think for our fans. I've played a lot of people, and we play anybody, any place anytime. We don't always get to play them at home and home. And that's something I can honestly say I don't like about the way college basketball is going, as far as, it seems like all the big games are at neutral sites and I guess there's some good to that but there's some bad to that. The bad is the fans that are so loyal deserve to have some of the best teams here, and I think it's cool for us to go to some of the best places. It's gonna happen tomorrow night and that's going to be exciting.
Like our team, I think they are trying to find themselves a little bit. If you look at Duke, we have similar situations. I mean we have some veterans, they have a few veterans. Their best player, of course, is either Tre Jones or Vernon Carey. Both of them are playing pretty well. But then they're trying to find themselves with the rest of their guys. With the youth of (Vernon) Carey and (Matthew) Hurt and (Wendell) Moore, they also have a lot of experience back. Alex (O'Connell) has played very good, I think he's a junior. (Javin) DeLaurier and (Jack) White are juniors and seniors I believe, and of course (Tre) Jones is a sophomore that's got a lot of years under his belt, as far as experience and playing time. You're going to see one of the best matchups between two of the better point guards in the country in Cassius (Winston) and Tre (Jones). That'll be exciting for people.
As I said, it is great for our fans and I think the atmosphere will be off the charts. I told our team yesterday that you know, again, there's certain reasons you go to certain schools, and I think one of the reasons you come here is you get a chance to play in these kind of games. That's what everybody wants.
As far as our team goes, I was happy we bounced back after the Virginia Tech game. I don't look at that game as quite as negative. We're trying to find ourself as a team. We're one of those teams that had the some of the most experience in the country, that has kind of changed drastically and mostly because of the 30-32 minutes of Josh Langford. But, also going into the season, at least for the last month of the preseason, we had hoped to have Joey Hauser in full too, which means we would have more experienced players. Now, we're left with a lot more inexperienced players. And as I said, they're in a similar position, but they're used to it, we're not. I'm happy the way we bounced back, we really played very well against Georgia for two thirds of the game, and pretty well against UCLA when you look at their talent out there and their size, and coming off a week come off. And understanding where we are as a team right now with a ways to go. I think a big key to tomorrow's game will be the turnovers, they turn people over a lot. They got Kansas for 28, they've had another team 22, 21, 16, - I think they're averaging 17 or 18 or 20 turnovers a game that they're causing. Now they are turning it over a little bit more for a Duke team, but I think that it's because of some youth in the lineup.
As I said last week, you know, we're still going through a lot. I mean, we just are it's the way it is and we're trying to find our way and pull together. Cassius (Winston) has been incredible when you think of what he's been through, but I thought yesterday was his first practice I thought he had one of his best practices in three weeks. That is going to continue, I mean, it's not going to change overnight. He's got to be one of the guys to lead a lot of our young guys that we're playing, and it's hard to do that under certain circumstances. So, he's been fighting through, he's really done some incredible things under those circumstances. Then to make the matters a little more clouded tomorrow in a positive way will be Draymond's retirement of his jersey. I think we've got three fourths of Saginaw and half of Oakland coming to the game. I had to remind Draymond (Green) that we play this game in an arena not in a football stadium. But then again, what a cool thing that there's media, I think some of the coaches are coming. Just a great night for him and not many players get this honor, but of the 10 that have had it what separates Draymond a little bit is, like a couple of those guys like Magic or like Steve, like Mateen, those guys are constantly coming back to the program and constantly being around. Draymond's meant a lot to us and a lot different ways, but he kind of embodies the toughness and what we're looking for in our program. I'm tickled to death for him. What I'm really thrilled about is he's so excited about this, it's funny, he's planning half the event and pretty cool because I really don't have time to. I'm happy that he's doing it. So all in all, we're going to focus on the game and then Draymond after. Draymond is going to focus on probably the game too, and then him at halftime and after.
On where this team is mentally after the Hawaii trip and everything else going on…
A little fragile. When I looked at our schedule, the Hawaii thing does take a lot out of you. We tried to do the best we could to come back from that, but we're still dealing with some of the mental strain that we've gone through for the last three weeks and that kind of compounds it. We're also trying to adjust to lineups that maybe we didn't think we'd have a month ago. So, a lot of adjustments this team is making and within that, I think we've done an unbelievable job. Unbelievable. We have our moments when we have certain lineups in there that really we're not ready for it yet. Never did I think we'd start almost two freshmen this year and Marcus (Bingham) starts some. Whether it be Thomas (Kithier) or whether it be Malik (Hall) playing a lot. None of them have more than five minutes, three minutes of experience a game, and course Malik (Hall) has none. There's been a lot to deal with and when you say that those are excuses if you don't play good, but as I said, I don't really care about that anymore, because I'm speaking from facts and what we're dealing with. And those facts are, those are the reality. I think it's a little hard to get an understanding of where everybody is right now, period. Because some people have played through brutal schedules, some people, I looked at the top 25 over the weekend, and I get printouts on each one of them. And some people have played nobody yet. And there's some halfway in between. Some people have had some adversity, some people haven't. I think the next couple of weeks and for us, if you look ahead even a little bit, which I'm not doing except that with the schedule with two Big 10 games coming up in the next three games. This might be the most number, in the first 11 games, where a lot of times teams are playing cupcakes. I think we're going to play seven or eight BCS schools in there and that might be the most ever by one of my programs.
On where he's at with the four spot and if the minutes are where he wants them...
No, I'd like to get a little more consistency on that. I think if you looked at what, for example, Marcus (Bingham) is getting better. I mean he really is, he's causing some problems. There are still some problems that he's got to deal with, mostly strength and fatigue. But if you looked at Malik (Hall) and Thomas Kithier, their numbers. You look at their maybe their field goal percentage, their free throw percentage, their rebounding. Per minute, their numbers are really good and been very efficient. We'd like to get to the point where we get a little more stability, so we know who we're going with a little longer and some of that is going to take place. We think Thomas (Kithier) has really been affected by that face mask, if you watch him, no matter what he does, he's grabbing his face. I don't know when that mask comes off. We're trying to make more progress in that. We're not where we need to be yet, but we're not going to be there for a couple of weeks. Back to Josh (Langford) and if Joey (Hauser), we would be a lot more stable than we are now, but I do think we're making some progress.
On Cassius losing his brother having not only an impact on him but his teammates that were close to him…
You know, I do. I watch so many press conferences. I watch everybody, I watch every football press conference I can watch, I tune into the Big Ten network, because they've got one after each game on both coaches and I listen to everybody. I listened to some of the questions the media ask, and the one thing that everybody hates is when people make excuses. I mean, everybody hates that. You're down to your fifth offensive tackle and nobody wants to hear about it. You lose a guy like Josh (Langford), nobody wants to hear about it. But I said last week, and I'm going to stick straight with this. What Cassius Winston has done under the circumstances is unbelievable. I'm not sure there's anybody in this room that could have done it. That definitely includes the head coach. But what the rest of our players have gone through because, when you ride on a bus, when you fly in an airplane, those are like magical times for a team. Those are when you build camaraderie. When you're on the beach, the little we were on the beach. Those are what makes a group of people a team. But when you're in those situations, and you can't laugh and joke and you're cognizant of what's going on, I couldn't explain to you how difficult that was. I'd be wasting my time. And you know what, as I kind of ripped all of us about the facts on one thing, the facts on the others, it's not going to change. So it doesn't do me any good to try to talk about it. But it is something I have to deal with on it on an everyday basis and more important than me having to deal with it, they have to deal with it. Do you crack a joke in the locker room like all players do? Do you crack a joke to certain people, like all players do? Do you rip on somebody because he made a bad play and maybe coaches in a meeting would want to run that back like 'Cash, you threw it into the nickel seats', we don't run those back right now. We don't do those things right now. That adjustment guys, has been difficult. What I said to him, I will say to you and I say to my team, and I look in the mirror, and even though I don't like what I see all the time, I tell myself this. Life moves on. And we have no choice but to deal with it. Everybody's told me that everybody deals with those things differently and I know one thing, I believe this kid has dealt with it better than I have. Because I've been kind of walking on skates and try not to. Easier said than done. So, the last thing I'm going to try to say about it is you are right. It's hard for anybody to understand it. I'm on the inside and it's hard for me to see it all the time. But I know this, when you're in a hotel, when you're eating together in a training table meal when you're in the locker room, that's the time people rip on people. People kid people, people joke with people. That is nonexistent right now. And not anybody's fault. It's just, it's coming back a little bit. He (Cassius) had a very good practice yesterday, some of you were there for part of it. Truthfully, I saw something I haven't seen in three weeks. I saw a smile. Please don't take it that that's his fault. It's not his fault. It's just, it's the things we're dealing with, we're going to deal with them and we dealt with them pretty good. And by the way, some of the errant passes, turnovers, not guarding a guy that hits seven threes. Those don't all have factors to do with that. I mean, we all have to still do what we have to do. What I think we got to get back to and hopefully yesterday was a start, is, you usually play like your practice. And we have to practice good to play good and that's what we're going to try to do.
On Rocket Watts' progression and where he needs him to be later in the season…
I think Rocket (Watts) has done a very good job, considering what he got thrown into too. As you say, he would have probably gotten to not only learn on the run, but learn from a guy at the same position, and then maybe played a couple of the other positions, because we didn't have to focus in on so much. We've had to make him a little bit of the defensive stopper. We've had to make him learn a lot of different things offensively and defensively, and then he struggled with his shot early. I mean, he's still not where he needs to be, but he's definitely made some progress over in Hawaii. What do we need? We need him to knock down the shots he can make. I need him to be a little more aggressive driving the ball. I think he's starting to shoot it really well from the line now. He got there a little bit more in Hawaii, made 80 some percent of his free throws. Sometimes when you're struggling with shot, you get to the free throw line that gives you some confidence. But he too has, he's going through a big change and a lot of ways and Cash was the guy early that was helping him because he had a feel for Rocket (Watts), and that's been a little harder too. Where we need him to get his just continue to grow like we did Josh (Langford) and everything. It's just that he was thrown into a position that, yeah, I don't think anybody thought would be there. And he's missing the tutelage that I think Josh (Langford) would have been able to give him. He does it off the court, but he would have been able to do it on the court, meaning as he was playing. He's coming.
On telling other guys about Draymond (Green) and working to be patient and continuing to work hard and it will work out…
I think a lot of people use Draymond (Green). I mean I hear people, announcers, that say 'Remember, Draymond Green was a four-year guy, Draymond Green did this and that'. I was watching someone the other day, I think from Kentucky, plays for Charlotte, P.J. Washington. Everybody was questioning him, questioning him. Hell, he's one of the best players on their team now, because I think he's more ready to play. So, I think a lot of coaches use Draymond (Green) not only for his toughness, not only for his basketball IQ, but the fact that, it's not when you get to the NBA, it's if you get to the NBA. And if you get there, are you ready to stay in the NBA. I think that's what Draymond (Green) has proven and done such a great job of. I use Draymond a lot. I use him with his defense, I use him with his rebounding, I use him with his toughness, use him with his patience. I talked to him about where he was as a freshman where he was as a sophomore, that it is not illegal to have a process in your life. It is in most walks of life, it is normality to have that but in basketball, it's not. Some kids get torn apart that way, Draymond didn't.
Opening Statement
Well, for us, it doesn't get much bigger or better than this. I think it's a great opportunity for our team and to challenge ourselves against one of the premier programs in the country. Besides that, I think for our fans. I've played a lot of people, and we play anybody, any place anytime. We don't always get to play them at home and home. And that's something I can honestly say I don't like about the way college basketball is going, as far as, it seems like all the big games are at neutral sites and I guess there's some good to that but there's some bad to that. The bad is the fans that are so loyal deserve to have some of the best teams here, and I think it's cool for us to go to some of the best places. It's gonna happen tomorrow night and that's going to be exciting.
Like our team, I think they are trying to find themselves a little bit. If you look at Duke, we have similar situations. I mean we have some veterans, they have a few veterans. Their best player, of course, is either Tre Jones or Vernon Carey. Both of them are playing pretty well. But then they're trying to find themselves with the rest of their guys. With the youth of (Vernon) Carey and (Matthew) Hurt and (Wendell) Moore, they also have a lot of experience back. Alex (O'Connell) has played very good, I think he's a junior. (Javin) DeLaurier and (Jack) White are juniors and seniors I believe, and of course (Tre) Jones is a sophomore that's got a lot of years under his belt, as far as experience and playing time. You're going to see one of the best matchups between two of the better point guards in the country in Cassius (Winston) and Tre (Jones). That'll be exciting for people.
As I said, it is great for our fans and I think the atmosphere will be off the charts. I told our team yesterday that you know, again, there's certain reasons you go to certain schools, and I think one of the reasons you come here is you get a chance to play in these kind of games. That's what everybody wants.
As far as our team goes, I was happy we bounced back after the Virginia Tech game. I don't look at that game as quite as negative. We're trying to find ourself as a team. We're one of those teams that had the some of the most experience in the country, that has kind of changed drastically and mostly because of the 30-32 minutes of Josh Langford. But, also going into the season, at least for the last month of the preseason, we had hoped to have Joey Hauser in full too, which means we would have more experienced players. Now, we're left with a lot more inexperienced players. And as I said, they're in a similar position, but they're used to it, we're not. I'm happy the way we bounced back, we really played very well against Georgia for two thirds of the game, and pretty well against UCLA when you look at their talent out there and their size, and coming off a week come off. And understanding where we are as a team right now with a ways to go. I think a big key to tomorrow's game will be the turnovers, they turn people over a lot. They got Kansas for 28, they've had another team 22, 21, 16, - I think they're averaging 17 or 18 or 20 turnovers a game that they're causing. Now they are turning it over a little bit more for a Duke team, but I think that it's because of some youth in the lineup.
As I said last week, you know, we're still going through a lot. I mean, we just are it's the way it is and we're trying to find our way and pull together. Cassius (Winston) has been incredible when you think of what he's been through, but I thought yesterday was his first practice I thought he had one of his best practices in three weeks. That is going to continue, I mean, it's not going to change overnight. He's got to be one of the guys to lead a lot of our young guys that we're playing, and it's hard to do that under certain circumstances. So, he's been fighting through, he's really done some incredible things under those circumstances. Then to make the matters a little more clouded tomorrow in a positive way will be Draymond's retirement of his jersey. I think we've got three fourths of Saginaw and half of Oakland coming to the game. I had to remind Draymond (Green) that we play this game in an arena not in a football stadium. But then again, what a cool thing that there's media, I think some of the coaches are coming. Just a great night for him and not many players get this honor, but of the 10 that have had it what separates Draymond a little bit is, like a couple of those guys like Magic or like Steve, like Mateen, those guys are constantly coming back to the program and constantly being around. Draymond's meant a lot to us and a lot different ways, but he kind of embodies the toughness and what we're looking for in our program. I'm tickled to death for him. What I'm really thrilled about is he's so excited about this, it's funny, he's planning half the event and pretty cool because I really don't have time to. I'm happy that he's doing it. So all in all, we're going to focus on the game and then Draymond after. Draymond is going to focus on probably the game too, and then him at halftime and after.
On where this team is mentally after the Hawaii trip and everything else going on…
A little fragile. When I looked at our schedule, the Hawaii thing does take a lot out of you. We tried to do the best we could to come back from that, but we're still dealing with some of the mental strain that we've gone through for the last three weeks and that kind of compounds it. We're also trying to adjust to lineups that maybe we didn't think we'd have a month ago. So, a lot of adjustments this team is making and within that, I think we've done an unbelievable job. Unbelievable. We have our moments when we have certain lineups in there that really we're not ready for it yet. Never did I think we'd start almost two freshmen this year and Marcus (Bingham) starts some. Whether it be Thomas (Kithier) or whether it be Malik (Hall) playing a lot. None of them have more than five minutes, three minutes of experience a game, and course Malik (Hall) has none. There's been a lot to deal with and when you say that those are excuses if you don't play good, but as I said, I don't really care about that anymore, because I'm speaking from facts and what we're dealing with. And those facts are, those are the reality. I think it's a little hard to get an understanding of where everybody is right now, period. Because some people have played through brutal schedules, some people, I looked at the top 25 over the weekend, and I get printouts on each one of them. And some people have played nobody yet. And there's some halfway in between. Some people have had some adversity, some people haven't. I think the next couple of weeks and for us, if you look ahead even a little bit, which I'm not doing except that with the schedule with two Big 10 games coming up in the next three games. This might be the most number, in the first 11 games, where a lot of times teams are playing cupcakes. I think we're going to play seven or eight BCS schools in there and that might be the most ever by one of my programs.
On where he's at with the four spot and if the minutes are where he wants them...
No, I'd like to get a little more consistency on that. I think if you looked at what, for example, Marcus (Bingham) is getting better. I mean he really is, he's causing some problems. There are still some problems that he's got to deal with, mostly strength and fatigue. But if you looked at Malik (Hall) and Thomas Kithier, their numbers. You look at their maybe their field goal percentage, their free throw percentage, their rebounding. Per minute, their numbers are really good and been very efficient. We'd like to get to the point where we get a little more stability, so we know who we're going with a little longer and some of that is going to take place. We think Thomas (Kithier) has really been affected by that face mask, if you watch him, no matter what he does, he's grabbing his face. I don't know when that mask comes off. We're trying to make more progress in that. We're not where we need to be yet, but we're not going to be there for a couple of weeks. Back to Josh (Langford) and if Joey (Hauser), we would be a lot more stable than we are now, but I do think we're making some progress.
On Cassius losing his brother having not only an impact on him but his teammates that were close to him…
You know, I do. I watch so many press conferences. I watch everybody, I watch every football press conference I can watch, I tune into the Big Ten network, because they've got one after each game on both coaches and I listen to everybody. I listened to some of the questions the media ask, and the one thing that everybody hates is when people make excuses. I mean, everybody hates that. You're down to your fifth offensive tackle and nobody wants to hear about it. You lose a guy like Josh (Langford), nobody wants to hear about it. But I said last week, and I'm going to stick straight with this. What Cassius Winston has done under the circumstances is unbelievable. I'm not sure there's anybody in this room that could have done it. That definitely includes the head coach. But what the rest of our players have gone through because, when you ride on a bus, when you fly in an airplane, those are like magical times for a team. Those are when you build camaraderie. When you're on the beach, the little we were on the beach. Those are what makes a group of people a team. But when you're in those situations, and you can't laugh and joke and you're cognizant of what's going on, I couldn't explain to you how difficult that was. I'd be wasting my time. And you know what, as I kind of ripped all of us about the facts on one thing, the facts on the others, it's not going to change. So it doesn't do me any good to try to talk about it. But it is something I have to deal with on it on an everyday basis and more important than me having to deal with it, they have to deal with it. Do you crack a joke in the locker room like all players do? Do you crack a joke to certain people, like all players do? Do you rip on somebody because he made a bad play and maybe coaches in a meeting would want to run that back like 'Cash, you threw it into the nickel seats', we don't run those back right now. We don't do those things right now. That adjustment guys, has been difficult. What I said to him, I will say to you and I say to my team, and I look in the mirror, and even though I don't like what I see all the time, I tell myself this. Life moves on. And we have no choice but to deal with it. Everybody's told me that everybody deals with those things differently and I know one thing, I believe this kid has dealt with it better than I have. Because I've been kind of walking on skates and try not to. Easier said than done. So, the last thing I'm going to try to say about it is you are right. It's hard for anybody to understand it. I'm on the inside and it's hard for me to see it all the time. But I know this, when you're in a hotel, when you're eating together in a training table meal when you're in the locker room, that's the time people rip on people. People kid people, people joke with people. That is nonexistent right now. And not anybody's fault. It's just, it's coming back a little bit. He (Cassius) had a very good practice yesterday, some of you were there for part of it. Truthfully, I saw something I haven't seen in three weeks. I saw a smile. Please don't take it that that's his fault. It's not his fault. It's just, it's the things we're dealing with, we're going to deal with them and we dealt with them pretty good. And by the way, some of the errant passes, turnovers, not guarding a guy that hits seven threes. Those don't all have factors to do with that. I mean, we all have to still do what we have to do. What I think we got to get back to and hopefully yesterday was a start, is, you usually play like your practice. And we have to practice good to play good and that's what we're going to try to do.
On Rocket Watts' progression and where he needs him to be later in the season…
I think Rocket (Watts) has done a very good job, considering what he got thrown into too. As you say, he would have probably gotten to not only learn on the run, but learn from a guy at the same position, and then maybe played a couple of the other positions, because we didn't have to focus in on so much. We've had to make him a little bit of the defensive stopper. We've had to make him learn a lot of different things offensively and defensively, and then he struggled with his shot early. I mean, he's still not where he needs to be, but he's definitely made some progress over in Hawaii. What do we need? We need him to knock down the shots he can make. I need him to be a little more aggressive driving the ball. I think he's starting to shoot it really well from the line now. He got there a little bit more in Hawaii, made 80 some percent of his free throws. Sometimes when you're struggling with shot, you get to the free throw line that gives you some confidence. But he too has, he's going through a big change and a lot of ways and Cash was the guy early that was helping him because he had a feel for Rocket (Watts), and that's been a little harder too. Where we need him to get his just continue to grow like we did Josh (Langford) and everything. It's just that he was thrown into a position that, yeah, I don't think anybody thought would be there. And he's missing the tutelage that I think Josh (Langford) would have been able to give him. He does it off the court, but he would have been able to do it on the court, meaning as he was playing. He's coming.
On telling other guys about Draymond (Green) and working to be patient and continuing to work hard and it will work out…
I think a lot of people use Draymond (Green). I mean I hear people, announcers, that say 'Remember, Draymond Green was a four-year guy, Draymond Green did this and that'. I was watching someone the other day, I think from Kentucky, plays for Charlotte, P.J. Washington. Everybody was questioning him, questioning him. Hell, he's one of the best players on their team now, because I think he's more ready to play. So, I think a lot of coaches use Draymond (Green) not only for his toughness, not only for his basketball IQ, but the fact that, it's not when you get to the NBA, it's if you get to the NBA. And if you get there, are you ready to stay in the NBA. I think that's what Draymond (Green) has proven and done such a great job of. I use Draymond a lot. I use him with his defense, I use him with his rebounding, I use him with his toughness, use him with his patience. I talked to him about where he was as a freshman where he was as a sophomore, that it is not illegal to have a process in your life. It is in most walks of life, it is normality to have that but in basketball, it's not. Some kids get torn apart that way, Draymond didn't.
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