Post-Game Quotes vs. Notre Dame

Post-Game Quotes

Notre Dame at Michigan State

Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement...
What a great day to be a Spartan. I got to watch a little bit of that football game, and I am so proud of Mel (Tucker). Our defense was unbelievable, and Rocky (Lombardi) - nice job. And I find out that Danton (Cole) and our hockey team beat Ohio State. The only thing missing today - as I was sitting my office towards the end of that football game before I went down, and I'm thinking what a beautiful night, not a cloud in the sky what a great night for football and I was thinking boy if they were coming from football and to basketball this place would be rocking. I thought we played awfully well. That is a good basketball team, that I think we held pretty much, defensively except for the start and the finish. I wasn't pleased with how we finished, but I am trying to play a lot of guys. I told you there are reasons for it. It will frustrate some people, but not me. I thought Aaron Henry was dynamite. Joey Hauser getting 12 rebounds in the first half. We got something out of Gabe Brown; we got more out of Rocket Watts and Malik Hall. We started to get Julius in there a little bit, Marcus Bingham. Still a lot of guys that played pretty well. I thought my staff did a great job on the scouting report. It's a hard team to guard with the number of 3-point shooters they have, and I thought we did. I thought we wore down their bigs a little because they didn't have great numbers, and that probably hurt them a little bit. But Mike Brey hell of a coach. They have a hell of a program, and to be up 28 or 26 or whatever we were up, and then find a way to only win by 10 - disappointing, but most of the things we did were good. We out rebounded them. We only had 12 turnovers. Again, 26 assists on 30 baskets. That might be the storyline of this tea team now. That's two games in a row. Which means we're moving the ball; we're passing the ball, and I was proud of my guys so you know this has not been an easy run. And now what a great way to look forward to going to Duke.

On the strong first-half defense...
When you have 12 blocks to nine steals; you're right. Other than that first five or six minutes when they hit I think three 3s, of all things, most of them are on Joshua (Langford), who's one of my best defenders, but give them credit, we have made a couple mistakes, again when you're trying to play a lot of people you have to go over a lot in a scouting report. And I thought we really beared down. I thought we were everywhere. I thought we wore them down a little bit by subbing like we did. And that was very advantageous to us. And as that half wore on, I think we wore them down a little bit. But that is a well-coached team. They move the ball so well; they make good passes, make a lot of good decisions, and still they only turned it over 10 times. But I think there were six or seven of them the first half and that was good for us.

On the play of Marcus Bingham so far this season...
I give Dwayne Stephens a lot of credit on that. We've talked to Marcus about it; told me he has to mature. I'm not trying to take the 3-point shot away from him. He can still shoot him, but he's got to shoot the right ones. And I think he's starting to figure out what's a good shot and what's not. He's got that nice little jump hook; he's got that little fall away. Shooting good from the free throw line. He's just maturing, and he's 10 pounds heavier than he was two months ago. So all those things are pluses for Marcus with him and Thomas (Kithier) they give us a little bit a little bit of a ying a yang out there. And I think that's good and then Julius (Marble) comes in brings a little bit of muscle and you're still going to see more Mady. We'll get him in there but it's, you know, just some growing pains right now. It'll take a little bit.

On him coaching hard even with big leads...
I just want to make sure that my second group sometimes - because those guys got to get better. You know, like I said, the day's gonna come Lindsay when we're gonna have a couple guys out. And the games aren't going to stop. So, you know, that's my MO; that's my thought process it's gonna frustrate some of our fans might even frustrate a player two. But, I talked to our players about and I told them what my philosophy was and what I'm thinking. And looking at the big picture. You know t they got to the line a lot at the end and. And a couple turnovers, but at the same time, that's a good team, one that was shouldn't have been up 28. We were; I'm going to take the good of that and say, we really clamped down when we needed to. We made some great passes. I think our biggest problem was a little bit of patience. We had patience. I think we really cut up that zone, and that was nice to see.

On Rocket's performance…
"Well, first of all I think my trainer did the best job because we MRIed that knee, I think Rock was worried about it in the back of his mind and when he realized it was nothing but a bruise, I think that gave him a little bit of confidence. Foster has been playing pretty well and they are kind of two different types of players and that's going to be good for us too, but I thought Rocket, he did get into a little bit of rhythm, figuring out what a good shot, what a bad shot. We got a lot of guys still trying to figure that out yet. Sometimes we are forcing a little bit when if we are a little more patience and that ball moves and I say that and we get 28 assists out of 30 baskets, it's almost ridiculous but I think the more we can move that ball the better team we are going to be and Rocket is starting to learn that, he's starting to throw the lobs, he's starting to come out on the break. He always wants to go, go, go, go, go, go. He has to learn to pace himself, Barry Sanders did it, you can't go one speed all the time, you got to juke and jive a little bit and I think when he does that he's a better player."

On Rocket's and Gabe's development…
"Well I was really proud of Gabe. Gabe came into the huddle and said coach they are playing me up the line and I think I can get a couple of lobs and so it was kind of set up by us, for Rocket, but set up by Gabe. Gabe was the one that read it and like Morris Peterson did back in the day. Really proud of Gabe, he's starting to see the game a little bit better. Rock made the play, Gabe made the call, and that's kind of what you want. You want players on the floor and see what things are happening and you want them doing their job and I thought we did it pretty well."

On the assists number despite Cassius leaving…
"In sometimes it's giving more people a chance to make plays because the ball was in his hands so much. Aaron Henry is playing some of his best basketball. He goes 4-11 but 5-5 from the line, that's one of the things we said he has to get to the line five, six times. He gets eight rebounds, he had four blocks, he had three assists. He's starting to become the complete player and I think what impressed me most about these guys and their unselfishness, when I thought Aaron came out of the first game and wanted to prove that he came back for a reason, he just let the game come to him, and tonight we said we were going to go to him early and we did go to him early and he responded. Really proud of Aaron and how he's handled everything and him and Joey kind of have a good mix together along with Josh and that's encouraging too and that's why I think the unselfishness. Joey threw some great passes and against that zone down low. That's exciting as a coach when in two games you can have 50 something assists, that's big time."

On any better stretch he's seen at the end of the first half and start of the second half….
I didn't realize we had a 26-0 run against a good team. It shows that you that I was more ingrained in what we were doing right and wrong. At the end of the first half, beginning of the second half, I thought that ball moved as well it could be moved and it was kind of fun to watch us play and I don't say that very often. I thought we were into people, Aaron (Henry) really got into some people defensively. Then Rocket came in and did that and I thought Josh (Langford) became better. Joey Hauser did a pretty good job on the Laszewski kid. He's ag good player, only had six shots off. I think under the circumstances, Hubb's still got some shots because he's a very good player, but I tell you what, Mike (Brey) is going to win a lot of games with that team, you watch. He's got to get another player or two back, I think, maybe some subs with their bigs. They do that and they'll be a good team.

So I've never seen a stretch or two games, to be honest with you, like that. But hopefully that will continue. We need that down at Duke.

On Langford getting back into rhythm…
I hold Joshua at a very high level, defensively and offensively. I thought a couple of times he passed up a couple of shots. I thought a couple of times he wasn't as sharp defensively. Now, I know that's going to take some time, but as I told him, I don't plan on giving him any slack because he lost two years and he wants to get that back in a year and I want to get it back in a year. That was all love there. He knows what I'm talking about and I know what he's talking about. But we do have to hold people accountable. I've been under the weather for a couple of weeks and I'm not under the weather anymore so it's back to dog-eat-dog and we gotta do our job and if you don't do your job, you're going to hear about it. And if you do do your job, you're gonna hear about it. And I thought in the second half, he did a much better job. He just had a bad little stretch there and I thought he passed up a couple of shots. I don't want him passing up any shots. I think he's too good a shooter. Aaron even passed up a couple of shots. But Aaron's driving the ball better, Josh is passing the ball better. I'm a pretty lucky coach right now. I've got some guys that are doing a lot of good things. And I think we're going to get better. That doesn't mean win the next game or the next game, but I do think this team's going to get better as we go because there's a lot of bright spots and defensively, I think we could be real good. Running, I think we could be really good. I still think we're a better shooting team than we shot, but Hauser missed those two wide open three's, Gabe missed two wide open three's … I think we'll make those shots, I really do.

On balance between getting frustrated and knowing Hauser hasn't played in
In Joey and Josh, I do gotta be patient with them, but since when have I been a patient guy. They're good enough that on some of those plays, like on that backdoor play after he missed two three's, to me, he threw it away. There's gotta be more mental discipline than that. He had two great shots, he just missed 'em. I don't care if he misses those shots, but don't come back and turn the ball over when he's too good to turn the ball over like that. But you know what I really liked tonight? I really liked that I don't think Joey responded as well the first game. I thought he REALLY responded well. We had great conversations on the bench. It was fun and it was good and the same with Josh. My job is to push those guys. It's going to take some time, but we've got to speed up the process for them and for me and I gotta be patient with them, but not patient on things that are maybe effort related or mental related mistakes.

On differences in Joey's game from first game to second game…
Well, he had one turnover, he had four assists and he had 16 rebounds. I think we're going to talk him about, in fact, if you talk to him again can you talk to him about his 3-point shooting because he can't miss those wide-open ones and the day he goes 2-for-4 from the free throw line, I think he's one of the best free throw shooters I've ever had. So that's the nice thing is there's still some good reason to be able to push those two guys. I think they're starting to see my side and I'm starting to see their side. That's why it's going to be fun to grow with them. I'm really looking forward to that. I think Joey was a better player tonight than he was the first night. I think Josh was too in a lot of ways. I see that growing. They're veteran guys that have been around a little bit. And Aaron Henry has done a great job with those two. Aaron's in such a good place right now as a leader. And Josh is leading, Foster's leading. The camaraderie of this team has gotten to be really good. I give my whole staff credit for that because the things we've done here in Breslin, the things we've tried to do to bring our guys here more often and spend more time, has been really, really good. And during this COVID season, it's not easy, so I give them all credit, but Joey, just tell him to work on that 3-point shot and those free throws and maybe the next game we'll keep growing.

On Aaron being more aggressive and players who respond to coaching…
They're two very good players, I mean, Aaron and is a very, very good player. In Josh and Joey, they've done it before, so it's just a matter of getting them in the swing of this system and everything and for Josh, it's coming off those two years. But gosh, knock on wood, his foot has been great. He played a lot of minutes, he played almost 16 minutes in the first half, which is our fault, probably tired him out a little bit. But it's fun to coach guys that are good players and want to be coached.
Redshirt-Junior Forward Joey Hauser

On crashing the boards today...
It is something that is important every game. Kind of our motto here is, defend, rebound and run. So, you know I haven't had a game where I've grabbed 16 in my college career, but you know just making sure we box on our guys - other guys are boxing out well, so there's a lot of rebounds - a lot of missed shots are coming off so credit to our defense, and the other guys around me.

How much did Coach Izzo challenge you to be an aggressor...
I was getting my groove the first game, so he said just come out, pick your spots. Aaron (Henry) was doing a great job just encouraging me, telling me to be aggressive right away. Find me when I was open right away. Let me attack, and then he did a great job we ran a couple plays for him. Get him hot right away, so we started off really well, got us to going right away got a couple buckets, and it was a really good start to the game.

What was going right during the stretch at the end of the first half...
Defensively I think rebounding. We're doing a good job of limiting them to just one shot on the offensive end; they took a lot of deep shots. I don't know what their percentage was. But I think limited limiting them to one shot was part of the reason we're doing such a great job defending, and then I think our guards did a great job and some of the ball screen coverages and just sticking to the man. They have some guys that can knock down some shots, and they did a really good job defending them, running them off the line. And obviously our bigs - our five men did a great job on their on their five who is really good player. So that was huge for us defensively in the first half.

What was the difference between the first two games...
Today was a much different feeling. I just felt a lot more comfortable, kind of got my feet under me. I was really anxious the first game. I'm not really picking my spot kind of nervous but some of the spots I was in, so I think today I was kind of free flow free flowing, letting the game come to me. And that's kind of what the change was from game one to the game to game two.

What was the difference between the first two games...
Well individually, I want to limit my turnovers. First game I had a couple of dumb turnovers. I think just kind of was getting used to finally playing for the first time in a while. So that was my first thought. I want to shoot the ball a little better. I didn't do that tonight, but that's gonna come you know game shots are hard to simulate in practices and workout, so I think that's something that's going to come as I keep playing. Defensively, it was definitely something I focused on too. I wanted to be a better defender the first game was a little bit different, you know, we were defending a team that had a lot of a lot of guards a lot of guys in the perimeter. So, I think really just defending rebounding were the two things I focused on the most coming into this game.

Mike Brey Post-Game Press Conference
Opening statement…
"It's a great example of how fragile a game is. It's 26-22 with seven minutes to go in the first half and we don't score the rest of the way and we just really I thought had some careless turnovers and then we fouled and kind of lost control over it. I liked in the second half that we continued to compete and I thought our defense was better in stretches in the second half and we looked more like us, offensively, but they are very good. They are playing downhill on you, got a lot of bodies at you, so for us we'll get on back and get some rest. Hopefully, we have two games at home."

On what you learned from your team…
"Well, I mean you know there is no question not having the jerseys on until tonight and then you deal with these guys. It's a little bit of an adjustment that is going to be more difficult. For Cormac Ryan he played until he found, I thought, find a rhythm at times which is good for him. We got to find some guys to come off the bench and help us. Matt's only a freshman and they are trying their backsides off and their first game is at Michigan State. Nik is going to be a key guy for us, and we will continue to work to try and use Trey more. I think the thing we will watch is 26-22, seven minutes left and have the half ended and it's a great teaching moment for our group and how a game can get away from you if your careless with the ball and your fouling and your out of position defensively."

On Michigan State's defense…
"They are really athletic defensively and they physically got up into us after that little run, we had. We stopped moving the ball. It was two passes and then someone put their head down and that's why bad shots, poor shots, turnovers, and it pretty much knocked us out. They always have been a really good athletic position defensive team and I thought in that stretch they shut us down."

On what you liked from your team up to 26-22…
"I love we were going for it. Cormac and Prentiss are going to have to be risk takers for us and they are going to have to force some plays and try and make some plays and we are going to have to live with some turnovers and stuff. I thought they were really kind of going for it and I thought Dane competed at a really high level. Again, our first game, up here, really good team, weird kind of day, I'm thrilled we got the game in. We've been through four Covid tests this week, so we could play. I was so relieved at noon today when we went through the fourth one and we get to play and now we can evaluate our group. We got some kids that will fight and compete and battle and that's a good instinct to have here early in the season."

On getting Juwan Durham involved…
"Great question and the one thing that I thought I loved was for him, this was new territory of 30 minutes. He was a 17-minute game kind of guy. I think his body has to get used to that a little bit. I love that he was going to the rim and trying to get calls and trying to get stuff. He has to continue to do that and I think he is going to get a few calls and get his confidence up. We need those five guys to average double figures, four of them got double figures tonight. Juwan is going to have to average double figures and I really think he will and the end of the day. For him, I kept talking to him when he came out. I said, this is a new minutes territory for you and you got to play your way and you need to feel what 28-30 minutes is like."

On Prentiss difference from last season to this season…
"He is stronger. He's a fearless guy and he really does set a tone for us and he's almost got to force some plays at times which means he's going to turn it over or maybe take a bad shot, but he kind of keeps us on edge. I liked he and Cormac together. We've seen that in practice, none of you guys have seen him until tonight, but I think they are going to be really good together and Dane is kind of joining that club. Those three guys on the perimeter really know how to play and score and I think are really going to get better. It's Prentiss's team, he's the one talking in the huddle when we take a big punch, when we are getting our butts kicked, he's the one talking about we are going to keep competing and keep battling an di appreciate his leadership tonight."

On the difference Joey Hauser can make when they went to that zone…
"The zone helped us there for a while. It really bought us some time, but he is really good at the foul line. You know what's funny, he was not very good against Eastern Michigan's zone in his first college game the other night and you knew the law of averages. He's got a great feel for the game, he can pass, he's got good strength, he can drive it form there and eventually we had to get out of it. We bought some time with it and then we had to get out of it because he was too good at the foul line."

Notre Dame Junior Guard Prentiss Hubb

On what you learned as a team…
"I think we just got to play hard for a full 40 minutes. I think we kind of let up and the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half, and I think if we came out with that same energy in the last seven minutes of the game, then I think it would have been a different outcome."

On how this game will affect the rest of the season…
"I think it's a learning experience. We got to play against a really physical team and they pushed the ball really hard and I think that going forward we are going to have to dig in and box out and rebound and match the team's intensity."

On finding the right moments to force something…
"I kind of made a couple error plays, trying to force passes I shouldn't have. You got to see it when it happens, sometimes you have to try and go for it and other time you got to slow it up, but I think that with the pace of the game if we are going really fast and I see the other team is making a run, I got to slow it down."

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