Photo by: Matthew Mitchell Photography
Post-Game Quotes vs. Detroit Mercy
12/4/2020 8:43:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo
Opening statement…
Disappointed and feel good at the same time. Very big trap game for us. No Joshua Langford, which was a coaches and trainer decision more than Josh's; little bit of a sore knee, but nothing, nothing (serious) at all, could've played. We just felt like, as I told you earlier in the year, we're going to give him a chance here and there.
Really, really disappointed in our bigs. After doing a pretty good job against Eastern Michigan, and yet, we had no scouting report (on Detroit). They hadn't played, they had transfers; the Matt Johnson kid, he goes 7-for-14 (from the field), 4-for-6 (from 3). He played nine minutes a game and I think averaged one point for St. Bonaventure last year, and he tore us up. Antoine Davis is just a hell of a player. Rocket Watts did a hell of a job on him, too. Held him to no 3's, which is hard to do, 24 points on 26 shots (Antoine Davis), Rocket did his job. Sometimes it was by himself.
I thought if I had stars of the game, Rocket really played under control, compared to maybe the Duke game, a lot less dribbling, there were some great plays. I thought Aaron Henry just stuffed the stat sheet again. Not shooting it great yet, but with 10 rebounds, 12 points, six assists, one block, three steals, he guarded him (Davis) too sometimes; really felt good about Aaron. And probably the third star, believe it or not, would have been Foster Loyer. He did everything we asked.
We got a little bit more play out of (A.J.) Hoggard. But our bigs, other than Marcus Bingham, I thought really struggled. Struggled to guard, struggled to rebound. Major, major disappointment that we gotta clean up. Joey hurt his knee a little bit, not a twist or anything, just hit the thing, so he couldn't move very good. The other guys, Malik's good enough to guard, so is Julius, and we just didn't do a very good job of it.
So, trap game a little bit, a team that we had nothing on, players that we didn't even know, found a way to win, we're going to have to do that a couple times. But those of you who think that we're ready for the national championship because we beat Duke, readjust your theories, we got a lot of work and a long way to go.
On if his message going into the game wasn't heard by the team…
I don't take offense to it; it's a reality (laughing). People gotta learn; people don't listen sometimes, they gotta learn. Like I said, Mike Davis has been a good coach since he was at Indiana, UAB, Texas Southern, Detroit…the guy is a really, really good coach. And he believes he can beat us when he comes in. And he's a good friend of mine. He did a heck of a job. Now, does it hurt too not to have your home crowd, just like it hurt Duke? Of course it does. But I feel like our defensive effort with our big guys was non-existent, and we gotta fix that, that's all.
On Rocket Watts…
I told Rocket after the game that's the best I've seen him play, ever, because he was under control, he made good plays, he made great decisions, he played phenomenal defense. And just think how long he was in there, because we had Aaron switching with him a little bit, and then Aaron got in foul trouble. So I thought Rocket Watts did an amazing job. I'm really proud of him, because we spent a lot of time with him after that Duke game. Mike Garland did, I did. As the last question was asked, he (Rocket) responded. And that's what you hope, just like Aaron Henry, he's playing the best basketball he's ever played. When he starts shooting the ball better again, you're going to start seeing those numbers go up, and the double-doubles go up. Rocket Watts was good defensively, he was very good offensively; he's going to take a bad shot or two, and I'm going to live with that, because I understand that those are some of the things that change. Now, it can't be five or six, and tonight it wasn't, and I was proud of him.
On Foster Loyer and Gabe Brown providing a spark…
I thought Foster gave us some energy. He played pretty good defense. Gabe did the same thing. Gabe struggled some defensively, but he made some good plays offensively. We're going to get those two guys better. Foster has really been a good leader, a good captain. We don't win that game without Foster, no matter how Rocket plays, or how Aaron plays. And that's why I said he was my third star if this was hockey.
On A.J. Hoggard getting some minutes…
I think it's going to help some moving forward, but as we all know, today I played 12 guys, and that's not going to happen all the time. I'm just trying to give some guys a chance. Now remember, we took 30 minutes a game out of there with Josh, but Josh shouldn't play 30 minutes either, so A.J. is going to help us. He made some big plays, and he made some foolish turnovers; that's what you're going to get out of a freshman once in a while. I think he did show some good plays. He played pretty good defense. Remember now, too, he missed two-and-a-half weeks with that knee, and that kind of set him back too, so getting him more minutes is going to help, getting Josh back is going to help, and maybe learning a few lessons with our big guys is really going to help, and that's kind of what you do at this time of year.
On Josh Langford…
He's going to play Sunday. Listen, if this was a normal day, and I wasn't taking Detroit lightly, but right now at this point in time of the year, after playing 29 minutes and traveling, I just wasn't going to take any chances. I told you guys I wasn't going to do that. Don't read into that…he's playing on Sunday, and he's going to play on Tuesday (Wednesday), and that's the way it will be. So there's no, it's not this day to day, we're trying to manage him, or manage his minutes, I would like a little less than 30, but Josh Langford is a valuable member to this team and I told every one of our guys tonight, appreciate Josh, too. Appreciate him.
On Joey Hauser not playing late in the game, was it because of his knee, or how he was playing…
I'd say both. You could see he was dragging his knee. I don't know what it looked like on TV, but he was dragging it, he didn't twist it or anything, he just hit it on the floor, so it's a bruise, you know, but he wasn't moving very good. Joey's too good of a player. We need him in there. He did liven us up in that one stretch, and then really struggled defensively, because I don't think he could move as good. So I'd say at the end it was more of the injury, but he's gotta play both ends.
On if this is game is example of why you have to coach your team hard when you up almost 30 points because you said you had to find a way to win...
I think it's a good example of the way the whole year is gonna be. We're not over talented we don't come in, you're like Kentucky or maybe a Gonzaga this year. We don't roll it out and everything goes right. But thought Rocket and Foster ran our team better. We missed Josh and not really making excuses, but if our fours and fives play like they did tonight we're not going to win a lot of games. Now they played a lot better they played a lot better at Duke; played a lot better in other games. They played really well against Notre Dame. They'll play better, but they got to lesson tonight that sometimes you got to go small. In our league - you look at Iowa and Illinois and Wisconsin and Purdue. Guys are 7-2, 7-4, 7-1, 240lbs, Â 330lbs. There's gonna be a lot more big guys. That's why these games are hard but, you get an NCAA Tournament you never know what you'll get. So I think these games are important too, and so it was a good, it was a good lesson. But I wouldn't say this in fairness to our fours, when you take a guy who kind of playing the wing and, you know, Â and average is nine minutes at St. Bonaventure and1.5 a game and he goes off for 20. That wasn't the scout's fault. That was just a lack of us - that was the virus's fault. They had three or four games canceled. We have no film on them, and they have film on us. We're trying to get a you film we're trying to get Taurean Thompson film from Syracuse film from Seton Hall, you know, not having any clue what they're gonna run. That made it difficult to be very blunt about it so I don't want to. I was disappointed in our 1-on-1 defense. We don't have the normal scouting report which just goes to show my assistants are valuable too. And that's what I tell my team after everybody's valuable, and as they say at the Patriots, 'You got to do your job.' An assistant has to do his job. Players have to do their job, head coach has to do his job. And some of that was taken away from us by COVID, and we had to find a way to win and we did find a way to win against a team that I thought played awfully well tonight and we're really well coached.
On Gabe Brown finding a  middle ground from high and low moments...
Very well said for a reporter because he was right both I mean that was a coach's evaluation. Example - not very good defense. Example - zero rebounds in 20 some minutes, you know, but the other side the example 6-for-9, 4-for-6 played pretty hard 16 points, only one turnover. That's what we do now, we try to find happy mediums and doing that would Rocket a little bit. Gabe is so coachable. Â I think he realizes defense has improved. It was great at Duke. It was great against Notre Dame, so he's improved in that area. Tonight wasn't as good because we had guys guarding people that we didn't know who they were guarding. They didn't know who they were guarding. They put people in different ball screens, like I said Mike did a great job. And that created some problems for us, so it was combination of a lot of things, but Gabe's been playing better. I'm happy to see him shoot well tonight because we need to shoot better. And we are a better shooting team. I thought Foster had three really good looks, two good looks the drive and layup wasn't. But two wide open threes that he'll hit. I thought we had enough good shots; we just didn't make them. So we get 16 assists instead of 22, and, you know, Gabe - boy Rocket threw him a good pass. I thought, Aaron gave up a shot to get them at one in the corner, really pleased with the unselfishness and of my team. Other than that, Duke game when I thought we got a little crazy.
On how beneficial it is to get tested this early in the season...
Whenever you can win a game not playing great, Â it's beneficial. If you have to learn by losing like Aaron said to the guys after why don't why do we have to learn a lesson. Well, that's part of life, you always got to learn lessons, and I thought that, to not play great at Duke and I don't think they felt they played great either. Neither one of us played very good offensively. They were really good defensively we were pretty good defensively, and we found a way to win a lot easier to get their attention. After a win sometimes, you know you don't think so you think you need to lose. I think I got enough maturity on my team. We don't need to lose to figure it out. And tomorrow morning's film session. They're going to figure out that we didn't lose. But there's a lot of work to go, and that's what tomorrow morning it'll be for.
On the importance of the team generating energy with no fans in the stands...
Stoney. I love you man. We talked about it, you know we listened to the TV last night Illinois and Baylor got a lot I said hey we're at Michigan State. The Izzone is our fans, but our bench is the same way. And I put that as a number one priority tonight, believe it or not, wait till I tell my guys that even a guy like Stoney picked up on that. I love you for that I'm gonna I'm gonna tell them that, and I really mean that because that is important. We are in some strange times, and it's very difficult for a player when you make a great play and something's not going right or they start making some baskets and where the defensive chance come, but I got I'm impressed that you picked that up. And I'm saying that as sincere as I can be because it was one of the things we talked about, and I put it on my kid (Steven), I put it on Jack Hoiberg, I put it on Steve Smith's kid (Davis). I said you guys are in charge of that ,and I think they did a good job, and maybe they deserve the third star maybe we have four stars, so thank you.
Junior forward Gabe Brown
 On the stretch when he and Rocket started an MSU run…
 In that moment, me and Rocket just wanted to have grit. We wanted to get down and get the team back on track and really just try to get stops. I mean, he's a great point guard, and he found me on a couple of good plays so at that moment we just wanted to get stops and we just wanted to get the team fully together so we could get a win.
Â
On finding a comfort level in the second half…
 I would say that I had seen a couple of good looks and I went for it. It's all about just believing in myself. That's really what it was at the end. I felt like on the layup. I had a good drive, a good opportunity and I finished it the best way possible. Rocket hit me with a couple of shots, Aaron (Henry) hit me with a couple of shots, and I just followed through and finished. So really, at the end, it was just about me believing in myself and my teammates believing in me and getting me the ball.
Â
On Antoine Davis and what the team needs to do defensively…
 Antoine, he is a very great player. He did some very good things on the offensive end to help his team. He was a great leader, he played D, he did the right things for his team. He didn't come out with the W today and that's okay. They've got a long season to go, and he's a great player. He's going to make big things happen in the future so I'm blessed enough I got to play against him because he's going to shock the world. Overall, defensively, I've got to pick it up and the team has to pick it up. I did some things out there that I shouldn't have done and I have to pick that up and get back in the gym and keep working, watching film and going over the things that have happened. But overall, I'm just got happy that we got a win.
Junior forward Aaron HenryÂ
On the struggles tonight…
You got to credit Detroit for the way they played of course. They played hard and competed. They did all the little things that our staples here at Michigan State as well and they some of those things better than we did. I felt it was a learning experience for us. I mean it's good to get those type of games in and win them. We've obviously seen teams around the country that fall in those types of games. We did a lot of things like missing layups, not following defensive assignments and you got to give a lot of credit to Detroit for the way they played and how they just did what they wanted too. We got to learn from that.
On not having game film against them…
Tough or not, that stuff helps of course, but when it comes down to it we watched some film on them and the type of players that they had and we just got to, I don't want to say, nut up, but I want to say something better than that, but when it comes down to it that's what we have to do that. Play tough, play with some grit, and just come more prepared. We can't come in and think it's going to be given to us. I'm just glad we won."
 On Rocket's performance…
He was dynamite in a lot of different areas. Starting at half court, you now setting guys up, getting guys open shots. He was just everywhere. He was guarding their best player. He was key for us in doing things. I mean I was in foul trouble sitting on the bench but just watching him on the bench and coming in and trying to contribute in those last minutes, he was huge for us. He's growing a whole lot and the sky's the limit.
Junior guard Foster Loyer
On playing many key roles this season...
It's been important each time you know that I go into that I do my job that I make sure I'm being a leader out there for our team settling our team down, trying to get us into something that's going to be successful on the offensive end, and just really leading the communication on the defensive end those are kind of a couple things that I've been really focusing on and we're just looking to continue to build on that.
On the importance of defense and taking charges...
You know the defensive end has been a big emphasis for myself and for the coaches towards myself. After these last couple years so that's something you know through this through the beginning of this year that I've really prided myself on, you know making those adjustments and just doing whatever I can. The charges that's just going to come from playing hard and being in the right spot. And just doing whatever I can to help my team.Â
Â
Opening statement…
Disappointed and feel good at the same time. Very big trap game for us. No Joshua Langford, which was a coaches and trainer decision more than Josh's; little bit of a sore knee, but nothing, nothing (serious) at all, could've played. We just felt like, as I told you earlier in the year, we're going to give him a chance here and there.
Really, really disappointed in our bigs. After doing a pretty good job against Eastern Michigan, and yet, we had no scouting report (on Detroit). They hadn't played, they had transfers; the Matt Johnson kid, he goes 7-for-14 (from the field), 4-for-6 (from 3). He played nine minutes a game and I think averaged one point for St. Bonaventure last year, and he tore us up. Antoine Davis is just a hell of a player. Rocket Watts did a hell of a job on him, too. Held him to no 3's, which is hard to do, 24 points on 26 shots (Antoine Davis), Rocket did his job. Sometimes it was by himself.
I thought if I had stars of the game, Rocket really played under control, compared to maybe the Duke game, a lot less dribbling, there were some great plays. I thought Aaron Henry just stuffed the stat sheet again. Not shooting it great yet, but with 10 rebounds, 12 points, six assists, one block, three steals, he guarded him (Davis) too sometimes; really felt good about Aaron. And probably the third star, believe it or not, would have been Foster Loyer. He did everything we asked.
We got a little bit more play out of (A.J.) Hoggard. But our bigs, other than Marcus Bingham, I thought really struggled. Struggled to guard, struggled to rebound. Major, major disappointment that we gotta clean up. Joey hurt his knee a little bit, not a twist or anything, just hit the thing, so he couldn't move very good. The other guys, Malik's good enough to guard, so is Julius, and we just didn't do a very good job of it.
So, trap game a little bit, a team that we had nothing on, players that we didn't even know, found a way to win, we're going to have to do that a couple times. But those of you who think that we're ready for the national championship because we beat Duke, readjust your theories, we got a lot of work and a long way to go.
On if his message going into the game wasn't heard by the team…
I don't take offense to it; it's a reality (laughing). People gotta learn; people don't listen sometimes, they gotta learn. Like I said, Mike Davis has been a good coach since he was at Indiana, UAB, Texas Southern, Detroit…the guy is a really, really good coach. And he believes he can beat us when he comes in. And he's a good friend of mine. He did a heck of a job. Now, does it hurt too not to have your home crowd, just like it hurt Duke? Of course it does. But I feel like our defensive effort with our big guys was non-existent, and we gotta fix that, that's all.
On Rocket Watts…
I told Rocket after the game that's the best I've seen him play, ever, because he was under control, he made good plays, he made great decisions, he played phenomenal defense. And just think how long he was in there, because we had Aaron switching with him a little bit, and then Aaron got in foul trouble. So I thought Rocket Watts did an amazing job. I'm really proud of him, because we spent a lot of time with him after that Duke game. Mike Garland did, I did. As the last question was asked, he (Rocket) responded. And that's what you hope, just like Aaron Henry, he's playing the best basketball he's ever played. When he starts shooting the ball better again, you're going to start seeing those numbers go up, and the double-doubles go up. Rocket Watts was good defensively, he was very good offensively; he's going to take a bad shot or two, and I'm going to live with that, because I understand that those are some of the things that change. Now, it can't be five or six, and tonight it wasn't, and I was proud of him.
On Foster Loyer and Gabe Brown providing a spark…
I thought Foster gave us some energy. He played pretty good defense. Gabe did the same thing. Gabe struggled some defensively, but he made some good plays offensively. We're going to get those two guys better. Foster has really been a good leader, a good captain. We don't win that game without Foster, no matter how Rocket plays, or how Aaron plays. And that's why I said he was my third star if this was hockey.
On A.J. Hoggard getting some minutes…
I think it's going to help some moving forward, but as we all know, today I played 12 guys, and that's not going to happen all the time. I'm just trying to give some guys a chance. Now remember, we took 30 minutes a game out of there with Josh, but Josh shouldn't play 30 minutes either, so A.J. is going to help us. He made some big plays, and he made some foolish turnovers; that's what you're going to get out of a freshman once in a while. I think he did show some good plays. He played pretty good defense. Remember now, too, he missed two-and-a-half weeks with that knee, and that kind of set him back too, so getting him more minutes is going to help, getting Josh back is going to help, and maybe learning a few lessons with our big guys is really going to help, and that's kind of what you do at this time of year.
On Josh Langford…
He's going to play Sunday. Listen, if this was a normal day, and I wasn't taking Detroit lightly, but right now at this point in time of the year, after playing 29 minutes and traveling, I just wasn't going to take any chances. I told you guys I wasn't going to do that. Don't read into that…he's playing on Sunday, and he's going to play on Tuesday (Wednesday), and that's the way it will be. So there's no, it's not this day to day, we're trying to manage him, or manage his minutes, I would like a little less than 30, but Josh Langford is a valuable member to this team and I told every one of our guys tonight, appreciate Josh, too. Appreciate him.
On Joey Hauser not playing late in the game, was it because of his knee, or how he was playing…
I'd say both. You could see he was dragging his knee. I don't know what it looked like on TV, but he was dragging it, he didn't twist it or anything, he just hit it on the floor, so it's a bruise, you know, but he wasn't moving very good. Joey's too good of a player. We need him in there. He did liven us up in that one stretch, and then really struggled defensively, because I don't think he could move as good. So I'd say at the end it was more of the injury, but he's gotta play both ends.
On if this is game is example of why you have to coach your team hard when you up almost 30 points because you said you had to find a way to win...
I think it's a good example of the way the whole year is gonna be. We're not over talented we don't come in, you're like Kentucky or maybe a Gonzaga this year. We don't roll it out and everything goes right. But thought Rocket and Foster ran our team better. We missed Josh and not really making excuses, but if our fours and fives play like they did tonight we're not going to win a lot of games. Now they played a lot better they played a lot better at Duke; played a lot better in other games. They played really well against Notre Dame. They'll play better, but they got to lesson tonight that sometimes you got to go small. In our league - you look at Iowa and Illinois and Wisconsin and Purdue. Guys are 7-2, 7-4, 7-1, 240lbs, Â 330lbs. There's gonna be a lot more big guys. That's why these games are hard but, you get an NCAA Tournament you never know what you'll get. So I think these games are important too, and so it was a good, it was a good lesson. But I wouldn't say this in fairness to our fours, when you take a guy who kind of playing the wing and, you know, Â and average is nine minutes at St. Bonaventure and1.5 a game and he goes off for 20. That wasn't the scout's fault. That was just a lack of us - that was the virus's fault. They had three or four games canceled. We have no film on them, and they have film on us. We're trying to get a you film we're trying to get Taurean Thompson film from Syracuse film from Seton Hall, you know, not having any clue what they're gonna run. That made it difficult to be very blunt about it so I don't want to. I was disappointed in our 1-on-1 defense. We don't have the normal scouting report which just goes to show my assistants are valuable too. And that's what I tell my team after everybody's valuable, and as they say at the Patriots, 'You got to do your job.' An assistant has to do his job. Players have to do their job, head coach has to do his job. And some of that was taken away from us by COVID, and we had to find a way to win and we did find a way to win against a team that I thought played awfully well tonight and we're really well coached.
On Gabe Brown finding a  middle ground from high and low moments...
Very well said for a reporter because he was right both I mean that was a coach's evaluation. Example - not very good defense. Example - zero rebounds in 20 some minutes, you know, but the other side the example 6-for-9, 4-for-6 played pretty hard 16 points, only one turnover. That's what we do now, we try to find happy mediums and doing that would Rocket a little bit. Gabe is so coachable. Â I think he realizes defense has improved. It was great at Duke. It was great against Notre Dame, so he's improved in that area. Tonight wasn't as good because we had guys guarding people that we didn't know who they were guarding. They didn't know who they were guarding. They put people in different ball screens, like I said Mike did a great job. And that created some problems for us, so it was combination of a lot of things, but Gabe's been playing better. I'm happy to see him shoot well tonight because we need to shoot better. And we are a better shooting team. I thought Foster had three really good looks, two good looks the drive and layup wasn't. But two wide open threes that he'll hit. I thought we had enough good shots; we just didn't make them. So we get 16 assists instead of 22, and, you know, Gabe - boy Rocket threw him a good pass. I thought, Aaron gave up a shot to get them at one in the corner, really pleased with the unselfishness and of my team. Other than that, Duke game when I thought we got a little crazy.
On how beneficial it is to get tested this early in the season...
Whenever you can win a game not playing great, Â it's beneficial. If you have to learn by losing like Aaron said to the guys after why don't why do we have to learn a lesson. Well, that's part of life, you always got to learn lessons, and I thought that, to not play great at Duke and I don't think they felt they played great either. Neither one of us played very good offensively. They were really good defensively we were pretty good defensively, and we found a way to win a lot easier to get their attention. After a win sometimes, you know you don't think so you think you need to lose. I think I got enough maturity on my team. We don't need to lose to figure it out. And tomorrow morning's film session. They're going to figure out that we didn't lose. But there's a lot of work to go, and that's what tomorrow morning it'll be for.
On the importance of the team generating energy with no fans in the stands...
Stoney. I love you man. We talked about it, you know we listened to the TV last night Illinois and Baylor got a lot I said hey we're at Michigan State. The Izzone is our fans, but our bench is the same way. And I put that as a number one priority tonight, believe it or not, wait till I tell my guys that even a guy like Stoney picked up on that. I love you for that I'm gonna I'm gonna tell them that, and I really mean that because that is important. We are in some strange times, and it's very difficult for a player when you make a great play and something's not going right or they start making some baskets and where the defensive chance come, but I got I'm impressed that you picked that up. And I'm saying that as sincere as I can be because it was one of the things we talked about, and I put it on my kid (Steven), I put it on Jack Hoiberg, I put it on Steve Smith's kid (Davis). I said you guys are in charge of that ,and I think they did a good job, and maybe they deserve the third star maybe we have four stars, so thank you.
Junior forward Gabe Brown
 On the stretch when he and Rocket started an MSU run…
 In that moment, me and Rocket just wanted to have grit. We wanted to get down and get the team back on track and really just try to get stops. I mean, he's a great point guard, and he found me on a couple of good plays so at that moment we just wanted to get stops and we just wanted to get the team fully together so we could get a win.
Â
On finding a comfort level in the second half…
 I would say that I had seen a couple of good looks and I went for it. It's all about just believing in myself. That's really what it was at the end. I felt like on the layup. I had a good drive, a good opportunity and I finished it the best way possible. Rocket hit me with a couple of shots, Aaron (Henry) hit me with a couple of shots, and I just followed through and finished. So really, at the end, it was just about me believing in myself and my teammates believing in me and getting me the ball.
Â
On Antoine Davis and what the team needs to do defensively…
 Antoine, he is a very great player. He did some very good things on the offensive end to help his team. He was a great leader, he played D, he did the right things for his team. He didn't come out with the W today and that's okay. They've got a long season to go, and he's a great player. He's going to make big things happen in the future so I'm blessed enough I got to play against him because he's going to shock the world. Overall, defensively, I've got to pick it up and the team has to pick it up. I did some things out there that I shouldn't have done and I have to pick that up and get back in the gym and keep working, watching film and going over the things that have happened. But overall, I'm just got happy that we got a win.
Junior forward Aaron HenryÂ
On the struggles tonight…
You got to credit Detroit for the way they played of course. They played hard and competed. They did all the little things that our staples here at Michigan State as well and they some of those things better than we did. I felt it was a learning experience for us. I mean it's good to get those type of games in and win them. We've obviously seen teams around the country that fall in those types of games. We did a lot of things like missing layups, not following defensive assignments and you got to give a lot of credit to Detroit for the way they played and how they just did what they wanted too. We got to learn from that.
On not having game film against them…
Tough or not, that stuff helps of course, but when it comes down to it we watched some film on them and the type of players that they had and we just got to, I don't want to say, nut up, but I want to say something better than that, but when it comes down to it that's what we have to do that. Play tough, play with some grit, and just come more prepared. We can't come in and think it's going to be given to us. I'm just glad we won."
 On Rocket's performance…
He was dynamite in a lot of different areas. Starting at half court, you now setting guys up, getting guys open shots. He was just everywhere. He was guarding their best player. He was key for us in doing things. I mean I was in foul trouble sitting on the bench but just watching him on the bench and coming in and trying to contribute in those last minutes, he was huge for us. He's growing a whole lot and the sky's the limit.
Junior guard Foster Loyer
On playing many key roles this season...
It's been important each time you know that I go into that I do my job that I make sure I'm being a leader out there for our team settling our team down, trying to get us into something that's going to be successful on the offensive end, and just really leading the communication on the defensive end those are kind of a couple things that I've been really focusing on and we're just looking to continue to build on that.
On the importance of defense and taking charges...
You know the defensive end has been a big emphasis for myself and for the coaches towards myself. After these last couple years so that's something you know through this through the beginning of this year that I've really prided myself on, you know making those adjustments and just doing whatever I can. The charges that's just going to come from playing hard and being in the right spot. And just doing whatever I can to help my team.Â
Â
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballTom Izzo Post Game Comments | ARK | Nov. 8 2025
Saturday, November 08
Tom Izzo Post Game Comments | BGSU | Oct. 23 2025
Thursday, October 23
Tom Izzo | Men's Basketball Press Conference | Oct. 16 2025
Thursday, October 16
Tom Izzo | Men's Basketball Press Conference | Apr. 16 2025
Wednesday, April 16