Post-Game Quotes vs. Penn State

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo:

Opening statement…
You know what I'm a little disappointed. We had a good 8-10 point lead, and I thought we made some plays that weren't very good. They made a couple of good plays - that's a very good basketball team. You think what you think, but they went through the COVID too. I was talking to their coach before the game and by the way, he's gotta be … you know, I know Juwan [Howard] has done an unbelievable job, but he's done a hell of a job for that team and I'm hoping that his AD takes a look at Jim [Ferry] for that job because players played hard for him and never quit on him – and that's the mark of something special.

I thought we executed some things when we were down four. I thought Marcus Bingham did a better job, and I started Malik Hall. And the reason for that was Joey [Hauser] came in two days ago and said 'Coach, I'm not playing as good, Malik [Hall] is playing good, he says 'I'm fouling - I'm in foul trouble every game.' It's kind of like Jaren Jackson went through. He says, 'What do you think of bringing me off the bench?' And you know what? That takes a man to do that, because that's exactly how it happened. And it really takes a man to go out and back it up and pull it off. We got 21 points out of that position, seven or eight rebounds, and Joey hits those two big free throws and hits a couple shots. Malik gets a couple big rebounds, I thought that was a big help for us.

I thought, you know, Josh Langford had some great looks again and gosh, he's been shooting so good I thought he was kind of opening up. I don't think he was fatigued tonight, I don't think he was tired. He gets his 1,000th point during the game, but he missed some great shots, you know, a layup. You can't miss those and win big games, but we found a way to do that, and I think that was good.

We got something out of everybody. [Julius] Marble came in and got a couple of big plays, got five rebounds in 10 minutes you know, and he did better. We mixed our lineup up a little bit, and the straw that stirred the drink was Aaron Henry. We got a lot out of Foster [Loyer], we got, I think, one of the better games out of Rocket [Watts]. A couple of big plays down the stretch as far as who he got the ball to.

So it wasn't pretty. But, you know, but another great defensive performance holding them to 34 [percent from the floor] and 21 [percent from three]. Turnovers were a big thing I talked about, we had 11 and that's not bad, considering we had three in the first minute and a half. And rebounding was pretty even. You know, again, if we hit two or three of those threes that Josh had that were wide open, I think we'd shoot 50% from three. So, it doesn't save us. We're still a work in progress, but I was proud of this team. Aaron [Henry] in the huddle before that said 'Its time to win a game like this.' I thought that's exactly what they did - they executed. We won the game, we got a couple big rebounds late. We got some tough calls, but it worked out.

On getting the win…
What I liked about it is, just what you said, we gutted it out at the end, we executed a few things offensively. We kind of went to Aaron (Henry), and I even thought his pass underneath, I thought the guy got clubbed, but it's neither here nor there, I thought it was the right decision. We did grit our teeth and played pretty good defense. And we won it the old-fashioned way. It was a Purdue-Michigan State, Minnesota/Clem Haskins-Michigan State game. They are very physical. They are very good. The big kid inside (John Harrar), it's been fun to watch his progression…and right now, he's a very good player. He can score down there. He's a great rebounder. He's a great offensive rebounder. He plays with some passion; you heard him talking. I love that kid, he did a lot of good things.

And as I said, I think (interim coach) Jim (Ferry) did some great things. There's some good players there, I'm telling you. (Seth) Lundy is a very, very good player, (Izaiah) Brockington, we did a hell of a job on him, I thought we did a pretty good job on (Myles) Dread and (Sam) Sessoms. But, you know, couldn't really, Lundy, he goes 0-for-4 (from the field), 0-for-2 (from 3), can't ask for more than what we did. (Myreon) Jones hit some shots, then hit some free throws, last year if you remember, he killed us single-handedly, and Harrar was pretty good too. I would have taken a half-point win, to be honest with you, if there's ever such a thing. I just wanted to get a win.

On his talk with Joey Hauser before the game, and Hauser coming to him about not starting…
I wouldn't lie to you if I said, in this day and age, that was surprising when he came in. I think he had talked to his parents, you know, and his parents have an athletic background too, and his dad played, and you know I think he's just searching. What I like, I love guys that can self evaluate. And he knows he hasn't been playing as good. The other night, I mean he plays 13 minutes, he's in there two minutes at a time and gets a foul every time. If you remember back when Jaren Jackson went through that, we got to the point where he fouled once, and we'd take him out, and we'd hardly play him in the first half, and that's not good either.

Tonight, I just thought he had more confidence. He took the ball off the dribble. I think he just said, the hell with it, I'm going to play. And that's kind of what kids got to do, you know, but there's so much pressure on these kids right now, if you really look at all of it. And this is where, the COVID thing, as I've been talking about each week, I just don't think anyone has an idea what it's like to be in a confined area for so long, and just not have a normal life. It affects everybody differently. But I was really proud of Joey because he did come in, and I said, well, I'm going to talk to Malik, yeah, call him tonight, so I called Malik and made sure he had a day ahead of time and knew what was going on, so the next day in practice I told my team the day before the game, this is what we're doing, it doesn't change any playing time, let me look here, Malik played 20, and Joey played 21, so it didn't change their minutes a lot.

I still think Joey Hauser is a big key for us as we move forward because of the way he can shoot the ball. He'll get that back. It's not been an easy offseason for any of these guys, especially the new guys. So I'm really proud of the kid. You're right, it does take something to come in and tell the head coach that, and he came in, and sat down, and it was actually enjoyable. I really got something out of it, personally. Who knows where it takes us, but Joey Hauser is still a very, very important part of this team, and whether I start him or don't, he'll be playing minutes.

On Joshua Langford scoring his 1,000th career point tonight...
Yeah, the players celebrated about it in the locker room, and I'm hoping that a couple of things, sometime we'll have a celebration on the court hopefully when his parents are here, I'm hoping it's when there's a few fans here, these are the things and the memory-making moments that this COVID has really taken away from us. So I didn't want to do anything on the court right then, because he deserves more, but in the locker room, guys were pretty fired up for him. But Josh is Josh, and he's probably mad that he missed some of those shots, but still to go through what he went through, to play as little as he sort of played, and to be a 1,000 points scorer and be on that illustrious list, is pretty impressive and I'm proud of him, I'm happy for him, and it'll give them just one more thing to feel good about in what has been a tough, tough career with all the injuries.

On Joey Hauser's body language coming off the bench looking more relaxed then when he was starting...
You never know why... but I agree with you, 100 percent, and that's kind of what he told me that after the game, and he said he felt good, and he felt good for Malik. As I said, there aren't many people that are that... sometimes I think he's un-confident in himself because I think he should shoot it more, but sometimes maybe he's comfortable in his own skin, because he had enough gumption to come in and do what 90 percent of the players probably wouldn't do that, and I looked at it as a complete positive, and God, when I saw the same thing, I saw his body language when he first got the ball and drove it, and I said 'here we go.' I'm not saying it's all solved, it's going to be a day-by-day thing, but we're going to make some progress here. The one thing we've got in this crazy league of ours is, as hard as it is, you've got your opportunities; we've got Iowa coming in here, we're gonna focus on Iowa like nobody's tomorrow and see if you can win one of those games, now all of a sudden you start getting back into the human race a little bit, and so that'll be the goal. But boy when you look at it and you think of who's still coming up, it's a who's-who of college basketball's top 20 teams right now. As I said early, I thought should have beat Purdue, I thought we could have beat Wisconsin, I thought we did a hell of a job at Iowa, I thought we've overcome a lot of stuff; I think I did a poor job in some things early, I think our players didn't always play well, but we've been through hell. Talking to Jim (Penn State head coach Jim Ferry) before the game, you know they had it (COVID) all right after Christmas and talking to Fred (Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg) the other night, the three of us that have been through the most with this, boy it's... I don't ever want to give the kids credit or give them an excuse, but they've been through a lot, and they're hanging in, and I would agree with you, I thought Joey looked the same way, and if he could grow a beard like you maybe we'll even get him a little better.

On having struggles and not having thing go their way, but then getting a lane violation to help, a tip-in from Rocket Watts, and a long rebound, and feeling like result of guys buying in and giving more effort to make those plays happen...
Well, you're right, Rocket's tip-in was big, and we did have a lane violation on them, but we also had a lane violation on us that took a point away and, I still thought in that one stretch when we 10-up, I thought we were playing really smooth and good, and then we just let down, there were two missed assignments to be very honest with you, where we gave up two threes. And I think the beauty of it, and this is what I did enjoy about Rocket tonight, he came up to me after, he said, 'Coach, that was my fault on that...' and I said 'you can self-evaluate that?' And he said, 'Yeah,' so I said 'then you just made big progress my man.' And I really think, maybe he'll have more confidence, I had him in there at the end, and I was very pleased with Foster too, but Rocket is capable of doing some things defensively that helped us at the end.

So, I don't know, but I know this, we've had enough things go against us that we deserved a few things and even in this game, I just think there's some plays... that was a critical play when Aaron threw that ball inside I thought, and so I'll just take the win and be happy with it.

On Marcus Bingham being aggressive around the basket and if win game without him down the stretch...
Well he went up and got a couple of big rebounds, as you said, and tips, and I don't know how many rebounds did Marky end up with, nine, but four-for-five from the line too, and on one of his, I'm not sure if he didn't miss one or that was the one that we the lane violation, I'm not sure. But all-in-all, I thought, Marcus played better, he played within himself, he didn't take any shots that were out of his... that he could make, but hasn't made yet, so why take them now, whey don't you wait until we get that down in practice. But I thought he was the difference in this game, with his size and his shot-blocking a couple times, I think he had one or two blocks. I was pleased by Marcus, he played 18-20 minutes and didn't look dead tired, and that guy's a load that he played against. He was up on both screens, and did a lot of good things. It's just a step guys, it's a step but it's a big step

Junior forward Aaron Henry

On how the Purdue loss helped with the Penn State win...
The hurt from that. That heard from that still lingers in all of our heads. I don't want to say it played a big part, but you know we've we felt some feels from that in the huddles. I wanted to make sure that we understand this is winning time. This is where we have to take the next step as a team. This is where we have to grow; it is where we have to get better. This is what I've been talking about, you know, to our team in the media, just another step. I feel like we still have a lot of room to grow, but I'm happy. But I'm not satisfied, we got a big game this weekend. Penn State played hard, and we got a win.

On the emphasis of making winning plays...
That was the emphasis in the huddle. Nobody was arguing; nobody was going back and forth. Everybody was on the same page to win. We mess up on a flank, and we mess up on an assignment at the end of the game. But, you know, the basketball gods blessed us as people say. We were fortunate some of those possessions. We still have a lot of room a grown man we honestly do, and I am just glad we got the win tonight.

On getting a lot of opportunities in the paint tonight...
That is what they were giving us. That's the way they play; they deny a lot. They turn down a lot of things - iso a lot of things. We had to push it aside and find a way to score points within the paint. One of the things we need to need to do better is find that find what they're giving us earlier. See what they're doing with this and capitalize earlier and continue to throughout the game.

On what changed in the second half to eliminate the fouling...
We realized that we had to play smart, winning basketball. We did discuss not fouling, but you we honestly just tried to play straight up as we could and play, as big and as strong as we could. And I'm proud of our guys for the way we competed for 40 minutes. It wasn't 39 minutes of competing or 39 minutes and 30 seconds. It was 40 minutes of competing. And that's what that's what got us the win.

On if the emotion was turned up the last few minutes...
Absolutely, because we've been there before, and we've been on that other hand so many times, and throughout the season. And just the growth that I've been referring to the next step that I've been referring to was making those energy plays for 40 minutes.

On playing more aggressively due to the size of Penn State...
Yeah they were aggressive for sure they play physical. They reach and contest a lot of a lot of things not just jump shots, but know we play physical and we matched intensity and for 40 minutes and I'm gonna put a big emphasis on that we did it for the whole game, and I'm just proud of our guys for doing that.

On Malik Hall being in the starting lineup...
I mean everybody was comfortable with him or Joey (Hauser) in that lineup. Those are two guys that have a lot to give, and I'm proud of Malik for the way he competed today. He took some steps tonight, and I'm happy for his progression.

On if it is difficult to not allow negativity to creep in late in games...
That's why we have practice. We practice closing out practice on a high note. We have put an emphasis on that, so that way we can have carryover into the game. With the losses we've had it's been tough, but tonight we found a way to translate practice into the game for 40 minutes, and that's been a huge emphasis and just how we've been growing. Then our next steps we have to continue to start practice on a good note and continue to be as well as we can, like throughout the whole time not just, for a part of practice where we go into a shooting drill or something like that, but from the beginning all the way to the end, and I feel like we did that tonight. You could put it like that. Basketball is a game that I get nothing but joy and fun from, but you know when it comes down at this level to winning, it's put out a premium, and that's where the most fun is when you win.

On the play of Marcus Bingham down the stretch...
That's my roommate. That's my dawg. I'm so happy he played well. Everybody in the Brez has been showing him off for so long and just to see him, have some success tonight. I threw him that late pass and he went up off strong got fouled and hit two big for it does mean that's growth. He competed, he rebounded, he blocked shots, man he was everywhere. I'm proud of him, and he took some steps tonight for sure.

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Players Mentioned

Malik Hall

Joey Hauser

Aaron Henry

Joshua Langford

Rocket Watts

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