NCAA Tournament First Four Press Conference Coverage

Michigan State men's basketball head coach Tom Izzo and junior forward Aaron Henry met with the media on Tuesday afternoon to preview the First Four NCAA Tournament matchup against UCLA. The 11^th-seeded Spartans (15-12) and Bruins (19-7) will meet on Thursday, March 18 at approximately 9:57 p.m. ET from Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the game will be televised on TBS. The winner will face sixth-seeded BYU on Saturday, March 20.

The following is a transcript from Tuesday's press conference:

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo

Opening statement…
We just got back from practice. We went up to Purdue and practiced, and it was great. I think our guys are looking forward to it. It's just been a strange time, when you haven't played in…when you played so many games in two weeks, and now it seems like we've played none in two months. That's the way it is. Everything else has been great here. The people have done the best job they can do. Quarantining yesterday was a little weird; I'd never been through anything like that, but it wasn't that bad either. I think all in all, now we're in our normal situation, we test every day, we had a good practice, we practiced last night in the facility here, we went up to Purdue today. It's about an hour and 15 minute ride. Tomorrow we'll be back practicing here, and then go up for the game. We're excited about it, we're ready for it, and we'll see what happens.

On life in the bubble in Indianapolis…
You know, it's not a bad bubble, I mean, we're at the J.W. Marriott, so there's been worse bubbles, you know? But it's different because you really don't leave your floor, or the room I'm in right now, which is our film room and our food room. Those are the two rooms you're really allowed in. You can't really go outside for a walk, or things like that. There's worse things in the world, people have been through a lot more than we have. And right now, it's just different. It's not necessarily a bad different.

On it being different with the players being alone in their rooms and not having roommates…
I think it is. They're used to sitting there in the room, watch a game, or (talk) with each other, you know, all those things, and now you don't get it. But every once in a while, we have a stretch out in the hallway, we try to do some things to keep them together; we'll have some meetings down here, we can do that. It will work out. Before you know it, we'll be playing games. If we play on Thursday, once we play that game, if you win, everything gets crazy, you're back to one-day prep, so we're just trying to get through today, and by tomorrow, it's day before a game, and then it's game time. That's kind of what we're looking forward to.

On playing an NCAA Tournament game at Mackey Arena…
It was good (practicing there). You're in Big Ten country, they were all nice, and did a nice job with the arena. You know, everything is good. It seems like there's a million things you could complain about, because it's just different, but there's a lot of great things too, and the best thing of all is I got 15 guys here who get a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament. You take that for granted at Michigan State, but you really take it for granted until you don't play one last year, and so I think there's that excitement. Now, I gotta tell you, in talking to a lot of coaches around here, everybody's a little concerned about how their kids are dealing with all these different things. As it was stated earlier, you don't have roommates, you don't have this, you don't have that, those things seem like good things, but they're different things, and so who knows how everyone's going to handle it, who knows who else is going to come down with the virus. I think we're crazy if we think the way it went with Virginia and Kansas, that that's not going to happen again to somebody. So, we're just trying to keep our heads straight, and stay under the radar, and try to prepare for UCLA, and that's what we're doing.

On the play of UCLA's Tyger Campbell, and what he's noticed since he recruited him in high school…
His hair is the same and that's how I can notice him. But to me he's a lot thinner, I think he's done a great job with his body. He's quicker, I think his shot is better. He's a likeable kid – we always liked him. I think he has matured a lot and I think they have done a great job with him because he's the still the straw that turns that drink. He's more of a traditional true point guard – he can score himself but he's looking to get people involved. If you ask me, he's gotten quicker, thinner and those things kind of go hand-in-hand, and a little more under control with his game that I think has really helped him, too.

On having played UCLA the last two years and if the familiarity helps, along with playing at Mackey Arena…
I don't know if those things help much at this time. I've known Mick (Cronin) for a long time. I knew him when he was at Cincinnati when he was an assistant with (Bob) Huggins. And you know the one thing that is bad is that a West coast team is usually a little softer over the years, but Mick brings a Midwest flavor and his teams are tough. He's done a great job building that program again. Last year he had some problems – kids didn't want to buy in. And now he's got kids that have bought in and I have a lot of respect for Mick and the way he has done it and doing it in an environment that's not as easy to do it in. He brings a smash mouth kind of team and it will be a different team than maybe some we've played out west.

On if there has been one thing that has been consistent with his teams that have made NCAA Tournament runs and if he sees something in this team that could help them go on a run…
When you see the last two weeks of the season and how we played, you do get excited about that. Then you see the last two weeks of the season and a couple games we played. Sometimes it's matchups, like Maryland might not be a great matchup for us. But when can play with a Michigan, Ohio State, Illinois, and you can argue Illinois has played as well as anybody and we beat them the soundest of the three when they were fully loaded. So, I think we have some potential for that and I see that in our team. The consistency has been the problem but it's a little different, too. Normally we're going in and you're preparing for two games. Now you go in and you're probably underdogs in all three games, so it's a little harder to look ahead. I still want to win the weekend, the weekend just became a little longer. So, in this year of the pandemic, in this year of 2020-21, I might as well experience some more new things. Not ever playing in a play-in game is a new thing and not ever playing three games to get out of the weekend, that's a new thing. There's a lot of new things, but just think if you accomplish them they'll be really cool things.

On if this is the freshest the team has been and if that is a good thing…
It's funny because you could say that if you want to talk about the cup being half-full. If you want to talk about it being half-empty, you'd say 'you don't play a game for seven or eight days after playing every other day for two weeks.' Nobody knows how that's going to affect us. I do think we're going to be fresher, but you know laying around worries me, too, because we can't do the things that you'd want to do. So you're spending a lot of time laying in a hotel room, which I'm not sure is good either. It's everybody's guess on how everybody is going to react to these different things. I think you're going to see some teams that aren't as good beating teams that are as good. I think you're going to see some strange things because it's going to come down to how everybody handles the adversity they've all been placed in. It has not been bad and it has been the same for everybody, so it's even. I can't say that I have a blueprint to tell you like I normally feel. I just do feel like we're excited to be here. You know and I know that three weeks ago nobody gave us a chance, including probably most of you, and probably even me. We fought our way through and that took some courage and guts and I'm proud of them for that. So hopefully we can build on that and look at a game like Maryland and why did we not play well against them either time. You know sometimes there are bad matchups and you just don't play well against certain teams and let's hope it was that way.

I'm not worried about facing anybody in this tournament. I don't feel comfortable with UCLA and BYU or Texas, but I don't feel afraid of UCLA, BYU or Texas or anybody else because we truly, truly have played the best teams in the country on a night-in and night-out bases and especially in the last two to three weeks.

On similarities and differences between you and UCLA…
They don't play real big and we don't play real big. I think they are a tougher team and pretty good defensively and they have been a little sporadic offensively too. He controls things a lot more, they don't run like we do, but we do run a little better, that Juzang kid from Kentucky is playing well for him lately and of course their point guard, you know, has been in the system for three years. Yeah, you're right, there are some similarities, there some differences but I do like the matchup. I think we match up pretty good. I think as coaches we kind of believe in the same thing. I mean Mick is a tough, he is a Bob Huggins disciple, I'm a Jud Heathcote disciple. I don't know if that's good or bad or indifferent…So I'll just say that we do have some similarities for a west coast team, I think they are different than a lot of west coast teams as he came from the Midwest.

On what you're asking from your guards…
I'm asking for consistency, I'm asking for good shot selection, I'm asking for to do a better job on our turnovers. I mean we haven't been awful at times, but I think if there's one thing that you'd have to blame the head coach for is we haven't had the consistency that you'd want out of your team, but between injuries, between changing positions, between some guys stepping up and some guys not stepping up, we have rotated people. I mean the one thing we decided here was we are going to hold people accountable to do what they need to do. If not, we are going to rotate them, and that hasn't been good in a way, but I'll tell you what, you look at the last 2-3 weeks we did start coming around, and so was Maryland a bad matchup or did we kind of run out of gas from what we went through too with all those big games. Maybe a little bit of both, so I'm not worried about trying to figure out why because it really doesn't matter anymore. This is going to be a slugfest Thursday night and I think it will be one of the all-time great play-in games, which I still question a little bit, but sticking with my theory of anybody, anyplace, anytime. Anyplace, we are in Mackey Arena. Anytime, we are at 10 o'clock at night. Anybody, we are playing one of the story programs in all of sports. I mean UCLA basketball is still UCLA basketball. I'm just hoping Magic gets the last word on Bill Walton, that's what I'm hoping.

On hearing the coach from UCLA say he's trying to mold his team after what you did…
It makes me feel great. It makes me feel proud. It makes me feel good and, but I also know that (Bob Huggins) and I are good friends and Mick was at Cincinnati, so he was a Midwest guy and I think he respected what we did, I think he does coach his team hard. I mean he gets after those guys; I promise you that, hell, we were with him in Maui, and he got after them, so I have great respect for him too and I love people that coach people and he coaches them, he holds them accountable. If he thinks we've done that good of a job and developed the culture that we developed, I know he always liked the fact that our players came back and that I think is what he wants to do there. That's the ultimate compliment of all, but he's not taking no backseat now. It's not like he's a rookie. He's been in this for awhile too and he's done a hell of a job at Cincinnati and a hell of a job there so I think there is mutual respect which is great to have in these games and these days when I think so many coaches, as you saw in some of those conference tournaments, the Alabama-LSU, coaches are fighting with each other, I'm sure we will be mad at each other but there will be great respect and that's kind of what you want.

On not having a lot of guys play in the tournament before…
Some of the veterans are excited because they been there like Aaron and Josh and some of the rookies, I think, are a little nervous because even though Rocket and guys like that weren't there last year. It is strange that we are talking that way, we talked about this big streak we had, and I got guys in there that haven't been to the NCAA Tournament, so it is different, but that's been a little strange. It's all coming together, and you know what guys who play the hardest, play the best, play the most consistent, take care of the ball are probably going to win games and that's been our battle cry, that's what we got to do, a lot of that will fall on Aaron and Josh and we got Rocket playing better and better, understanding his role more. We got Joey Hauser and Malik and Marcus Bingham has been playing better so I'm excited to see how we play in this thing, I really am, let's see what we do. We have an incredible opportunity, ironically, Shaka Smart and I are pretty good friends and we played in Vegas two years ago against UCLA and Texas and I text Shaka after the conference tournament not knowing we would play them and we were just talking about all the things that you go through, and he's been through some tough times and fought back, and I think that's the way it is with all of us, everybody is wondering how their players are going to respond. His players didn't respond as well in the tournament for a couple years, I think he's 0-2. Some of my players have been to a Final Four and I got other guys that are juniors or sophomores that never played in the tournament, so it will be interesting to see, but I'm excited to see it. I'm going to rely on Aaron and Josh a lot and Jack Hoiberg to explain to people what it means. I was talking to Jack this morning, him being a little older than everyone else, he remembers the Jaren Jackson loss to Syracuse and what it meant so everybody has their own stories, and my story is going to be, let's do something that has never been done for Michigan State anyway and that's play three games in the same week in the NCAA Tournament. Win the weekend.

Junior forward Aaron Henry

On Coach Izzo and keeping the NCAA Tournament streak alive…
I mean he carries a lot of weight on himself, but it's something to see. My freshman year we go to a Final Four, last year we won the Big Ten Championship as the season gets cut short and this year isn't the year we all expected, but you know he's been the same in preparation and how he approaches things. You know that's the type of coach he is, the type of person he is and you know it's a testament to what this program has become over the years and, you know it's why he's a good coach and I'm glad I'm in a position to always be able to ride with him. Knowing he is going to give me 100 percent every time.

On playing in the NCAA Tournament…
It definitely is a dream for every kid that has watched basketball when they were young. You know everybody's had their own their own specific unique dreams and what not, but I just watched any game that I could, but you know whether it was the one or 16, of course the closest games and of course the Final Four. It is a good day for fans of basketball but it's a better day to be playing in it.

On playing in his hometown of Indianapolis and home state of Indiana for the NCAA Tournament…
It means a lot to me, something that I won't forget, and I don't think it is ironic that has happened this way for me, and the situation that has been in, but you know, I'm really excited to just be in my hometown, to just play in gyms that I've played in before. It's a unique year, my parents get to come still and then even with everything going on, this is really exciting for me, my mom and my dad talk about it a lot, and it means a lot to my family.

On the schedule at the end of the year, with a busy two-week stretch and then a week off…
We get some time off to rest a little bit with those games that we had back to back to back, but at the same time, coach has been put in these situations before, it is our job to listen to him in preparation…We have to be good in that area, but every game is a challenge, every situation is a challenge. We have to come prepared with an open mind ready to learn, and ready to play.

On the Final Four team from 2019…
That team was one of a kind, for sure, but we still have some experience and pieces that they're seeing the right way to do things and see how to get there, and we hope to take it nothing but farther this time. Things haven't gone the best way this year throughout the regular season, and even in the tournament, the Big Ten Tournament, but it's a new day, it's a new season, that's how we're going to approach it. We have to all be willing to go to different places. This year, with our play, with how we approach things, and continue to follow Coach Izzo throughout this way.

On talking to the younger players about being in the NCAA Tournament…
Absolutely, I'm just trying to express that the "my bads" have to go, we don't have time to say, oh this is my fault, this is my fault will end up with me going home in my hometown. You know I don't want to make it like that personal like that, but this is their freshman year. This is one of their four, maybe out of four years they will get. It means a lot more than just me, you know, but hopefully they understand that, that this four years, or however long they will be here, go by so fast and you have to take advantage of each time.

On practicing at Purdue…
It was cool. They did a nice job with the arena, and overall production that the NCAA did and put together for us, it was really thought out. I give them a lot of credit for that, but just being able to be in an area that we are familiar with, I don't want to say it gives us a leg up or anything like that but, you know, definitely some territory that we know…Knowing just any area you can be comfortable in and that you'll feel better about yourself, and you feel better about preparation, It's just a different feel. But we still have to come ready to play.

On playing UCLA the last couple of years…
They have some guys that are all close to the same height, but are versatile. They can score from a variety of places, they run good sets, they cut hard man, they just, you know, we have to come prepared to play, understand that they switch sometimes on defense and they create matchup problems on offense, but it's just about what type of basketball game are we going to play, are we going to play Michigan State basketball, or are we just going to just go out there and not perform like we should, and that's what it comes down to. I mean they present a lot of problems for a lot of people; we have to come ready to play.

On playing in the Indiana state tournament in high school…
Absolutely, that's something I refer to as well. Not only that, but of course the Final Four and just anytime you have success winning, you hold that to a premium and a different standard. You feel like you know how to do it, and combine that with a coaching staff and a coach that, you know, understands it, and has done it for longer than I've been alive, you're getting the best of both worlds. I feel like I'm more than willing, more than ready to help lead this journey onto what I hope to be a memory making one for sure, but you know, those memories that I've had, you know definitely helped, I've seen how to win and what it takes.

On UCLA…
You see some toughness traits definitely, when they're attacking the glass from all positions. You watch the film and see how aggressive all five guys are, not only the person with the ball or whoever is shooting, but just how hungry, they seem hungry with the ball, and we have to be prepared for that and match the intensity and maybe take it up a notch, but you know they play hard, they play smart. And they really attack the glass I feel like.

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