Post-Game Quotes: Northwestern
12/4/2022 10:50:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Opening statement...
Well, I thought we got out toughed, I thought that team played well and hard. Those guards really played hard. We just don't the depth yet when Mady and especially Tyson got in foul trouble in that first half with a seven-point lead. We just did not respond very well. We changed the lineup for a reason, it was to light a fire under AJ for not doing the things I need done as a point guard. To his credit, he responded extremely well. He was about the only guy to play with the toughness and the sense of urgency we need. Tyson got taken out of it with the fouls. The number of ball screens they ran, when Mady was in there it was pretty good but we struggled with other guys. Tried to play Jaden because we were going to play him, decided to start him. Number one because of AJ, but number two I might have started him in front of somebody else, but once he warmed up, I did not want him sitting there for six or seven minutes. I was hoping he would play 16 to 18 minutes, he played 22. A couple time I thought we did a poor job getting him out of there, and I thought he was tired, we gave up some baskets. Really, I got to take my hat off to (Matthew) Nicholson and (Julian) Roper II, two guys who would have wanted to come here. It was Nicholson's night when you bank in a free throw, he is a 40% shooter and he made three of four. I admire guys like that, that probably want to stick it up my tail, and I do not blame them. But most of all, we did not play good enough, and they did a helluva job. I thought they out-coached us, out-played us, out-toughed us. That is a good team, four guys back that played a lot of minutes, and those three guards are really good, we let (Ty) Berry get going early. Could not find a way to hang on once we got in foul trouble in the second half.
On Northwestern being experienced and able to get to the free throw line as often as they did...
Yeah, I was disappointed, I thought it was a physical game, but for them to shoot 21 out of 24 free throws, first of all they are not a very good free throw shooting team. Give them credit that they made them. Pretty good discrepancy there. All those things mean aggressive, they got to the line more, they out-rebounded us by one, the turnovers in the second half even though 13 is not a ridiculous number, it is the points off turnovers. Their 13 is skewed a little bit, we had 10 they had 13, we had to earn ours, they went down made layups on at least four of theirs. So probably our half court defense was not as bad as I think, I'll watch that. But when you turn the ball over for touchdowns like we did three times in the second half alone. Those are back breakers.
On Jaden Akins' usage…Â
I was hoping I would use him for 16 to 18 minutes like we did when he came back the first time. We played him 22 because he was not hurting, but he was hurting conditioning-wise, not foot-wise. He hit the first shot. Struggled some when he was tired, we need to do a better job subbing him so again that falls under the coaches, so I got to do a better job.
On Pierre Brooks' performance…Â
Well, that's the dilemma that we are in right now. We got some guys who can make shots, some guys who can guard people and not a lot of guys who can do both. So, Pierre played ok, he made some shots, he had some issues defensively. One of the things is if you play 30 minutes, you would hope you get more than two rebounds. He has to rebound and defend better. He made a couple of shots, but three for seven from the three is good, but three for ten is not as good. He played ok.
On how much there is to take away from this game without Malik there...
I do not know; it really does not matter because we do not have him. And we will not have him for another couple of weeks. I cannot worry about it. It is not the same. When they go small, we do not have that option right now. And we are playing Joey 38 minutes a game. That is a little bit of a problem, it is what is, you combine the brutal travel with the two guys out. Because Jaden will not be back to normal for at least two weeks. So each day he will get a little better, and it will take Malik time to get a little better but those are two important players. And hopefully when we get them back we will become a better team. But in the meantime we need to win games, and we are capable of winning games. We were capable of winning tonight. Like I said, Tyson was kind of out of it because of the foul trouble. And Mady had hurt us when he got in foul trouble.
On how long he thinks it'll take to get team cohesion back after players return from injury…
If you look at [Boo] Buie, [Chase] Audige and [Ty] Berry, that's been three and four years for those guys. It's going to take some time. We did have a nice [cohesion], but that's the way it works. But, there's no excuse to make some of the turnovers we made either. We have enough to blame ourselves on and coaching decisions. Hands got tied there when we had the seven-point lead - Tyson was out – we probably played Jaden [Akins] a little too long conditioning-wise. Nothing with his foot. No issues at all, but conditioning-wise, he was pretty beat. So, it'll take some time. I think the biggest thing is, we still have to get back in our own flow as far as practicing. [Doug] Wojcik sent me a text two nights ago that said that that was the second practice in 12 days that we had to work on us. So of all the things I think with the scheduling, I don't regret one of them except the timing of things. The one thing I learned is that we did not get any time to work on Michigan State. It was just walk-through for this team, walk-through for that team. It's hard to develop those young guys. Mady [Sissoko] needs developing. He played four or five minutes a game last year. Pierre [Brooks] needs some developing. And then the three freshmen when the two guys went out. I think that's been the biggest disappointment from my standpoint about what I did, not what they did. Now, we get some practice time, but what do we get? We get a day tomorrow and a day before the game. So it'll happen during hopefully finals and and during Christmas, and we'll see where we go. We're good enough to win these games. We're good enough to beat just about anybody we've played so far. The disappointment to me tonight – I think we competed, we guarded pretty good, shot 32 [percent] and 40 [percent], that's not bad – but I thought, toughness wise, they banged us then we push off. That fourth foul was a tough call on Tyson [Walker]. We weren't able to take the banging they did. They deserve it. I'm happy for Chris [Collins]. They did a hell of a job. He's gone through a lot himself. It's not easy at Northwestern to do what he's done, losing some players that he lost. He deserves a lot more credit on this whole thing than maybe I gave him early. He did his job. He got those guys ready. I told [Chase] Audige after the game, I told [Boo] Buie, and this is the greatest coaching thing I tell Chris: those guys just shot shots last year. They threw up shots and I don't think they guarded well. And right now, that might be as good a defensive team that I've seen as far as come at you and get after you. I give him a lot of credit. I told him that after the game. That is a better Northwestern team because of the way they guard. They're a very good defensive team.Â
Northwestern Head Coach Chris Collins
Opening Statement…
Well, needless to say this was a huge win for us, you know coming off a performance we weren't pleased with in the ACC challenge. You know, losing badly on our home floor. I was really proud of our guys' results the last couple of days. The kind of get together and get ready for what we knew was going to be a really high-level game. All of these Big 10 games have so many good teams, so many good programs and league games are just different. The intensity, the focus of all the things. I thought we did a really good job early in the game, I was concerned about the knockout punch early. I knew they were going to be really revved up coming off their Notre Dame game and they hit us with five or seven quick ones there, and then we settled down, hit a couple shots to kind of get ourselves into the game. To be able to get the lead at half there, I thought was important. A lot of guys contributed, I thought Buie was fantastic, especially when it came to closing the game at the end, it was a huge finish there when it got down to one with about twenty seconds to go, that we needed to get a stop and we were able to do that. We were able to get the ball out against pressure, make free throws and close out the game. Really good win for us, it's a long season. You could be excited about it, I want these guys to celebrate the win tonight and be happy about it but, we have to get home and we go into final exams. So, we have a week now to kind of finish up academically and get ourselves ready to finish the non-conference.Â
On coming back after the 29-point loss to Pittsburgh…
I think that loss was not character of who we were, you know I was upset with myself for not getting my team properly prepared. They were hungry and we got what we deserved that game and I think our guys knew that. It's a long year, you play 30-something games, when you have a game like that where you lose by 29 it's one loss, and we were disappointed about it and watched a film and talked about the things we needed to do to get better. I thought we had 3 really good days of practice coming into this game where we worked on our offense a lot, our defense has been carrying the day while our offense has been struggling. It was stagnant and I think we got back to how we wanted to play today. We executed things really well, we had some cuts, we shared the ball well and because of that we scored 70 points which was big.
On the play of Boo Buie and how he has performed well against Michigan State…
There are some places you get comfortable playing, I know for me when I played there were certain buildings where you liked shooting, or liked the backdrop but at the end of the day they are Michigan State. The thing I am really proud about Boo is he has had stretches in his career where he hasn't shot as well or maybe hasn't performed the way he wanted to perform and I think younger Boo would have been a little bit frazzled by that. I love his poise and I love his maturity, even in the last 4 minutes the way he was leading and talking in the huddles with the the other older guys when they were trying to make a run I felt like we were in a good spot and you know he certainly made some big shots down the stretch.
Michigan State junior guard A.J. Hoggard
On his mentality coming off the bench and not appearing in the starting lineup for the first time in a while...
It was kind of just a little adjustment we made. Kind of like when Coach has guys in Jaden's (Akins) situation, just keeping him warm and fresh in his first game back. Just trying to get him to overcome, cause we are going to need him down the road. And it also gave me the opportunity to see how things were coming off the bench, adjusting to the game earlier from when I came. It just made me see how they were guarding, how the pace of the game was going. It was easier for me to adjust tonight.
On Coach Izzo's comments about the team getting out-toughed, and if that was indeed an issue throughout the course of the game...
I'd say in certain situations, but I wouldn't say the whole game. I think communication kind of played a part in things. Not communicating on some of our coverages led to baskets…All of our missed coverages led to baskets…I think we just have to do a better job of communicating, get back to the drawing board. Understanding our guys that we're playing with right now, the injuries and things like that, just getting to know each other and understanding what's going on.
I would say communication has definitely been an issue. I think we're not playing a Michigan State-style of defense right now. I think we have to get back to that, to what got us to where we were. And just figure it out and kind of grow, learn from these lessons that we've been learning off these last two losses.
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Michigan State Senior Forward Joey Hauser
On if the team felt like they got out-toughed as a whole...
Yeah, I think a little bit. Defensively, they beat us on a couple things. Scored on a play they ran a couple of times over and over again, and they still found success. So, we just have to put a stop to some of that stuff.
Yeah, once you're in the flow of the game, I guess you really don't notice once you're playing. I didn't even know until after the game.
On how the lack of team-focus practices have hurt or impacted the team and this recent losing skid...
Yeah, it's hard. I mean, we've really had maybe like one practice the last two weeks that's kind of been not much scout for that team that we're playing. So, after a while it gets tough, but you know once you get the Big Ten season, it's a game every two or three days. That's the way we have to prepare and get used to it.
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Northwestern senior guard Boo Buie
On what makes him play so well against Michigan State, particularly in the Breslin…
A lot of people ask me that. You know, honestly, I don't even know. I grew up watching my older brother play against them and I remember him having a lot of success, but maybe it's something about the atmosphere. I really like the atmosphere, coming to play in that type of atmosphere kinda picks my game up.
On what happened to the team that got "smashed" Pitt…
We put that team under the rug, we turned the page, you know, just like we do at any point in our loss. The season is so long, you can't get caught up on one singular game, you know just like tonight, we're fortunate for the win, we're gonna celebrate tonight, but when tonight is over, it's the next page, it's the next game. You can't dwell on games, wins and losses, for too long. So, that was very uncharacteristic of us, but you know, all week like coach said, we've been working on getting back to ourselves.
On hitting those two free throws at the end and the satisfaction of watching the fans beginning to leave and the quieting of the stadium…
Yeah, I mean, I'm just excited for the young guys on our team, and the older guys. You know, this summer and this pre-season, we put in so much work, so you know, it's kinda just rewarding to see that, to see our hard work pay off. But like I said before, it's one win, you know, we were fortunate enough to come out and get this win, but we're looking forward to many more wins this year, so, you know, gotta turn the page and the next game.
On going 21-24 at the line, and what allowed them to get deep in and draw the fouls…
Yeah, so I think it was just our poise, having older guys, older players, we're just able to go-in, drive-in strong, to take the contact, and you know, try to finish, and the ones we didn't finish, we stepped up. You know, we do free throw drills everyday basically, literally every single day at the end of practice we do really talented free throw drills, so you know, as a team, we just pride ourselves on being able to make free throws.
