Post-Game Quotes: Nebraska

Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo

Opening Statement…
I don't really know what to say. I guess number one, I actually feel for Fred (Hoiberg). I'm not sure we're that good, and I know they haven't struggled like that. They played really well. Going to Creighton to play on the road was a big win and that was a big prep game for us. I give my staff a lot of credit, and maybe the maturity of my team. The guys who have been here and been through these kinds of games. We talk about Big Ten openers, how important they are on the road. We talked about winning at Minnesota where everybody thinks one thing, but Minnesota is a tough place to play. We really put emphasis on our defense because we felt like we've been doing a very average job defensively in a way. We've been giving up points. Now at Minnesota, we gave up 20 points in the last five minutes and the field goal percentages are not reaching the goals that we have. So, we put a big emphasis on that.

When you think about Jaxon (Kohler), 12 rebounds, seven offense. He did an unbelievable job, and he gets eight points and felt bad because I told him not until he's a senior. He wanted a double double, and I make a big deal around here about double doubles. I talk about how Draymond Green threatened me in my huddles about taking him out when he's got nine points or nine rebounds. I said I always gave into him because he was bigger, meaner, and he was a senior when he was threatening me. Jaxon, he begged me, and I said 'Jax, you aren't as tough as Draymond, you haven't produced like him yet, and you aren't a senior.' But I did feel bad for him, I actually like the fact that he was hungry on a goal that he had set.

Thirty points off the bench guys, in nine out of 10 games, is almost incredible. It really is a plus, strength in numbers. Plus-29 on the glass against a team that is big was a big thing. The free throw shooting, last night, we always shoot before a game. We got up to 92 percent as a team. We're carrying over what we're practicing, and that's been encouraging. 22 out of 23 there. Jaden (Akins) hit four threes, and he missed a couple that were open. He's starting to feel better and better, which makes a difference. And Jase Richardson, our other guards played pretty good, but Jase is just getting back now after his concussion a little bit. He looked smooth and good, that was great. I'm hoping that Jared Goff watched the game because when I see him throw a pass off his tush and complete a lob like that then I'm going to put him in Jeremy's (Fears) category because that was an unbelievable play by Jeremy. Coen (Carr) missed a couple of chances, too. Jeremy threw him one and Jase threw him one. We are moving the ball better; we're shooting the ball better. Twenty assists again. The only bad stat that I have is 17 turnovers. Sometimes that is going to happen when you play more people that don't really have a feel for each other yet as we get a third of the way through the season. The crowd was phenomenal. I'm glad we get a little break in a way. I know you're going to say, 'well don't you want to keep playing?' I want to at least enjoy one afternoon and one night and say these guys have done a lot of things we've asked them to do this summer. Right now, we are making some progress. Now progress can go the other way, as we all know, so I'm not ready to say we are great at everything, but we are getting better. That is what a coach wants. To get better. It wasn't Nebraska's day. They are a much better team than they played. We probably had something to do with it, but they had something to do with it. They will get better; you'll watch them win some big games. Really all I care about is Michigan State and what we do to try to be different. We don't get caught up in all the crap that's going on because you'd never seen any flows like you've seen lately in college basketball as far as difference in scores. We are just going to keep doing what we do and see where it takes us.

On Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg saying that playing MSU was playing Nebraska football and what that means to Izzo…
Football team on Hardwood was the best compliment I've ever gotten in my teams. I did feel we really went at it and Jaxon had a lot to do with it. But other guys did pretty well, too. Some guys knocked the ball loose. Frankie Fidler did some good things, knocking a ball loose. Szymon (Zapala) gets six rebounds. Trey Holloman gets four. Different guys doing different things. Everybody buying into the substitution pattern. It's not easy, but we're trying to keep guys fresh. I think that's why our running game has been so good. You rebound better when you're fresh, so we'll see if we can try and keep that going.

On the defensive stretch in the second half today…
We have to watch the film and see if they missed open shots. I thought it was pretty good. That's what's fun when you have a team that's kind of together and a team that's been here through some wars. We talked about Minnesota; we talked about other games where we came out in the second half, and we did not want to exchange baskets. There was one or two times where that was a big battle cry in the huddle by the team. Not the coach. Which is starting to get where you want to be. I'm really proud of them because we practiced like we played. We came back and we were tired, as you can imagine. We got in at 2:30 a.m., we were tied on Thursday. We talked about having just a walk through and we said, 'No we are going to practice.' We didn't go crazy, so don't get alarmed, no lawyers, no lawsuits. But we did do what we had to do. And then Friday, the day before a game, we had it pretty good and I think you can do that when you know you have some depth. I'm proud of my staff and I'm proud of those guys because it was a quick turnaround. I thought they did a hell of a job.

On Jaxon Kohler diving for loose balls and the fight his players showed…
Him and others because there were a lot of guys on the floor. That's who we are and who we have to get back to. One game doesn't get you back on track, but we are making some progress. When things like that happen, or Jeremy, it lifts the crowd, it lifts the team, it lifts the coaches. It lifts everybody and that's why they're winning plays. That's what we call them in sports, they are winning plays and that is sometimes worth double the actual score. There were a lot of winning plays getting after, knocking balls loose, rebounds. I thought we did a lot of good things.

On the team's depth and keeping everyone happy…
The beauty of it is that we are going to see guys emerge. Jaden is starting to emerge. I have to watch how I say this but I'm going to say it anyway. For the first 26, 28 years of my career here, what made you happy? Winning. That's kind of changed. I think this team winning makes them happy. Sure, Jaxon is arguing with me on the bench because he had a goal, I love a goal. Jeremy had a goal, he wanted 10 assists, I love that goal. Was he mad at me for two minutes? Probably. But, winning as they say, cures a lot of evils. I think winning and the fact that they get along with each other. Everyone gives the generic line, 'we have a closeknit team' but you guys see it. The locker room is always open, they're just a bunch of guys that absolutely care about each other. Yesterday Pat Miller was at our practice, and we were talking to a guy who's assistant at Nebraska. And he told her and told Ernie they played like they practiced. Now that's the best compliment I could get. Better than the football one. That's every coach's goal, can you take that now to game night. I credit that to the coaches and the players.

On the significance of two B1G Ten wins and Zapala's free throw shooting…
Yeah, that and those turnovers, but you know what? My good friend, I listened to a lot of people that I respect, and my good friend Nick Saban would say, 'let's not start spreading the rat poison here.' We played two really good games, and I don't know if anybody knows how good anybody is anymore. I watched that game last night and I watched some of the Ohio State-Maryland game. I watched some of the Purdue game. I don't know if anybody knows where anybody is, but what I do know is this team at Michigan State is making some progress, and they're making some progress together. We've had so many different leading scorers. I don't even know. And is that perfect? No, we still need to go-to guy, you know? I still think Jaden, Jase does some things that I really like. He can make shots, he can make drives, and he can make passes and he's just going to keep getting better. Those other guys are doing a good job. Our bigs are by committee. Sometimes, you know, but they're by committee. I want to see how we do now. I was worried coming off in North Carolina. Had a little success. How do we deal with it? We dealt with it pretty well and then you go up there and you win, now you come home opener. I've had some home openers where we figure the crowd will get us through. I made a big point to make sure our job is to get the crowd going. It's not their job to get us going. So, we do some things, they get going, then they carry us. Let's not do that vice versa. I thought we did a good job of that. Now we got a lengthy time off. My old nemesis (Greg) Kampe. Why I keep playing that game, I got to be insane. I think because they're really good. They beat Toledo this year they're really good and yet they it'll be a Christmas, Fourth of July for them down there. I'm anxious to see if it'll be a Christmas Fourth of July for us. We have finals. We're going to give them some time off.  We're going to get back. We got Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday to really bear down and then hopefully two games before Christmas, a little break and then the real war starts. So, I don't know. I don't know. So, Jack, I like where we're headed. I like where we are right now.  I think we've made some progress, but I don't think, where we are is going to be good enough to really compete yet. There are still some things we got to get better at.

On what he wants to see the team get better at…
I like to see us defensively get more and more with solid ball screen defense. Sometimes the bigs, they're a little slow getting up there. We got to do a better job of that. I think the more we play together with different lineups, so that we can have different lineups to go to. We haven't played Coen at the 4 a lot yet, we'll have teams go small ball like some will. Some will go big ball, which we can, you know, compete against that. Consistency is what I want to see now. Can we stay consistent? Can we stay levelheaded? Can we keep working? Or do we let the outside world get us? It'll be a cold day in hell before I let that happen this year. Because I said at the beginning of the year and I say it now, I like the team. And sometimes it's coach speak. This one wasn't. Going to Europe, going to the UP, going to different places, you spend a lot of time with your guys, and I think it's helped us.

On Jaden Akins' improvement…
Well, the poor guy's making shots, and I mean, he gets 18 points. Guys he only took 10 shots, I believe. He's been really efficient with 4 for 8 from the three. He's getting to the line a little more, four rebounds. I'd like him to rebound a little bit more, that would be one thing my guards got to rebound a little bit better, but Tre and Jeremy got three and four and I'd like to get Jaden up there. Frankie got a couple. He got two and Booker came on the second half, you know, I think Book's got a lot of growth yet. A lot of growth and we just got to keep working with them. So, I think Jaden is going to be our go-to guy. Everybody needs one. He sure has worked at earn that spot. Now he's got to play that spot, and I think this all helps. I mean, his last three games, four games, he's getting better, but long season guys, long season yet.

On Jeremy Fears' playmaking ability…
Well, I thought two things when I got Jeremy, I thought he was one of the better passing guards in the country and I thought he was one of the better defenders. Then when his accident happened, and you can see sometimes he doesn't have his footing in the same way. I mean, it's like learning to walk all over again and so I think in talking about what do I think we can get better at? He's going to get better too. I mean, he had a year off or nine months off. And I tease him, but look around this room, there aren't many people in here that could throw a lob to Coen, and it would be successful. There's a couple of you, but not many of you. Coen is, I can't believe he dropped that one underneath that Jase gave him.  That would have been a crowd favorite, and he missed one more that Jeremy gave him. When he blocks a shot, think about this, he's done it twice now. It was at Minnesota or North Carolina. He had a dunk on the other end and then tonight he almost did the same thing and that's incredible. That really means something when you can get a dunk on one end, you're not cheating out. I mean, a block. So, you're blocking at the rim and you're still beating people down the other end to get a dunk. I think the greatest thing about tonight, for me, because we've been working on it, is Coen going for it for four from the line and every one looked beautiful. He's really worked on it. He's gotten better, he's getting more confident. The next step will be getting his jump shot over Christmas, but he's really kind of honed in, changed it, and it looks great, so that's encouraging too.

On Jase Richardson…
I can't say I've had many guys that came in their first year and have number one, the moments never too big for them. Number two, he just has a feel. I don't know. I've been told and I've been seeing, and I've been talking to him about it. Just get him coming off some screens and let him let him do his thing. And that's not always the way it is because most people can't handle that. He's a guy that I feel comfortable with. With his hands on the ball, he makes free throws, he makes three's, he makes mid-range, and he's a very, very good passer. He's just going to keep improving too, you know, and like I said, he was out a little bit, played up Minnesota after only a day or full practice and you're going to see him, I think, sore. Really proud of Jase and what he's earned on his own. Thank you, guys.

Nebraska Head Coach Fred Hoiberg

On how Michigan State looked...
Yeah I mean they play great, I give a lot of credit to Michigan State. I've thought they've done really good in their last two games against North Carolina and the game at Minnesota to start league play. I knew that they were clicking. They made 11 threes in their last game and if this team makes shots they're going to be very very dangerous. Coach Izzo has these guys playing with a lot of confidence right now, their physicality overwhelmed us tonight, that was the bottom line. They beat us up on the glass, they were very physical on the other end, we had trouble getting open against them, we didn't do a good job screening to get our guys open, so a lot of credit goes to Michigan State.

On Michigan State's rebounding...
Both. I didn't think that we had the type of mentality to go out and compete in our first road game in one of the most hostile environments in college basketball. We've got to learn from it, we've got to get better from it, we've got a week now before the Indiana game, and you know how important it is to take your own in your home court in this league. This is going to happen, it's going to happen to most teams in this league at some point and how you're going to respond. Are you going to tuck your tail between your legs, or are you going to go out, figure it out, get tough, and be better for the next one. We're going to have to be, this is a hell of a league. That submission save was unbelievable tonight, we finally figured something out there at the end of the first half, cut it to six and gave them the last two baskets of the half to make it double digits, and then they threw a haymaker at us in the second half, we did not respond well.

On refocusing before the next game...
I'd like to see the whole team doing that, it's what it's going to take with this group. You play like practice has been a message, and this team has prepared very well, I give this group a lot of credit, they've been fun to coach but this was not our best week. We've got to figure it out, we need to learn from it, we've got to bounce back with better prep for the Indiana game. I don't know if we just exhaled after the last one knowing that we had almost a week to go to this one, and we got it again. I think it's good for us, this week, because we're gonna have a physical, tough week of practice, we're going to get ready.

On junior guard Connor Essegian...
We've got to find a way to get him open. That's where it starts. One of the things we did really well the last couple of games is in transition, we got him three wide open threes in transition and in the game before that we did a good job as well. And again, Michigan State's physicality, they got into his body and we did not do a good job getting him open.

On what he would have done differently in preparation after playing today's game...
We worked on everything we knew they were going to do. We worked on transition defense, we worked on physicality with the glass, and we worked on doing our best to take care of the ball. I think the first half we only had four turnovers, two of them were on moving screens. As far as what we need to do better, we needed to have more juice, we needed to have more edge and I thought that all carried over to the game. You know the recipe against Michigan State, it's like fighting against Nebraska football back in the day, you know what they're going to do but you're not going to stop it. Michigan State is going to play fast, you know they're going to crash the glass and sometimes you've just gotta go out and win the war, win the battle.

On how different Michigan State is in the post this year...
We're all different than we were a year ago, every team in college basketball is different than they were a year ago. That's just the landscape, that's just the way it's going to be from this point forward. They start big and they do a great job with posts. Izzo has done a phenomenal job of creating depth with his team by playing 10 or 11 guys, they just rotated in and they come at you with the next wave. They've all got a little bit different of a skill level as well, but the one thing every single one of them has is a physicality to them. It was a tough match of force, but again, it all comes back to pride. Going out there and battling, and we'll see what we're made of next week. It's going to be a very important week in our season.

Michigan State junior forward Jaxon Kohler

On the team's ball flow ..
I would say that the ball flow is hitting everybody.  I feel like everyone on this team is doing a great job of sharing the ball, moving the ball, getting it from side-to-side. It showed today that it's honestly more fun when we play it that way. Everyone gets a touch, everybody gets a good look, and everyone is part of the play. I feel like we really figured out a way to get the ball moving side-to-side and guy-to-guy, and I feel like we showed a lot of good ball movement.

On the overall team win ...
I think that this win is probably one of the most enjoyable wins that we've had as a team, because just the way we were in the game playing and we were in the game and cheering showing support for each other. The energy and the way we kind of rally together, especially coming off after such a short period from game-to-game. We really came together, we played together and we just had fun together, and that's the best way of playing.

On starting off conference play 2-0...
It is great and is definitely better than the alternative. Honestly, 2-0 is great, but I'm excited for our next game. We're gonna do some great things, and I just can't wait for the next game and what comes next.

Michigan State freshman guard Jase Richardson

On the team playing unselfish basketball...
It is so fun. To have so many people contribute to a game like we did today, it's amazing to play with. We have a lot of unselfish guys that give up good looks for great looks. it's definitely fun and good to play with.

On the trust of the coaches to play big minutes ..
It means a lot for me just to be playing as many minutes as I am as a freshman. It means a lot to me, especially the history that he's had with guards.  So it means a lot in just going out there and trying to be as aggressive as I can.

On any surprises to this point ..
I feel like just coming in here, I felt like I had high confidence coming into the season and being aggressive and then getting into my spots. I felt like I've surprised other teams.  I felt like people didn't see me as aggressive, maybe because of my frame and my body size. But I feel like I've been aggressive for my team, getting open looks for my teammates.

On how much fun it is playing with his team...
It's so much fun. We hang out with each other every day, so it just feels like every single game is getting better and we are getting more closer.

Michigan State redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr.

On his alley-oop pass to Coen Carr...
It was kind of like just at the moment, I was like, 'why not just throw it up, whatever happens happens' for me. I didn't really think about the negatives with that. I was just worried about just throw it to the rim and get it close to a man.  Actually, when I passed it, it felt good. It felt good coming off my hands, so I was like, 'whoa, this is a great pass.' I saw (Xavier) Booker kind of covered a little behind him. I could have given it to Booker, but I saw Coen wide open at the rim and they say go for singles, but I tried to hit the home run.

On wanting to stay in the game nearing double-digit assists ..
We were able to get Nick (Sanders) in, (Gehrig) Normand, (Kur) Teng, just let those guys get some reps in a game setting. The Big Ten is really tight, so sometimes it's hard to play, but just being able to let everyone play, it is just great. It shows how deep we are. Tried to get 10, help the guys out, but other than that, you just talk to them, I understand what was going on at the time.

On playing in a big rotation ..
It's different for me. I never really played with a big rotation, but it's kind of great, you stay fresh, just keep new fresh legs and fresh guys in, so I think that's why everyone is so deep we can play. Everyone is fresh and scoring and passing, and there's really no drop off.  And that's why I think our bench points and our bench guys are coming in and doing a phenomenal job, just helping us in every way, like rebounding and scoring and assists. It just shows how deep and what we can do.

Michigan State senior guard Jaden Akins

On playing defense against Nebraska...
Coming into the game we knew that (Brice) Willams was their best player and (Connor) Essegian was hot, and (Juwan) Gary is a really experienced player, so they were hot on our scouting report and we didn't take them lightly. We just tried to stay locked in on them throughout the game.

On what is discussed in the locker room at halftime...
Just having to get better as a team with finishing halves, I feel like it was my fault that we finished the half that way, I got scored on, I missed a couple shots, so at halftime I was just telling myself that I gotta come out and have a good second half and just get on them early in the first four minutes and that's what we did.

On how connected they felt during that four minute stretch...
Super connected, I mean, I feel like we were just together on offense and defense, everything was clicking and we were having fun so it showed.

On stacking things together as the team is winning...
Yeah we were trying to stack this. We knew that this was a big week with us coming back from Hawaii to start 2-0 in the Big Ten and we just gotta keep stacking from here.

On shooting getting better...
Yeah, we just gotta trust in each other and the coaching staff, and if something isn't working out, we don't just panic. We just feel like things are gonna get better with our work and that is what has been happening.

Players Mentioned

Jaden Akins

Coen Carr

Jeremy Fears Jr.

Frankie Fidler

Jaxon Kohler

Jase Richardson

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