Post-Game Quotes: Minnesota

Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo

Opening Statement…
Well, first thing I want to say is, being this week with Coaches vs. Cancer and I wore these shoes because they gave them to me for people that are fighting cancer at Sparrow (Hospital), and they all signed them and one of the more inspirational things I get to do is tell my team that they're fighting to win a game and there's people fighting for their lives. So let's keep that in perspective a little bit, and I really appreciate the way we've handled that as an athletic department here.
The game was interesting. I felt like the first five minutes we had five turnovers and we really weren't playing very well.   But our defense and that's what they say, you know, your defense is stifling. In all the years I've been here, I thought the first half of basketball was one of the best halves defensively. I've seen my teams play in a variety of different ways. So then we started taking care of the ball and moving a little better – I still wasn't pleased with our offense, even the ball movement.  I mean, we just don't look real sharp, we look sharper at the end when we got the ball in and got it out. So then we had a big talk at halftime on what we're gonna do, you know, because we've been notorious lately for giving up a ton of points in a second half: 42, 44, and the goal was to keep it under 35, and I guess we're right on that goal, but again, we turned the ball over three times in the first three minutes in the second half, but yet only nine for the game. I thought some of the highlights were my guards. Tre (Holloman) played very well, but Jase (Richardson) and Jeremy (Fears), having 14 assists and one turnover was impressive. Book (Xavier Booker) did some good things, made some free throws. Coen (Carr) is just a human highlight film, and I thought early Szymon (Zapala) did a good job. He got four offensive rebounds in the first five, six minutes, but our defense was pretty good 90% of the time. Against a team that has been really playing well. Dawson Garcia was not very good the first time we played him. And boy, he did some nice things this time, and we put a lot into him.  I thought the difference was those two guards that have been pretty good here in the last couple of weeks – did not play as well. I think we deserve some credit. They probably deserve a little blame, but that's a good team. We had shots blocked at the rim, I think three or four layups. They got some athletes. They got a couple of good young players, and I was just happy to get the win. And still accomplished some goals – rebounding was good, 13 offensive and they only had 5 and overall 40 to 22 was a pretty good stat, so I guess I'll take some questions.

On keeping drive after going undefeated in January and February…
Wow, I didn't even know that. The battle cries are to be different, you know, not give into all those things I'm sticking with it. I believe in it.  I think the road's gonna get tougher. I told you it's backloaded. I think everybody's by now has checked the schedule and realized that I think all but one of our next 11 games, if you win would be a quad-one win. That kind of tells you a lot, and yet I don't want to diminish what we've done either because we've done some incredible things.  We have stayed focused. I mean, most of those games, we won, sometimes we had a little "let downs," but we won pretty decisively, and we won it with our defense. Again, we hold the team – I mean, they shot 41, 35.  That was one of the best somebody has shot against us in a while, I think. So give them credit on that after that start.  

I'm proud of the team for staying consistent. I mean, y'all know by now. We were supposed to get home at seven,  we got home at three/four in the morning, and that is some adversity that we had to deal with. The next day, we pushed the practice back, we pushed the meetings back. We tried to get something out of them, but the players and coaches were all tired, and they fought through it. So the credit goes to them, all the credit goes to them.

On frustrating moments during the game and how he deals with them…
I've been in this long enough where it's about getting better every game right now. I said at the beginning of the year, I thought four or five losses would win the league. This is going to be insulting to my own team, but I have not backed off that much.  I still know there's some things going on here ahead of us, and our job is to make sure we get the best version of each player that we can get. We've had a tendency to get sloppy in the second half, and so I'm smarter than Judd, you know? I smashed a padded table, and he smashed his head.  So I think I did a hell of a job to adjust to the 30-year time difference to be honest with you.

On struggling in the beginning of the second half and how that makes him feel after a successful first half…
It also gives me a chance to coach, do my job, earn my money, but it is frustrating. I think Jaden (Akins) struggled tonight, and he's one of our guys that has to be, we need him. We need him offensively and we need him defensively. I think right now, we're making some good shots, bad shots. It's interesting to talk to Steve Smith earlier this morning, and just watching on TV as one of the things he came up with. And I really do agree with him. I don't think we're as sharp as we need to be offensively, our break… I asked Jeremy to push it on a break.  I thought he did a hell of a job. They did a pretty good job getting back, but I thought he did a hell of a job tonight, pushing the ball. I thought Jase did.  I thought Tre did. I don't think the rest of our wings were always running. The hard part is, is taking some time, I'm going have to do it tonight because it's move on, to really look at what we've got to get better at and that'll be what we'll do, what I'll do tonight anyway. It is frustrating, but still a pretty good performance.

On keeping the winning streak in the upcoming games…
Well, they are very good defensively, and with Garcia they could switch four and that created some problems for us. Now we're gonna play a team, USC, that can switch five.  So, there's some things, and then that's… what I do with my team is, I coach for this game, but the day game once the hay's in the barn, I try to look, when I've got a two-day prep, I try to look ahead. And so sometimes when things go wrong, I know what's coming down the road. I think you got to give them some credit.  But, we're still standing too much, and we're still not running deep enough in our lanes. I got a couple days to earn my money, to put it that way. And yet, I think you said it best, you're kidding yourself if you think everybody can stay up at this level at 10, 12, 13 games in a row.  And for the most part, we've done a pretty good job of that. So kudos goes to the players for that, but doesn't mean that. I got a job too, and my job is to make us the best team we can be and them the best version of themselves they can be, and that's what I'm going to continue to focus on.

On the team defensively and what they're bringing to California…
You know, it was swarming. I mean, I thought we did a good job in the scouting report, even a couple of their guys said something to me.  I thought we were swarming on those ball screens. We got up with our bigs and I keep giving my marketing gals credit, but even some people from their team said to me the crowd was unbelievable. And we didn't even do enough to get them going early, but you know, when you have an eight o'clock game on a on a Tuesday night, and we're getting the crowds that we are in, and the way they are, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank them for it first and I think that helps our defense.  I think the crowd gets you going. The crowd. And then Coen, you know, dunks the ball with his ankles, that helps too.  

On the team's depth…
Well, I hope it'll carry it good. Every once in a while, you do need a real go to guy. I understand that and we're going to have to work a little harder on that as a staff, but the "Strength in Numbers" thing is real. Now the second half of the season, as teams are wearing down as this travel does hit you, I'm hoping it'll help. I don't know. It's new territory. You know, we've never had it quite like this and we never traveled like we're going to be traveling out there. Get home Wednesday morning at six, seven in the morning and play again Saturday against a real good Oregon team. We got our work cut out for us in the next three, four games, but this is where that depth should really help you. I hope.

On Tre Holloman playing his hometown team...
I think our team takes it personal. I got a text from some of them, wherever we went, when we played Colorado, they wanted to win that one for Jase. We played Texas, they wanted to win that one or a team down there, if we'd want to win that one. Wherever we played from out East, it was Kur (Teng) and them. They actually talk about that as a team and the difference is there's no animosity, you know, it's not like I hate the hometown. Tre has great respect for Ben (Johnson) and their program. He was recruited here, I think, before Ben even got the job. He was just getting there. There's none of that and he was jacked because he's made some shots. You know, we haven't made three threes in a row since… I don't know, a while. So, I think he was just pumped for that. It was not anything against Minnesota in any way shape or form. They were good. We were good, it was very classy and hard fought, and they play hard too. Don't kid yourself, they play hard.

On the team's approach to this game…
You know, he's right. I mean, he got full. He got championship prep. I mean, what that means it should all be the same. And like I said, we all know that there's coach speaking and there's not, but this game was concerning for us because we didn't have a great matchup for Garcia and those guards had really been playing well. Our guards, I thought Jeremy and them did a pretty good job right off the bat and it took them out of it a little bit. I always give some of these coaches credit and Ben is one of my favorites, okay? Because I think he's gone through a lot there without the support that some of us have. But if you look at when they scored, they were a lot of plays out of timeouts. OTAs, we call them. That's when you know a team's well-coached. They scored a lot after that. The other thing is, two weeks ago, they were almost pronounced dead. And when you can get a team up and do that, I think you're a hell of a coach. This team's going to win some games, and I really believe that. And the problem is now, when you get into this league, 20 conference games is a lot. I used to think 16 was a lot. Then it went to 18 I said, the extra two is like four regular games, two conference games. Then we go to 20. So, it's a lot harder, but we did take them with seriousness and respect. That proved something to me too, that my team understood what we were telling them and didn't take anything lightly. That's for sure. Even though we missed some shots and layups, we played hard, and we played the way we needed to play to start the game out and that that was good for us.

About Minnesota stopping the fast break…
I think he picked his poison, and I think he picked it right personally. We had 17 fast break points, but they were a different kind. We didn't have the ones for lobs all the time and this and that. So, I felt like they did a good job, but that's where our break could be really dynamite, because that's the way it used to be, you know, where teams wouldn't offensively rebound as well, because they were sending people back.

On subs coming in and giving full effort…
Well, my man Doug Wojcik at the last couple of games when we were up enough, especially like at Rutgers. And we want to get those guys in. You guys come to practice. You know, Jesse (McCulloch), Kur (Teng) and Gehrig (Normand) are about as good a scout team guys as I've had in a long time. And they've really gotten better playing on the scout team. And yet you can only go so long and never play a game, you know. I put them in with like 15 seconds left in that game, which is the only reason I did it was because both their parents were there, and I want them to say they played at Madison Square Garden in case we never play there again. But that's almost insulting, and I did apologize to them for that. Because I normally wouldn't do that if it wasn't the situation of Madison Square Garden and family. But tonight, when I said in the timeout, you know, I want to get these guys in, they're good enough to play if it's a tight game, and I really mean that. And if you would have seen our players, I mean, Jase and Tre, Jeremy and Coop (Carson Cooper). I mean, they were so fired up for those guys and that told me a lot about my team, so we're making progress. I just think the road's going to get a little rocky here, so hang on.

On the connectedness of the team…
Yeah, and don't know totally why. I mean, I don't blame the players that were here. I blame me. I said I got to do a better job of doing that and I stuck to some of my standards that a relationship-based team is still more important than this craziness that's going on. It made me even more driven to make sure I did more things that would help us be connected. So, I think my staff deserves a little credit for that, but I think the players deserve a lot of credit for that. They bought in and it's not like we act like they're playing 10 minutes a game, you know, it's not that way at all. And I said, you know, it's going to start separating a little bit, little bit, probably. But we got a good base now that if something happens, we're going to be in a better position to handle it. If we have to play small against somebody, a little better position, if we have to play big against somebody else, we're a little bit more connected and have the ability to do that. And some roadkill on that, you know, there's, I mean, everybody's wants to do more, score more of this and that. So, I think the players deserve the credit and they've brought in, but I think they really believe in it, too. And so far it's been a lot of fun and I just wish that we'd get a little better offensively now, you know. We've got to make better shots. We had some good shots early. We just missed them. And I think we got to execute our offense a little better, so that falls on me. And I'm going to do a better job tonight on that.

On Jaxon Kohler hitting shots tonight…
If him and Booker are my two spacing four men that can do some of that and can make some of those shots and I think he can do a lot, but Jaxon (Kohler) was at his best when he was getting every rebound early in the year and scoring around the post. He's lost a little bit of that. So, it'll help a little bit, but meat and potatoes, we got to get on the ball on the block and he's got to score, you know. The first half we didn't punch the ball in much. And because of that we went to the line six times. We didn't get any free throws. That was that was my fault, our fault. So, finding a balance would probably be the best thing, but just seeing him hit a shot. The guys were so happy in the locker room for him because they know he's been struggling with them.

Minnesota head coach Ben Johnson

On his team's performance...
You have got to give a lot of credit to not only their team but just the crowd. It was like us last game with Oregon, you just felt like the energy in the building got everything juiced and ignited. This is the first time this team has been in a position where I know that they did not take us lightly. When you beat two ranked teams and you get one on the road, that staff is going to have their team 'on 10' to get ready and nobody's going to look past this game. So we just haven't experienced that, and you can feel their intensity, you could feel how dialed they were into physicality defensively, to guarding our stuff, to taking guys out of stuff, and then their precision offensively. We've got to be able to learn from that, we got to be able to learn from everything we're felt in this game and carry that forward from here on out.

On his team being the 'aggressor' the past two home games...
Yeah, that's a big part of it. I told them after the game, 'if you can get your fan base to be like this every game, it just makes such a difference'. Again, players respond to that stuff and that environment was like a freaking zoo. That's why it's so hard to win on the road, you have to experience all of everything, not only a top 10 team in the country, but you got to go through the environment, and I just though they carried them, especially early. It was a little bit of a jolt to our guys, and so again, we've got to respond the right way and learn from it. They're just so deep and balanced. You just look at their box score, eight, six, five, ten, twelve, six, nine, ten, seven, it's just like every guy comes in and they're productive. Over the course of a game, it's just like body blow, body blow, body blow, and we just didn't have enough to overcome that today.

On his team scoring 16 points in the first half...
I think definitely both. The things that we obviously have to do better, that we didn't quite execute the right way, and I thought for whatever reason we weren't aggressive into our shots our making plays, but some of that did have to do with them. I thought they just did a great job of just dictating defensively and jumping into our space. They're physical, they're tough, they're strong, and they're sound. They only give you a window where you got to be able to take advantage of that, and we had a couple of careless turnovers and for us, it just kind of snowballed and there was no rhythm that we got into offensively. I didn't feel like anybody really established themselves or got comfortable, or got into a flow, and I think a big part of that was them. They jumped it from the start, and we just could never handle it.

On how hard it is to get players to buy into spreading the ball around...
I think it's extremely tough, especially when you got some high caliber players like they do. I think so many times people get caught up in the number (of shots), and the number is part of it, especially when your winning, right? It's like were winning, but then it's easy to say, 'the team part is taken care of', now I look at the individual piece. What's in it for me now? You lose sight of the big picture of what you're trying to get done and a team like that, that's rolling and hasn't lost since Maui, he's got those guys all on the same page and they're all connected. You can feel it on the floor. They're connected, and part of that is they've done a great job with just retaining. If you look at their roster, I think they only got two portal guys, right? That's a huge difference, because now that built-in culture is there and as a coach, I can feel it. Like you can feel it, you can sense it and the guys that they got are their type of system guys that fit, they're not rocking the boat. So now it is managing the ego part of it saying, 'if we're going to make a really good run in this, We's bigger than me.' Just the way they play and the body language, I didn't get the feeling that they're going to sway from that.

On his team's defensive efforts in the first half...
Yeah, I thought human nature kicked in a little bit. When you're struggling to score and just not in a rhythm or a flow, it was just funky. It impacts your defense, and we have to be mature enough where it doesn't impact, but it did. That's the piece we got to really learn from. Tre's (Holloman) piece obviously he went on an individual run right there that just kind of jolted us. I think they had 23 points with like two minutes in the half, and then at halftime they ended up with 36. He kind of went on that run with a couple of threes, he's always kind of made big shots against us, today was no different. I have to look at the film to see why he was able to get on that run. I know there was a turnover here or there, but those are the gaps that you can't have on the road against a really good team. If you got It managed and you're at there at 23 points for two minutes and under, you got to feel to finish that half and manage that half, and we let it slip. Then after that, it was just trying to play catch up, and there so good, it's hard for us to play catch up like that.

Junior guard Tre Holloman

What stood out to you about your defensive performance today…
In the first half we were locking up and got out. We hit the turn on the ball in the last eight minutes so you know defense and offense. I think we got out and ran, but we still have to work on our finishes in the second half. We were giving up too many points, but we're going to get better at that.

Junior Forward Jaxon Kohler
On what is considered a good shot…
It's instinct, it is when you are in the moment of the game. There are a lot of factors that decide whether it's a good shot or a bad shot. It's kind of the flow of the game and what your percentages are at that moment. Those are shots I practice every day and I get a lot of reps up on those shots, and I train on the shots every day. I just have to shoot with more confidence and that is something that I am working on now and tomorrow I am going to practice the shots the same way I do every day. The way I determine the shots is like I said, timing the rhythm and sometimes even if it is a good shot it is good to get the ball moving. Sometimes you have to take the shot especially if you are in the rhythm and it translates.

On how he feels about his inside game…
I agree we need both parts of it, playing outside and playing inside, playing inside is something that I could have done better today and figuring out that balance of it. When you have other bigs on the team that's inside you want to give them their space to work and you don't want to crowd the middle up and draw defenders to them. It is a balance to figure out to play inside, outside and what the team needs. If I can prove my inside outside game that is going to be what's best for the team. I want this team to win. I want this team to go far.

Freshman Guard Jase Richardson

On what it is like when they have guys on their team playing against "hometown teams"...
100% I think any time we play, I mean we had Nebraska for Frankie, Illinois/Northwestern for Jeremy, I mean everyone has a hometown team they want to beat. I think as a team it's a goal to give them that talk that they can have when they go back home.

If playing a "hometown team" gives the win more validity…
Oh 100% I think there is a little more juice especially when it is a hometown team for someone. Tre exploded in the first half so it feels good to get a win in the hometown team.

On how hard it is to maintain their consistency to keep winning…
I think it's mainly the focus of this team. When we go into games we know what we have to hone in, especially playing in a tough conference like the Big Ten. I think we just honed in and we won the game that we needed. We still have a stretch of games that are going to be pretty tough for us but we need to dial in defensively and offensively and get the wins.

On how crucial the three straight threes were by Tre in the first half…
It was super crucial, we had a lid on the basket for a little bit and then Tre hit the trees. I was just trying to find him, look for him and he hit the trees. Just brought us a whole different energy, a whole different life to the team.

Players Mentioned

Xavier Booker

Carson Cooper

Tre Holloman

Jaxon Kohler

Jase Richardson

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