Post-Game Quotes: Cornell

Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo

Opening statement…
Well, there's no question that the star of the game was not Jeremy (Fears Jr.), Coen (Carr). The star of the game, and I say this, and people think I say it for the wrong reasons — was our fans. I mean, Doug Wojcik told me right before the game started, he said, 'Can you believe this?' I mean, there's blizzards out, there's no students. And so to all the people in this community, to all our people who did a hell of a job, double thank you. I mean, that was a phenomenal crowd. I saw people sitting on people's laps. It was pretty good. I told you the other day that it was a team that could shoot a lot of three's. They shot 44 of them. And after doing a miserable job most of the first half, I thought we did a phenomenal job most of the second half. Under the eight-minute timeout, they got 66 points. They were one for 16 from three. And then we let them hit games just so I could be miserable and not sleep tonight. So maybe I'm better that way. But I was disappointed in that. There were some positives. We got some guys sick. Carson Cooper's been sick, and although in the second half, after he went back in, he played a lot harder. Coen had a hell of a night. If he just makes those free throws — we shoot free throws every night before the game. We shoot 12 to 15 minutes of straight free throws, one guy at each basket. The goal is to shoot 90% as a team. We shot 93 last night, and he shot over 90 himself. And so, if we make our free throws and just do a little better job defending, I'd probably feel a lot better. But 30 assists on 36 baskets is phenomenal. Only 12 turnovers in a game that went up and down like it did is phenomenal. After a poor job of getting out-rebounded in the first half, we out-rebounded them by 13 in the second half. That's phenomenal. We got some play out of Divine (Ugochukwu). I thought he played a lot better. I thought Denham (Wojcik) did a damn good job — four assists and a couple of steals. I thought Trey Fort played maybe his best game here. And this team is going to go as far as Carson Cooper and Jeremy doing their jobs. Their jobs are to guard somebody and push the ball in Jeremy's case, and to defend and rebound the ball in Coop's case. In fairness to him, he's been sick since he came back — in fact, it's been over a week — so I guess I've got to be understanding of that. But all in all, if we don't have that barrage at the end, you win by 25 points. We were up 26 with 2:31 left. I think I'd feel a lot better about what we did. But there's something about having a team down and being able to put your foot on their throat, as they say, and this team doesn't have that yet. So we're going to have to work on that tomorrow.

The good news is we did come out after halftime discussing what we did wrong, and I thought we did a lot of those things right in the second half. Our defense was a lot better until — I mean, the little kid, No. 10 — he hit, I think, three or four threes himself late, and that was the difference.

On the tempo redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. had in the second half…
Well, I thought he pushed it pretty good in the first half, to be very honest with you. I thought that was the best job he did. We had meetings after meetings, him and I, this week, about pushing the ball more. Finally, I took four games and showed him the film of those four games. I think they tell me that young kids learn more from visual than they do from explaining, and I think he got it. I think he did a good job. That was a nice play that Jon Borovich has. That's one of our end-of-game plays, and it worked to perfection, and Jeremy ran it to perfection. But the rest of that half — listen, I haven't said enough. I said about our fans. The second star might have been their team and their coach. I really enjoyed how physical they were. They got themselves in foul trouble, but for a team like that to come in here, they punked us the first half. I mean, they really did. And that's probably what I'm most disappointed about. So it'll make for some good practices the next couple days, and we'll see if we can remedy that. Some of it occurred because Coop was sick, and I guess that's a good excuse, but probably not for me.

On getting out-rebounded in the first half…
You know, the saddest part, Jack, is my AD's here. I told him today we had four really good practices. Even my staff commented. The guys came back focused, wanting to play. We had two-a-days — they were great. Then we rested the day before. It was really good. I thought we were really ready to play. I do have to give them credit. They were physical, flying around, making shots. I don't think we took them for granted. When a team makes 14 three's a game — there's not many teams we'll play that make 14 — and they made 15 tonight. They took 45 shots to do it. No, I don't think it was lack of prep. I don't think it was players looking past them. I don't think they came back from Christmas out of shape. I feel really good about that. I just feel like the attention to detail on a couple of things — it was a different coverage. It'd be like in football playing a team with the wishbone. Something you don't see it very often, and all of a sudden all your principles change. They've got, I think, nine guys that shoot above 37% from three. We'll never face anybody like that again this year. We might face better teams, but not that. So it was probably good for us. I'm just disappointed. I'd like to leave the arena feeling good, especially when we're going to play Nebraska, who's probably going to be 13-0 for the first time in school history. I'd like to feel better, but maybe I'm better not feeling better.

On if getting pushed by Cornell is ideal scheduling before playing at Nebraska…
Ideal scheduling. Yeah, I always get on (Kevin Pauga) KP, but it's a good game for us because it's a team that plays completely different. Somewhere along the line we're going to play another team like that. Nebraska plays some five-out, but they don't have that many guys who can shoot it like them. No, I think it was good scheduling. God, when you give me a chance to blame my scheduler, I like that, but no. This game will help us. We're not moving on to Nebraska yet. We're going to have an early morning meeting and film session. We've got to get everybody healthy. It's going to be fun to go to Nebraska. That crowd is sensational. Students gone has no bearing. None. It's a unique place. I went to my first football game there with Nick Saban. The night before, they were so good to you, so kind, and they were great when they beat you 55-3, hugging and kissing you on the way out. They're something they haven't been in 35 years. It'll be a big game, and I'm excited to be part of it. But we've got to get physically tougher.

On what he wants to improve upon in the next three days…
I want to guard somebody again on a regular basis. We're ranked fourth in the country in defense, and I don't think some of these guys have been the same since we played Duke. I don't think we've been, now we're just going to outscore some people. Carson Cooper and Jeremy Fears Jr. are very important in our defense, because Coop (Carson Cooper) can usually guard smaller guys, struggled tonight, and usually any ball screens known to mankind. And we haven't been as good at that, so he has a value. I told him that after the game. He has big value, and we have to get better, because when you get dribble penetration, you get kickout threes. When you get dribble penetration, sometimes you don't rebound as good, we bounce back, but we were getting beat on the boards first half. So, I've got a laundry list of things I want to get better at.

On where this team is at mentally…
Yeah, I love my team. I mean, I love my guys. I don't love my team yet. I told you what we were, I think we're a good team. I'm trying to be a great team, and then you move in to the next level, and that's kind of where we are. We're probably a pretty damn good team right now. Some of the pluses that we were early in the year, we couldn't make a basket to save our lives. And now we shoot 47% from three. So, we're shooting over 35, 36 percent now from three. That's a big plus. We're still rebounding the ball well. I think Jeremy (Fears Jr.) got the message that he pushes the ball a lot more, and they try to take them away and even double team. And I thought he did a phenomenal job on that. Mentally, I don't know. I think everybody makes such a big deal about mentally. I mean, mentally, just go play. Let's go play, and I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to go down there and play, and it's not like we haven't had some tests, because we have. And we answered the bell. We'll see if we answer it this week. This isn't a midterm. This is a final exam, so we'll see how we do in the final exam.

On how deep he plans the playing rotation being going in conference play…
Well, as far as what we do going into our bench, some of that depends on the players that are playing. For the most part, yes, I still see us playing, and we have a little illness tonight, but we haven't had any real Injuries. Cam (Ward) there for a little bit, but he's starting to come back around. So, I think we're going to be pretty well prepared that when one of those unfortunate injuries happen, even if it's for a couple of weeks, we're going to be in a good position to do something about it. So, it's not easy as a coach, and Doug (Wojcik) gets a lot of that on him. We talk about it, it's not easy to try to keep guys in there, but I think we run the way we ran tonight. Even Jeremy (Fears Jr.) has to come out once, and that's good. If we could do that, I did think we wore them down, and they missed all those shots in the second half, and then when they brought their subs, and they made them all, so give them credit. But that's a good team, man. That team will compete for a championship in that league. I really believe.

On how he would evaluate the starting lineup change…
I mean, I think it's worked out pretty well. Divine (Ugochukwu) is playing a little bit better. He's getting a little hungrier. I give Trey (Fort), Divine (Ugochukwu), Jordan (Scott), Kur (Teng), I give them all of the credit because they're like, Trey (Fort) came back really good. He could have been pouting, he's a senior, fifth year guy. I got none of that. I got a guy as you could have, and I got as good a guy pulling for each other as I could have. I mean, you should see those huddles. They're really good about that. So, I joke about the quarterback controversy, because that's what you guys want, usually. They can have something to write about, because it's boring to write about good stuff, so you've got to have a controversy. But I don't have a controversy. I'm going to play the players that, if somebody's sick or someone's not playing well, and its effort related? You're not going to play. Pretty simple, and I've been kind of pleased about how the players have handled that. And so, kudos goes to them, this isn't about me or my staff. It's to them, and they understand it, and I think we'll keep growing from that, but the road gets a little tougher now, because it goes every day. And some of these teams now that I thought were a little more dysfunctional early in the year, because of all the movement, now some of them are getting a little more solidified, and so it's going to get tougher. But I like being 12-1. It's kind of an area I haven't been in that often, and I've had some good teams.

On the passing ability of this team….
Well, I would think you guys, our fans, are all excited because with me, it's defend, rebound, and run. And all of the sudden were becoming a better offensive team than a defensive team. But I really felt like both Jeremy (Fears Jr.) and Denham (Wojcik) pushed the ball really well. We got some easy looks. We got some buckets inside. I like the way our break went. I didn't think we did as good of a job in transition. Another thing that was hard for us, when you play a team that small, they've got a forward. They don't even have a center. And this Fiegen (Jake Fiegen), this is who Coop (Carson Cooper) had to guard. And he (Fiegen) went around him a few times, but he's (Fiegen) really a guard. And so, that creates some problems for us. We went smaller the second half, and I think that helped us some. But we didn't want to do that because we want to keep our normal rotation. We were forced into it. I still think of one of the reasons is because Coop (Carson Cooper) was sick. We moved Coen (Carr) to the four, so that we could handle their four man a little bit better since he was going around us.

On evaluating the non-conference schedule…
My best-case scenario probably would have been 11-2. My best case 11-2, my worst-case scenario would have probably been 9-4 or 10-3. So, I'm really excited on where we are, and I think we have played good enough against some good teams. We should have played a lot of different teams. We've had our struggles with zones, and we don't struggle with zones anymore. Part of me says it's because we're doing a better job of shooting the ball, and part of it is because the coach did a little bit better of a job coaching it, instead of not doing his job, as I told you after the Duke game. So, hey, we're all learning, we're all growing together, but 12-1 with the schedule we've played. And remember, this team, Colgate, I think are very good. I mean, I still think Oakland is a very good team. So, we all want to look at North Carolinas and Dukes, rightfully so. Iowa is a very good team. We're making progress, it's getting three or four guys consistently to play well at the same time. I think we've got it in Jaxon (Kohler), Coop (Carson Cooper), Jeremy (Fears Jr), and Coen (Carr). I think we got a pretty solid four guys. And boy, we're getting a lot of play now out of Divine (Ugochukwu). We're getting more play out of Trey (Fort). We're getting more play out of Kur (Teng). We're getting more play out of Jordan (Scott). And I think, for this first time, I saw a little bit more grit, Cam (Ward) went up there and got a couple of rebounds. He was a man child in there, and that's what we need. So, hey, everything's going in the right direction. Maybe we can call the season right now and celebrate, and I'm going to play that damn 18 game schedule coming up, but it's going to be fun.

Cornell Head Coach Jon Jaques

On if he thought Cornell would out-rebound MSU in the first half and score over 50...
Out-rebound, not sure. Scoring is something we do well, most of the time. [We] have a tremendous amount of respect for how good Michigan State is and Coach Izzo and how good this team is. I am confident we can score against even the best defensive teams in the country. We have to keep working on the second half, they obviously got a few more. That hurt. We are a confident offensive team. If we play the right way and play together, we can score that many points against most people.

On how physicality was the theme for today's game...
It was important. A lot of teams try to get in us a little bit defensively. Our guys are good enough to make plays off the dribble. Either going to score or against this team, they have some athletes and some really talented defensive players, coming to two feet and making good decisions in the paint. So, I thought we did a good job of that in the first half. We play hard and physical, and we take pride in all of that. It was great to see them do that on this stage against one of the best teams in the country.

On the confidence the team had after getting those inside shots to fall early...
Just because we shoot threes does not mean we do not want paint touches and work a defense like that. It was good to see. It is important to be a versatile offense and be able to do different things. That was good to see for sure.

On if the balance of twos and threes Cornell shot this game...
We want to give our guys the freedom to shoot good threes. I thought nearly all of them were good shots. Maybe a couple of them were a little rushed and even those, you can move on to the next thing and get another really good three. We have a high 2-point percentage too because we take good ones. There is no target number, we just want to shoot the best shot we can and sometimes it is a three and sometimes it is a two.

On if they want to let certain MSU players shoot threes...
It is a little pick your poison. They have really good high major talented players. We played Trey Fort at Samford last year, and now he is here obviously. They are good shooters, but they are also for us a matchup problem inside, so we definitely committed to try and protect the paint and force them to make some shots and they made a few hard ones and give them credit obviously they are a really good team.

Are you on schedule compared to last year's team that made the Ivy League final...
Every year is different. I think it is important for us to keep talking about that. We lost some good players, but we have had a few guys step up into new roles. We will keep evolving. The Ivy League is so competitive and good. There is no easy game, so it is one of those where I think we are capable of getting just as far if not further than last year, we just got to keep getting better and know that the Ivy League games are the hardest ones of the year. It is just like the Big Ten play for Michigan State, it is so competitive and well coached and everyone knows each other. So we have to keep getting better to reach that goal.

Michigan State junior forward Coen Carr

On frustration early in the game from team performance...
Even though they were smaller, they were just getting under us, running under rebounds and getting early position. Even though they are small, they were getting low, pushing us out, using their center of gravity. We just had to regroup and just play even harder. I don't think anyone was playing hard in that first half and we just had to turn up for sure.

On message at halftime...
We came into the locker room and everybody said that nobody was playing good. Everyone wasn't playing how we practiced the past couple of days. I was just trying to attack the basket when I got out there, just trying to get fouled and get some free throws up and change the momentum of the game. I feel like I did a pretty decent job of that.

On what Jeremy Fears' play before half did to swing the momentum...
It definitely did. To go up there and go into the locker room after Jeremy made that tough bucket. But I mean, nobody liked the way we played in the first half.

On defensive changes between halves...
We just had to guard. There were people who were just getting blown by. Just easy things that are all effort and discipline. We just had to go in there with that mindset.

Michigan State senior guard Trey Fort

On confidence of the offense after tonight, going into conference play...
It builds it for sure. That's something we have been looking forward to doing. It gives great confidence. Now we've got to just continue to build on the defensive end. We got our offense going, we got to see a lot of balls go through the net, but we've got to get a lot more stops on the other end. Doing that, we're going to make a huge run and keep things going. We got something special here, and it's just all we want to do.

On finding rhythm with 14 points tonight...
It felt amazing, especially with the flow of the game. Coming out being who I am, what I was brought here to do is score, but also being effective on both ends of the court. That's really been a big thing and I feel like I'm taking a few steps in the right direction. Just being consistent. That's really something I'm holding myself on. Being consistent with my shot making, being consistent defending, and just being a teammate that I need to be. Just standing in the right head space and keeping things going is what I've been focusing on.

On importance of non-conference schedule and how it leads to this Friday's Nebraska game...
I feel like we've had some really good tests, which have really prepared us for what we have coming in the future. With the scheduling and playing different players, we've had to switch things up a lot. We've had to guard totally different teams and our ability to adjust has been pretty good, but I feel like it's going to be a lot better going forward, which is going to help us.

Michigan State senior forward Jaxon Kohler

On his favorite win so far this season...
Honestly, there have been a couple pretty good wins. Champions Classic was a favorite that I'll never forget. North Carolina was another one. I would say, even though we lost, Duke was something really special, you know, I mean, close game and everything. But those are the ones that are at the top of my head.

On if the team expected to be 12-1 at this point in the season...
I'll stick to what I said in the preseason. Everyone kind of tossed us aside a little bit. You know, there's a lot of people out there who think that we weren't gonna get to where we are and expect to do what we could do, but from day one, keep telling us that. Keep telling us that we won't do this, we won't do that. Tell us what we won't do, and we'll go out there and prove you wrong. I feel like every season that people underestimate us, we come out as the underdog. I feel like we play better when we are out to prove people wrong and everybody on this team knows how good we can be. We just kept going with that mindset. I'm like, hey, we don't know our limits, but we have to keep pushing and pushing so that we can really start to visualize and see what we can do.

Michigan State redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr.

On the team's momentum in the second half...
Just understanding that we've been in a lot of close games, technically. This 13-stretch game stretch. Just understanding that one possession, one play, can start the momentum, can start the streak, can start a run. So that was really huge for us. And we've built on that.

On seeing different types of offense...
I mean, it was kind of the game plan a little bit. This will prepare you for March you see all different types of teams. It's just a good change for us to see it now compared to March when it's one and done. You don't get to play another game. So just being able to see it and kind of build and prepare. In March, we'll have an opportunity to say 'Hh, we maybe played a team like this, or a team with all bigs or a team with all guards. Just being able to help us later on down the line, so this game was really helpful for us.

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Players Mentioned

Coen Carr

Carson Cooper

Jeremy Fears Jr.

Trey Fort

Jaxon Kohler

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