Michigan State University Athletics
Post-Game Quotes: Michigan
1/30/2026 11:42:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Opening statement…
Well, to say I'm disappointed would be an understatement. I did not like the way we played. Give Michigan credit. They played well. We're starting to have too many turnovers by our bigs, and never thought I'd see the day when (Carson Cooper) Coop, gets two rebounds in the game, none in the first half. I'm sure they had something to do with that. To dig a hole like we did, and the hook and hold thing. I did see it, so I have no idea. We're right down, and we're going down to shoot two free throws, and that changed the game. I was disappointed in the officiating, but more disappointed in my team. I just did not think we played well enough. I thought there was some bizarre calls. I thought they made the plays, especially Yaxel (Lendeborg) made a couple big plays late that were critical, and (Eliot) Cadeau made a couple plays. It's a shame Jeremy (Fears Jr.) played as well as he could play in a lot of ways. Just didn't get help from enough people. Our offense, I thought, was very poor in the first half. I thought it was an incredible comeback. We did everything we could do, and then we just couldn't get over the hump.
On how the team handled emotions…
Not very well. I don't think we handled it very well. I mean, Jeremy let their talking get to him, and his talking can get to them. I didn't think we had to live very well. I did not think some of those new guys that didn't compete, I think they need to compete, to play the game at that level. I don't know how to look at the game. We get off to a bad start, and then we cut the lead, and then that play in the first half, and then all of a sudden, it's a 20-point game. And we cut that down and I said, let's get it down by the 12-minute mark to 10. I think at the 15-minute mark, it was down to five. It was because we just started guarding, and we started digging in the post, and getting some rebounds, and getting our break going, but we didn't do enough of that, so I didn't think we handled it well.
On senior forward Jaxon Kohler's play…
Well, he's playing too many minutes. We've had no choice. Our young guys just did not – I thought Jesse (McCulloch) played pretty well for three, four minutes. So we played Jaxon, and then Coop got in foul trouble a little bit, so we had to play Jaxon more. I thought his legs were gone at the end. I don't blame that on him. I blame it on me.
On what went wrong…
We didn't rebound, we didn't run, and I didn't think we moved the ball very well, to be honest with you. Again, they probably deserve some credit for that. They're a good defensive team, too. Until that stretch, they made a couple threes. We shot a little better from the two. We couldn't play our best shooters, Kur (Teng) and Divine (Ugochukwu), because I just couldn't play them enough.
On the shot selection of his team tonight…
I don't know. I mean, Jeremy (Fears Jr.) took a couple that he shouldn't have. I told Coen (Carr) that I don't mind Coen (Carr) shooting, but I thought a couple of them he passed up early, and I thought Jordan (Scott) made one. We've got guys trying to do stuff that they can't do. That's why in the last three games, our bigs have had 10 and nine turnovers. It's hard to do that. And that means they're trying to do more than they can do. So, we're going to have to talk about that. There are things I wanted to do for a couple of weeks, because I saw some things coming, and we'll do that now, and yet, we're not going to panic over getting beat in a game where it was just a bad stretch there in that first half, and then in the second half, we battle all the way back, and then we don't quite get it done at the end. We gave up three rebounds at one time, they hit a three. Those are daggers and give them credit. They did it and they got them.
On the decision to start freshman forward Jordan Scott in the second half…
I don't know. You look at your team, and I've been pretty honest with you guys for two months, haven't I? What I thought some of my problems were. And yet, when you win, you don't want to change things up there. Some of those problems made this ugly head, we didn't look really comfortable. And he looks more comfortable to me, so, I like his comfort level, it makes me feel more comfortable.
On what the support at tonight's game meant…
It was great, man. I mean, Steve Garvey came in, Dan (Campbell) was here, and fans were phenomenal. Fans did everything they could do to help us. They were better than phenomenal. And the place was electric. We just didn't give them enough to be electric about, besides the second half. Michigan's good. They've got a good team, a lot of size. They can play different ways. We didn't do some things that we needed to do, and when we got the lead, we didn't do what we do best. We didn't get stops and rebounds. I mean, somebody told me that we had no second chance points 90% of that game, got a couple at the end to make it look good. That's not like us, that's not who we are.
On preparing for a team with size…
They have enormous size. They have the biggest size. Maybe Illinois has different size, but not as athletic in size. They've got as good of size as anybody in the country. And so, yeah, it is difficult. But we didn't move the ball. We wanted to move people and we didn't do that. Second half, we did that, start getting some of those lobs and things, and so, we didn't do a good job of that. That's my fault. That's our fault.
On the struggle of guards coming to the ball…
I don't know. I mean, if somebody doesn't come to you, we didn't get any 10 second or five second calls, did we? So, we got the ball. I don't know. I'll have to watch the film, but this has been two, three games now where they've done this. And that's, I think trying to do more than they really can do. And I didn't think we did a very good job of moving the ball, and that created some of those problems, made it easier for their size to be big, instead of moving their size with some athletes. And I didn't think we did that. And then he changed his lineup too and went smaller. I mean, that's small, but smaller for them. By going with Yaxel (Lendeborg) more at the four. And that was probably a good move. I mean Mara (Aday Mara) played well, but he wasn't as big a factor after that first half.
Michigan Head Coach Dusty May
Opening statement…
We had a hard-fought win. We respect these guys from Michigan State a great, great deal. I still remember being a little kid growing up in southern Indiana, and I didn't get to go to many IU (Indiana University) games, and there was one game I went to and I think Shawn Respert put up 44 (points). There's these moments as a little kid that you're like, "WOW"- to be a part of those types of moments and tonight felt like that. Tonight was electric, I'm not saying we got a very warm welcome, but this was a good side for our guys to build a battle in this type of physical game and come up with enough rebounds and loose basketballs to get over the hump with a team we struggled against last year.
On struggling during the beginning of the second half…
We were struggling to find any rhythm offensively, and you're always in a pickle. We always feel like we're in a pickle, we continue to play fast, when you have a tip or a lead, you try to manage the game a little bit better and we're so proficient out on the open floor we really never want to stop going to that, and we just made a few bad decisions: we gave them easy baskets, we got the crowd into it. We didn't do a good enough job at calling time outs. I thought we were settled in, I thought we would lead late in the game as we did and we didn't manage that stretch very well. I also thought they came out with the mindset that they were going to just put their head down, get to the rim and put the onus on the officials every possession. I would say that the three guys that worked tonight, they had a very, very difficult job and they earned their Big Ten salary in the last two hours.
On Yaxel's game and how they prepared for him…
I think he's just around the ball. I think the six offensive rebounds- and this is just off memory- I think those were the deciding plays. Obviously, we went down two, check us and three to get up the one and I felt like our next several baskets were loose ball rebounds, tip outs and then we were able to get to the ball, so he obviously made big free throws in a very, very intense environment, so I'm just proud of his resolve and his ability to step up and be able to get the job done.
On what the team has proved since beating two top-ten teams…
I think we proved that we can still win in different ways. We haven't been in two games like this during this week where there's so little movement. You're challenged for every inch of the court. You're challenged for every step, and so last year's team, we didn't respond very well once the Big Ten got into this part of the season, and we addressed that through recruiting and our guys were able to do that tonight. They were able to get just enough space and separation and create the angles and the guys stepped up in the main place.
On "finishing" the game and the overall battle between Elliot and Fears Jr. ...
Two elite point guards. That's one thing about the Big Ten- there's about 10 high, high level point guards, I might be forgetting a few. I'm not sure Fears isn't as good as any of them. I'm taking Elliot against anyone. I thought his short, little six-foot hook floater was the play that forced them to give him a little more tension, that was easy baskets. As you guys know, most of you guys are Michigan State people, you watch their games, it's not easy to get a dunk against them, and I thought Elliot and Morez were able to generate some great looks with their physicality, but most importantly, just going up through contact and the pain, but it was a credit to Elliot. We just put the ball in his hands and tried to camouflage what we were doing just a little bit without over-complicating it. He got us some great looks.
On bouncing back from losing their dominant lead they gained in the first half…
No, I would've rather us kept that eighteen-point lead. Maybe go on, like great, but we also have to be able to win these types of games in the Big Ten Tournament, which that'll be important because the Big Ten regular season, the NCAA tournament and so no, every one of these games, especially against a culture like this, I mean those guys, you know equated to the Indiana football team, those guys are old. I mean look at their front line, they're seasoned. They're around. They've been around the block and fought in some battles, so for us to compete at their level and figure out a way to not collapse when it looked weak, I think for everyone wearing maize and blue, to find a way it's going to help us going forward, because we'll refer back to these moments and this is going to give our guys even more confidence.
On walking into the arena ahead of the players…
I was actually just taking a peek. I thought when we pulled in, the students were still lined up down the block, and even when we rode in, the Kalamazoo entrance or whatever, there's a long line, and I assumed it was students. I was like, 'Okay, they're not in yet, but man. This is, like, we're building. This is big time. There's a lot of anticipation for this game.' And so, I walked by and I was greeted as soon as I stuck my head out on the court, and at that point, I was like, there's no way I'm ducking and running from this smoke now. This stuff doesn't bother me. And so, I just let them get all their frustration, their animosity out early, and then that way they can enjoy the game. So, I felt like I contributed to the environment just a little bit.
On what it means to win at the Breslin Center…
But I do think a lot more focus was put on what we needed to do to beat Michigan State. And if we were going to beat them, we had to be very sound in these areas. So that was really the extent of it. You know, Morez Johnson. These guys have been in these environments, these Big Ten guys, Aday [Mara], Morez [Johnson]. The Big Ten guys, Elliot [Cadeau] played at Cameron [Indoor Stadium]. So, they've been in these environments before, so we didn't we didn't talk too much about it and they were aware. These guys are on social media. They watch basketball. But anyway, that answers your question. We just focused on what they needed to do to win the game. Once again, we stole one from the Penn State-Indiana, Penn State football game and I thought their coach made a great point, Coach Cignetti. He said, 'This team's never played here', so we just kind of went into it. And, you know, obviously last year we were into against these guys, but this team that we have in our locker room, they were 0-0 and so we're not talking about what the past teams have done. Obviously, this is important for our fans, but for us, this was more about winning a Big Ten game on the road and staying in a hunt because we've got a very challenging schedule coming up.
On the growth of his team compared to last year...
Like I said, there are a few programs in our league that have 40 to 50 years of cultural tradition and it's just running like a well-oiled machine. We don't have 5th year seniors in year two. And so, we're trying to build it with the right type of people, but we're also, our job is also to put the best team on the court for Michigan to win. And for us to be successful with our culture and art, it has to be great guys that care about other people, that want to work together and do it as a unit. And so, we've made a big jump in year two, but I want to give our guys from last year a lot of credit. Danny [Wolf] and Vlad [Goldin], as you guys saw, they were very pivotal and literally 50 bigs across the country watching our games and then they go in the portal and say, 'I want to go do what they're doing because it was so rare'. Now we don't break the news a lot of them, that you can't do what they're doing right now. That's pretty special with their skill set. So, we were very, we weren't very transparent with that. But credit last year's team, they gave us a glimpse of what we could be. And then this team has such a high ceiling. We're not anywhere near being where we need to be, if we're going to win a regular season championship, which is the ultimate marathon.
Michigan State redshirt-sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr.
On thoughts from rough first half...
We gave them a lot of easy baskets. Whether it was transition, they had some fouls, some and-ones, and offensive rebounds. Just a lot of easy baskets. I think they had 40 or 42 at the half. I think maybe around the 11-minute mark, they had 50. We came out from halftime, and we got stops, and we were guarding. We didn't start the game like that, and that hurt us a lot.
On adjustments made by Michigan after a strong second-half start...
They went on runs, we went on ours, which was a pretty big one. We got back in the game and tied it up, then they went on a run to end the game, and we just didn't. I had a couple of turnovers in that stretch. I think they hit two big threes in that stretch. Just trying to stop that bleeding is what we needed to do.
Michigan State freshman forward Jordan Scott
On Coach Izzo saying he is comfortable when Jordan Scott is on the court…
Yeah I think so. I think just his confidence in me has let me do things I wouldn't have been able to do in the first game of the season, to the things I'm doing now. So just trying to keep building that, not trying to take too many steps back, and keep trying to build on that the rest of this season. Trying to get my feet as fresh as possible.
On taking pride in the little things that lead to big plays…
Yeah, I take a lot of pride in it. Like you said, the winning plays, the things that go unseen; kind of cliché, but doing the things that win you games. Whoever can win the 50-50 ball, the hustle plays, diving on loose balls, just sets the tone and it brings the energy. Obviously, it gets us more possessions, so I do take a lot of pride in that.
Michigan State senior center Carson Cooper:
On the rivalry with Michigan…
It's tough nowadays. I think, you know everybody says college basketball is better when we're both good, and I think I recognized it is true and it increases the hype. The rivalry helps us play at a high level. I think we did a good job, at least with our guys that haven't played in it and helping them understand that, you know the history behind it and what it means.
On the size of Michigan, facing multiple bigs…
For me it's just a normal Big Ten basketball game. I didn't think too much of it. We knew they're good, I'll give them credit. They play hard and they put us in a tough spot early on. I didn't think too much of it. The Big Ten has always been physical, and I've gotten used to playing with physical bigs.
Michigan State junior forward Coen Carr
On takeaways after loss...
We just need to make the winning plays. Do the little things. We're right there, and we just couldn't get it done. Definitely, things are fixable, but at the end of the day, it's just effort. I feel like we have to have a different level of that moving forward.
On being surprised coming in against Michigan's height...
Nah, because we've played against (Aday) Mara, and we've played against Morez (Johnson Jr.). We knew how they were. They just had on different jerseys when we played them last year. We definitely knew their size. We knew how to be at the rim and stuff. I feel like when we settled in and when we can move the ball, I feel like we did pretty good. We just couldn't finish it out.
On what film will do for the team moving forward...
It's going to show us our little mistakes. I know we're going to be disappointed when we watch the film just to see how many of those mistakes are fixable. It's just the fact that we have to do it, be conscious of it, and be smart about it.
