Post-Game Quotes: Northwestern

Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo

Opening Statement...
Well, I'll keep this short and sweet so that you can get home and see that football game. I've got to be honest with you, I'm going to take a little bit of responsibility for our team's ineptness first. The alumni Izzone came two nights this year, and that's greatly appreciated. I should have thanked them, but I was a little down about how we played. We practiced hard. We didn't practice this hard the last two days, but we did spend time, and I think we looked mentally tired. That falls on me. I've got to do a better job. Three games in six days, and we just didn't look very good. Jeremy (Fears) got those two fouls early, which I questioned both of them. It kind of took him out of the game. I give him credit, at halftime he thought that wouldn't happen in the second half and he played better. Jaxon (Kohler) gets to the point where he gets frustrated when he gets doubled like that, and he really doesn't have to. I told Doug Wojcik, sitting on the bench, I said that I wonder how many of these 15,000 people are saying, 'Does that jerk of a coach ever work on free throw shooting?' And those of you that come to our practices, you know. I mean, I just feel bad. I feel bad for Coen (Carr) because he missed some, and he's been shooting great in practice from the line. We didn't do a very good job of that. That hurt us. We didn't make one, two-shot foul. We made one, we missed one. What were we, 7 of 15-16 in the first half? I mean, you can't do that. Then, Jaxon has six turnovers. We can't do that. I think some of it was fatigue, but if you're a fan, you had to enjoy watching them play. I thought they played so hard. I thought Chris did a hell of a job. I think that little point guard, (Jayden) Reid, is very good. (Nick) Martinelli, you could argue, he's a winner, and he makes winning shots, but he might be the best player in our league if you really look at it. He's a guy that just gets everything out of himself. I don't even know what he ended up with. Twenty-eight. Yeah, that means I was seeing it right. Give credit to them, but I give credit to us because when you aren't your best, and you're out of it both mentally and physically, and yet we found a way to win. Thank God we were home. Thank God for home court fans. I think they kind of willed us through it a little bit in the second half.

On physicality Northwestern brought...
The bar fight was unanimous the other way. I mean, I thought they took it to us. We just have some certain lineups in there where we're not as physical. Tonight, Cam Ward, I thought, really brought something to the table. He looked more like he did in that Arkansas game. I think you're going to see Cam just continue to get better. Jordan Scott, he's not the most physical guy, but he goes in there and plays physical. Boy, I'll tell you, I thought his (Chris Collins) team played hard as hell. I thought they screened well. They banged us around a little bit. Second half, yes, we were better. I guess that's tribute to the players at halftime. They knew they didn't play hard enough or well enough, and they did something about it in the second half.

On discussion with Jeremy Fears during halftime...
I told him the first half, he was all upset, I said, look at it. I don't know what you guys thought, but I did not think those were good calls. I'd like to say one other thing, too. Over my career, I've had a few T's, and usually I get my money's worth. Tonight, I got screwed. I didn't get my money's worth at all. I'm going to tell Brian (Dorsey), let me call you something different or something, you know? But it was disappointing. Boy, I thought that one was a charge. So, he gets caught twice. He got two fouls in what, five minutes into the game? That doesn't happen to us very often. So, he didn't handle that very well. He wasn't upset with anyone other than himself, maybe the refs. But it was important that he learned to come out of that. I told him, I don't need him sulking at halftime. I said, you sit there and figure it out. Sooner or later, you've got to figure it out. I thought he did. I thought he did a good job.

On charge no-call against Fears in second half and how it seemed to get him going...
You'd have to ask him. I didn't ask him, but it should. Someone steals your lunch in the playground, you'd better get after it. I thought he had his lunch stolen a little bit there.

On Carson's (Cooper) possible best performance...
I thought it was. If you talk about rebounding, scoring, he made a couple of nice hooks. Listen, I've been the first to tell you, he has struggled lately. He's not played like the Carson Cooper I know. Tonight, I thought he did play one of his best games. Those couple of hooks. He took the ball to the basket. He made his free throws. He had some big-time rebounds. He played better defense than some of those other guys did. We needed Coop, and he had a big game. I was proud of him. It's a good thing when you're struggling. You've got to learn how to come out of it. I think he did.

On executing game-winning sequences...
I thought we did a better job of getting the ball into Jeremy's hands, trying to get him downhill. I also think a big play in that game was when Jordan got that rebound and kicked it out to Jaxon. He hit a big three. Those little plays like that. We did execute better. Yet, there are some things you want to run when we were up 10. Jaxon threw that one into the post, they go down and hit a 3. I told him that was ridiculous. You can't do that. And yet, he made some big threes, too. So, he didn't have his best game, and he got 15 and 8. I guess that's why you're supposed to be one of the better players. So, hopefully we'll get some rest.

On Jeremy sitting out most of the first half…
I thought that was really important for Jeremy, because sometimes, you know, he lets getting mad cause fouls or bad shots or things like that, and I thought he did a very, very good job. I mean, those drives, I mean, we did try to isolate him and get him downhill instead of East and West, North and South, and for the most part, I thought he handled that very well, and that'll be something to build on now. We just, we have to get fresh a little bit here, and we will get fresh, and we got our work cut out. I mean, Indiana's playing as good as anybody, and they create problems because they play a lot of small ball, so there'll be some adjustments in the next couple of weeks, when you go, when you turn right around and go to Washington. They play one of the bigger teams, you know, they're 6-11, and 6-8, so, you know, it's kind of interesting. This league has changed so much, different styles, different zones, different mans, different sizes. I mean, we've kind of hit a lot of different things, and I think we're kind of made for that, you know, that's why Cam's so important. At 6-8, he can rebound with a lot of people, but at 6-8, he can guard guards too, and we're a little slow foot, other than him inside, and so he becomes very, very, very valuable, and I think he's, I think you're going to see him take a big jump.

On if Martinelli's 28 points show his skill or if MSU had defensive breakdowns…
Both. But I think that shows what Martinelli is, to be honest with you. I mean, I, I've always been a Chris Collins fan, and I really have been, I think he does an amazing job. His dad was a pro coach, he's got a lot of different sets, he's got a lot of things. I think he has a better team than I've seen, with maybe some different kinds of talent for him. But he's running the ball more, never did that, he's really getting after you defensively, and they were always solid, but I thought he got after it, and Martinelli, when he hit that three over on the far side late, I mean, Wojcik and I just sat there and said, there's a winner. You know, winning time, he made a winning play. I told him that after the game. I said, 'Man, I appreciate going against you for four years, but, because that's what you are, you know, you're a winner.' And there were a couple breakdowns, we weren't getting up on the ball screen, like Duke, that's all we do. I don't know why we didn't, but, I don't know how to get that straightened out.

On outscoring Northwestern by 17 after the technical foul…
You know, I didn't, there's been a few in my career that were planned. That wasn't one. Like I said, the planned ones I usually get my money's worth, I got screwed tonight on that, and maybe I deserved it, but it sure wasn't for what I said in comparison to normal. But I was disappointed with some things. I thought it was a very physical game both ways, if you thought it was physical, I thought it was physical, and, you know, and that was, that's about as good an officiating crew as we'll ever get, they're the top of the top. Probably a hard game, because I think both teams played hard, but, I don't know, 17 to 2 run, after the T? Well, then I'll definitely do what a good coach does, that was all planned, did it on purpose, and I got something out of it. How's that?

On Jordan Scott's game…
No, tonight we made, I mean, we talked about it lately. I talked to you guys about even starting, but he's playing 18, 19 minutes a game. For a freshman, that's unbelievable, and I've been really pleased with him. And I was really pleased with Cam early, and I know why he hasn't played as well, but he's practiced a lot better since he's come back. I think those two guys are going to be very, very influential in us. What we can do from here on out, they're both incredible kids, they play hard, they're pretty smart basketball players, and neither one of them are shooting like I think they can. Cam's got to continue to improve that, but Jordan is a very good shooter, and he's struggled a little bit. I've said he reminds me of Max Christie, and yet he's playing well defensively. Max didn't shoot it as well his first year either, but he really played hard defensively, and that's what he's doing. Now what he does, he gets those loose ball rebounds that I think really matter, so, glad he's on my team. But we've got to get better guys, we've got some things we've got to get better at, and that ball screen coverage is, it shouldn't have been that way tonight, so that's something I was disappointed in.

On the Big Ten Conference and MSU…
I think the conference is really, really, really good. It's different, really good. I mean, I watched Purdue last night get up 20. I watched Wisconsin get up 27, and then, you know, Northwestern cuts down to 8. Consistency is, I think what, Michigan's been pretty consistent, to be honest, and then they struggled a little bit at Penn State. But they've been consistent, and I think Purdue has, been pretty consistent. I don't know what we've been. I guess we've been pretty consistent. Indiana's the other team that's been really consistent, but there's been some up and down with teams, too. I think it's that way in every league right now. I told you it was going to be that way, teams are learning how to play with each other. Teams are trying to figure it out, how to deal with certain things. I still say I'm lucky, because I don't have any of those issues, we just got to do a better job. I have to do a better job making sure my team is fresh. So I'll do a better job of that. You want to blame somebody for tonight, blame me because they were, I mean, they were ready to play. They just didn't look like they played like they were ready to play. I just felt like, even looking at their faces in the huddles, they just looked tired.

On who, other than Jeremy, is in huddles leading the team…
You know, I really, I really was pleased with Coen tonight. In the huddles and everything. I mean, he did play with some energy, and he did some things, and at halftime, he and Coop, I think, spoke a lot. That's one of the things that we have to continue to improve on, too. I think there's a lot of teams that have to do that. When I talk to those guys on Saturday, that's what I'm going to talk about. We had to learn to come from behind, we had to learn to come from behind, down halftime, especially making a boneheaded play like we did right before the half. I mean, that can, that can take a bad halftime to oblivion, you know, and we didn't, we hung in there, and yet, man, I'm going to enjoy the second half of that football game tonight. To hell with this basketball right now, thank you guys, we'll do better, I appreciate y'all.

Northwestern Head Coach Chris Collins

Opening Statement...
I thought that was a really hard-fought, old school, Big Ten basketball game. I'm really proud of my team's effort, we've been struggling coming in, and really challenged our guys. You know, with our physicality and toughness and fight, it's almost like, no better place to try to play than coming here because all those things are gonna be tested at the highest level. I thought from that standpoint, I thought our guys were fantastic, I thought we handled the crowd. I give Michigan State a lot of credit, they've got veteran guys, they've got older guys, they've been in a lot of situations, they've played a lot of big games, and, when the game was in the balance, the last 8-to-10 minutes, they just were able to make the plays, and we weren't, and we're just really struggling, shooting the ball. We shot 26 threes, I would venture to say that 25 of them were wide open. We made six, it's just hard because we have to be able to loosen the defense with the way people are gonna guard (Nick) Martinelli, and he still gets (nearly) 30. I mean what an amazing player. The guy gets double-teamed, and triple-teamed the whole night, and he still gets (nearly) 30 points. I mean, what a player, man. We got to help him work offensively, I thought he did a good job, he was a willing passer, when they doubled and tripled him. We just didn't make the shots, because I thought from the standpoint of physicality, toughness, rebounding and defense, I thought we matched them. I'm not gonna say we did more than them, but I thought we matched them in all those areas. Unfortunately, we just couldn't make enough shots. There down the stretch.

On what he did to prepare his players to play Michigan State… 
Yeah, it's been no secret, and it's crazy I'm one of the old heads now, and I still feel like I'm young, but one of the longest. I love Coach Izzo, and I think he's always been so great to me. Being around basketball, I've known him since I was in high school, they recruited me a little bit, being from Chicago. I've always admired how he built this program. I think that some of the things that I stand for, and my personality, and some of the things I'm about, I think are a lot nearer with what he stands for. So, he's always been someone that I've really looked up to in this profession, and he's been great to me, and he's reached out to me at times, some of my lowest times, and, it's crazy, my nephew's a manager (at MSU - Liam Breheny). I don't know if a lot of you guys know this but my nephew's a freshman manager, on the basketball team here. That's how much I love what they've done here and what they're about. You know when you're gonna play this team, you're gonna have to bring it, you better bring toughness, you better bring courage, you better bring poise, and you better bring a lot of fight. In the times that we haven't matched that, in my years here, we've been obliterated. On the few times that we've kind of matched that, we've given ourselves a chance, and we won a few along the way. I'm a basketball historian, I grew up at the game, I've been around since I was a little guy, and this program is what's good, in college basketball, and this fan base. It's special for me every time I walk out here, and I feel this environment, and I see the stands, it gets me juiced. And that's a credit to this whole community, and what they poured into basketball. It's a special place.

On what shifted out the break in the second half…  
Yeah, I thought maybe a little bit of fatigue, you gotta probably point to some of that. We were managing some foul trouble. I think some of the points are a little misleading, I think they got 10 free throws in the last minute. So, that can be a little bit misleading when you're losing, and you've got to foul. The 10 points in the last minute, maybe instead of 50, it was a 40 point half, but we held them to 28 in the first half. You knew you weren't gonna hold them scoreless. I thought their physicality warned us a little bit. There's no question, we did a really good job on the glass in the first half. I was thinking more down, they started to make their mark. I think part of it too was, (Jeremy) Fears was out of the game a lot in the first , we picked up two fouls on him. He's such a leader for them, and kind of sets the tone for them with a lot of what they did, and him being on the bench for whatever 10-12 minutes there, they got them a little bit out of sorts, and then he was fantastic in the second half. I think a combination of a lot of things; I wouldn't say it was lack of fight, I wouldn't say it was lack of physicality, I thought we probably fouled a little bit too much. Looking back on it, we were managing foul trouble a lot with our front line guys. I think a combination of all those things and Michigan State's play, I think you've got to factor in them. They ratcheted it up and turned it up to a different level when they needed to, to beat us there.

On what they needed to do in the second half to get over a hump…
We had some critical breakdowns, that make it really hard. As much as I love Jeremy Fears, we shouldn't be fouling him shooting a three. It was a 2-point game, I think it was 52-50 and we foul him shooting a 3-point shot. And God love him, he's one of my favorite guys and a Chicago guy and a gritty player, I'm gonna live with him shooting three, I'm not going to foul him, that's a mistake. Those are breakdowns. We had a really critical possession, and (Jaxon) Kohler got three wide open threes, and he finally made the third one. That's where maybe a little fatigue, a little bit of mental, he's one of the leading 3-point shooters in the conference, right? And so those are the little things. And then I thought we left a lot of points on the table. I thought we missed some shots at the rim, we missed a lot of open threes, and when a team is making a run like that, you're not gonna shut them out. Obviously, we didn't want him to shoot and hit 48 points, but you gotta be able to counterbalance that and score a little bit. I thought every chance we had, we weren't able to put the ball on the hole. Nick was trying, but they're throwing the house at him. If there's two or three guys on you, you've gotta be a willing passer. And that's where as we move forward there's a lot of ball left. We dug ourselves a hole here. We know that. But, you know, there's 20 games. You're gonna be judged by what you do over 20 games, and we've got an opportunity this weekend to come back and get a win, but this was disappointing because I thought this was different than a couple of close games that we lost. Today, a lot of that was Michigan State, and then a lot of that was us not being able to score when we needed to. And we just got to figure that out.

On Michigan State's turnovers…
If you look at some of their numbers, that's been a little bit of their Achilles heel at times. A lot of their guys have negative assist-to-turnover ratios, and we just wanted to put them in a position, without gambling, we're not a pressing team, but we wanted to try to be aggressive and get our hands and deflections and try to make some of those other guys make plays. That was a real positive, to turn them over 15 times, and we took care of it, we only had six. Which is a real key, especially playing here.

On what Martinelli brings to the table…
Yeah, he's amazing. He's amazing. I mean, he's an amazing, amazing player.  I mean, the kid played the whole game, they're throwing the house at him, one of the best teams in the country, one of the best environments in the country, he's taking it all on, he's such a competitor, he's such a warrior. He leaves it all out on the floor, man; I'm so lucky that I've had a chance to coach him. I love that kid. If you could have more guys like that on your team, you'd win a lot of basketball, and we have, in the past, and he falls right in line with the guys that have just died for the program. Man, the player he's become, I mean, it's fun to watch, and hopefully everybody values what he does. For him to come out every night and get 25 to 30 points with the way the defenses are geared to stop him, pretty amazing by that kid, and hopefully we can keep him fresh, and we can get some of these other guys giving him a little bit more help as we get into the season more.

On the topic of Angelo's screen and Izzo's technical changing the trajectory of the game…
Coach Izzo knows, he knows how to manage. It's hard with Jeremy because he falls a lot, some of them are fouls, and some aren't. He's good at it, I mean that in a good way. So at times he can be tough to officiate because he's really good at selling stuff. At times, he does get hit, and other times, I think the more they get frustrated with that, and he's a veteran guy. He's a vet point guard. I've been watching him play ever since he was a young guy, growing up in Chicago. He just stayed on the bench when he got those two early fouls and he had to go sit. That's what a veteran stud point guard does, he comes back in the game, he steadies the ship, and then he made a lot of huge plays down the stretch. The kid's a winner, I got nothing but respect for him.

On the topic of his team being at full health and scoring below 70 points…
I think if you watch the tape, we were 6-for-26 from three, and 25 of them were wide open. If we would have made four more of them, then we probably would have had 80 points. I think if you watch the tape, which a lot of you guys do, we have a lot of open shots that we weren't able to make. So give them credit, that was the game plan, they wanted those guys to shoot. And we didn't make them, we gotta get in the gym, we gotta be confident, we gotta make people pay, if we're gonna be open like that going forward. That being said, they're a great defensive team. They are physical, they're old, they're smart, they know what they're doing. I think they're one of the top defensive teams. So, I mean, we got 66 and that's shooting 6-for-26 for wide open threes. I felt overall, I thought we played pretty good offense. We didn't turn it over.  We got good shots. Just gotta make them.

Redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr.

On having two fouls in the first half…
Two fouls that I should have never put myself in position to get. Obviously, the refs ghave to make a call, either it's a foul on me or a foul on them. With what they've seen, it was a foul on me. First half was a little frustrating. We didn't do our job, we had a lot of turnovers, we missed a lot of free throws in the first half, so it was just a sloppy first half.

On blocking fouls taking him out of his game…
You usually just have to be smart about how you do it. You still kind of have to have that aggressive mindset, but also just be a little more smart at the same time, which is hard. That's why you know usually if you get one, it can happen, but you just have to be a lot smarter.

Freshman forward Jordan Scott

On what he needs to improve on…
Definitely free throw shooting, for sure. And then, just getting more efficient on the offensive end as well.

Freshman forward Cam Ward

On what he needs to improve on…
I would say just being a more consistent free throw shooter. Showing improvement day-by-day, but just becoming more consistent so that they can play me longer in those crunch-time type moments. And then, honestly, just having more energy, probably just being in shape more and being more aggressive on the offensive end, and not look to just be so passive.

On the importance of free throw shooting…
Yeah, it's something that really matters and coaches emphasize it. But, I mean, me and some of the GAs have been here every morning, trying to get a lot of reps before practice, after practice, just things to work on so we can be successful down the road.

On how much his energy on the court is a part of his DNA…
It's just there. Just the emotion, honestly. Trying to find emotion. Impact the game for the most part, but other than that, it's definitely a viral question resurfacing. But, in the Bres (Breslin Center), I definitely use it as motivation for me, I guess. It's been fun.

On how much pride he takes in rebounding…
Oh, it's just something that I do very well, just trying to affect the game in different ways. The offensive glass is somewhere where Michigan State has thrived in over the years, and I just want to keep following those footsteps. But, just trying to make plays down the stretch for us to win games. We were down pretty much the whole game and then we pulled it out in the second half. But I think it's just because we got stops and we got offensive rebounds, which gave us more second chance opportunities.

Senior center Carson Cooper

On if he was intentionally more aggressive on the offensive end tonight…
I mean, them defensively, they were supposed to be doubling. So honestly, I was expecting less shots. But I think, ultimately, it just went down to how it was feeling. I think last game, I kind of got back to my olds ways with defending and getting ready in that aspect of things, and kind of letting the offense come to me. I think early on in the last couple of games, I was kind of letting my offense get ahead of my defense, and it's kind of a statement of who I am is just getting back to defense like that and bring my game along. So, I think that's what happened to me today. And then, just feeling good around the rim. My field goal percentage is something that I've been continuing to harp on and get better at. So, it was a good step in a good direction for me tonight.

On how comfortable he is playing out of the paint at the elbow…
Yeah, I mean, especially in transition, it's tough. You can't really double transition or you can't really double top down like that. So, it's just a different way that I could get a shot, and we've had multiple conversations with coaches, and he wants to get me more involved in the offense and he wants to give me more shots, like the stuff we've been working on. So, I felt comfortable and confident.

On playing the dribble drive as a seven-footer…
Yeah, I mean, it's something I have to continue to get better at. I think Saddi (Washington) works really well with us. Working on that, working on a little bit of everything. I think now, it was just a full circle game where we kind of get to see a little bit of everything.

On how fellow big man Jaxon Kohler getting double teamed affects him…
It's huge. We've got to continue to get better at it. Obviously, turnovers are a big deal for us recently. So, we have to all get better. Me and Jaxon (Kohler) working out of the double team, and sometimes they might not double me. I mean, they have to double Jaxon (Kohler) every time. So, I'm going to get more shots up off of Jaxon's (Kohler) doubles. But ultimately, I just have to keep finishing inside, finish outside, kind of force the defense to prepare for both.

Related News

Players Mentioned

Carson Cooper

Jeremy Fears Jr.

Jaxon Kohler

Jordan Scott

Cam Ward

Related Videos