Post-Game Quotes: Illinois

Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo

Opening statement…
Well, that's a hell of a basketball game. I'm sure Brad (Underwood) might look at it a little differently, but I did think it was a hell of a game. I thought we did what we had to do, and that was contain (Keaton) Wagler. I said, a Freshman of the Year is no problem. I mean, but I thought he could be Player of the Year in our league. He was playing so good. I mean, if you watch him in some of the games, he's unbelievable. And I love his demeanor and the way he doesn't do things. But we said we had to contain him. We did. We said we had to rebound with him. And to outrebound 48-38 with that size and everything I think was the big part of the game. We made free throws. And we ran some good things. I thought Doug (Wojcik) did an unbelievable job on the scouting report. We did some things different. We didn't switch everybody like some teams did, because we thought the mismatches would hurt us, especially on the boards. Jon (Borovich) had a couple great calls as we got downhill with Jeremy (Fears Jr.). And my freshman, both of them played really well. If you really look at it, Cam (Ward) was 3-for-4, 2-for-2 from the line, he has seven rebounds in 18 minutes and eight points, and he has that big tip in late. And Jordan (Scott), what do you say about him? He's got stitches in his eyes, made some big shots, made a couple big free throws, but his defense was unbelievable. And then everybody did something. Kur (Teng) comes in and misses a wide open shot. Jaxon (Kohler) gets the rebound, he hits that one in front of the rim, or in front of the bench. Coen (Carr) and I thought made some great plays and did a good job defensively. (Carson Cooper) Coop got some big time rebounds too. Jaxon gets 16 boards, that was more Michigan State. Antonio Smith was there, and he said, 'Just like old times, Coach.' And that's what we had to do, we had to defend it. Even though they scored 80 points, it was in overtime. They only shot 36%, 27 from the three, they've been shooting 50. And I think that is one of the better teams we've played. And I think he's one of the better coaches that we go against. So, it was a hell of a game. Physical, tough, hell of a game.

On the play of redshirt sophomore Jeremy Fears Jr…
He played really well. But he'll be the first to tell you, a couple of those cutouts and that he missed, I mean, there was a couple of switches. But we played him a lot of minutes too, and Denham (Wojcik) did a good job, the little he was in there. And Jeremy was phenomenal once we got him downhill a little bit. And his defense was really good, he just got lax, not used to covering. Because we put a bigger guy, Jordan, on Wagler. Jeremy had a cover (Jake) Davis kid, was a very good rebounder. And then he had to cover a very good rebounder. We screwed up on a couple of things like that. But I thought his attitude and his performance, and accepting what he didn't do right, was excellent. So, yeah, I was pleased, and he's making more free throws. He's done a hell of a job at the free throw line, and still gets 15 assists and two turnovers. So it's not like he's just scoring it.

On how much Fears needed this performance…
Like I said, so many things I want to say that I will say someday. But I don't know if he needed it. I think what we did is put him in a position on those downhill drives. I mean, we struggled some with theirs, they struggled some with ours. And I mean, he made some great plays, but he made some plays that those guys, those other guys set the screens and moving, did a hell of a job too. So did he need it to validate? No. Did I need it to him to validate? No. No, guys, I don't need that, I can give a damn about that. I just was pleased that most of the time I spent the last four or five days was talking with him because you go one or two ways when there's distractions. You let him eat it up and you want to prove something. He was not in that mode at all. And or you just do your job and you take care of your business. First half, he took care of a lot of things, did a lot of good things, didn't score a lot of points. Second half, he did what he had to do, which great players do in winning time. He found a way to make some key plays. So we needed it, we needed to win. We needed to play like Michigan State. We needed to rebound, run, we needed to get back to doing what we do. Are we over a hump? Hell no. I mean, the next game, it gets tough.

On the role the coaches play in game preparation…
Well, the defensive prep was Doug Wojcik. I mean, he did the job on that, he deserves a lot of credit for it. Right now, I got a pretty good thing with those three guys that are scouting ahead of time, and each one of them has a different way. But we went out on a limb here a little bit, unconventional for us and how we covered them, and that was all him. And then I thought we did some good things offensively. I thought we had some great shots early. We just missed some really good shots. So I'd say my whole staff did a good job, and I just handled all the distractions and let them do their coaching, they did a hell of a job.

On the confidence to have freshman forward Jordan Scott guard Keaton Wagler…
I wouldn't say locked him up, let's not canonize us yet. That's what part of the problem was. I think we got a little full of ourselves there for a while. But he did a very good job on him. And what did that is, he has a sense of urgency about him. That's why I ended up starting him. There's a sense of urgency this kid has. I thought he was gonna be soft and not a very good defender. And that's why I told you guys as the summer went, I compared him to Max Christie. I thought Max Christie was our best defender. This kid has really defended, he gets loose balls. He's making shots now, he's done a hell of a job. And let me tell you, so did Cam Ward, both of our freshmen. I mean, when you look at their stats, they both did a hell of a job in a big time environment. I was proud of both of them, but what gave us confidence is just watching him every day, every day in practice. What he does, how he plays, what his sense of urgency is. Every day.

On Scott's poise in a major matchup…
I'd agree with you. We said it in other games we started him. Some guys get nervous and some guys get excited. I mean, he's pretty even keel. Sometimes a little too even keel for me. That's me. He's him, and I thought he did a hell of a job of keeping his wits and doing what he does, but the guy doesn't have a nervous bone in his body. And yet he's not cocky in any way, shape, or form. So he might be the perfect human being as a basketball player.

On the fast-break advantage against Illinois…
Well, number one, where we've been, because we haven't had many fast break points lately, and that's number one. Number two, we knew they were bigger than us, stronger, heavier, shot it better, we knew all those things. We thought if we could defend them decently and rebound the ball, we thought we could run them. The problem is they send four to the boards. I mean, it's beautiful. Personally, I love watching them. I love watching film of them, except it made me nauseous. But I liked it because they go hard, man. I mean, they go hard and just pulverize some teams on the boards. And so we put all of our efforts into that. And I think we did a decent job of that, and that was probably the difference in the game. Because they get rebounds and either score it, or better yet, kick it out for another three, which happened a few times when we didn't get rebounds.

On Cam Ward's play tonight…
I tell you the truth, I feel as good for Cam Ward as I do anybody. And Jaxon [Kohler] deserves more credit for 16 rebounds. He didn't shoot it as well, but 16 rebounds is unbelievable, but Cam Ward, he brought energy. He's a phenomenal defender, and that's why we had him in there in the end, and not a great free throw shooter, and when he knocked those two down, I think if anybody needed a game like this, it was him. And I thought because he's a good player, and he's going to be a really good player, and he's a really good kid. And I was happy, maybe as happy for Cam as anybody, because it has been a struggle for him coming back off the injury.

On Kur Teng's second half three point make…
That was a monster play, you know, it was a monster play. Should have won us the game then. And Kohler gets the thing, kicked it out. Got to give Kur credit, he didn't even think twice about it, he shot it again. And he's got a beautiful shot. I thought he missed some really wide-open shots early. And today, in our shoot around he made 22 3s in a row. And I said, he is going to be lightning tonight. And then he struggled early, but found a way to get a big, big, big, big shot.

On the team chemistry tonight…
God, I thought you were going to say I was good coaching. I don't blame you; it wasn't. No, I thought it was really good that Jaxon just fired it out there, and he was standing right there, and I think I heard Fears yell, 'shoot it'. I do think this team has confidence in each other. But we've been rocked a little bit, you know? We played bad, you got controversy, you got distractions. Yeah, you know, I mean, that's the way it works. Yeah, I told you a long time ago. When things are going good, why are they good? Because you keep distractions and dirt bags away from your team. I got to do a better job of that. And I will.  

On if he would have thought there would be overtime, despite MSU leading in all categories…
I say no, but I'd say yes, because I know how good they are. I mean, that's a better team than we are right now, especially going into this game. They had won 12 in a row, and we were limping. That's a better team right now, and yet, I thought we played better, and that's why you play the games on this night but just think all the things we're talking about. And it still took overtime. They didn't shoot well, they didn't do this well, they didn't do that well, they still scored 82 points. So, I think that shows you how good they are. And you know, we got some work to do, but they'll be knocking on that door, still, I guarantee you.

On Carson Cooper's performance tonight…
Well, I thought Coop, you know, we moved him onto the guy that was giving us trouble was [David] Mirkovic, you know, for a while there. He was giving us trouble. He was giving Jax a little bit of trouble. We moved Cooper on to him, and Cooper defended like he'd been defending before. And that nice shot he made inside, and he got some big rebounds. He got a couple two hand rebounds when things were really tight. And, hey, our margin for error, I keep saying it, is very, very slim. I've had teams that margin for error was very, very big, and we were out in the first game of the NCAA tournament, you know? All I know is, I like my guys because they battle. I like them because they stuck together. I like them because you know, I think they supported me and decisions I have to make. And that's what it's all about, man, at the end of the day.

On the overall team's performance…
We had eight guys that scored a bucket. We really did do some good things, and Trey's [Fort] been practicing better. I think he's going to help us more. We just got to get him in there now. Denham [Wojick] did some things. He had a big assist to Coop. I ain't worried about him. I just got to get Jeremy [Fears] some time here and there. It says a lot that we're a team of numbers. Strength in numbers is what we went with all last year. We're not quite there. You know, we're not quite that depth, but... we did it and we did a good job of subbing them, I wouldn't want Wojick's job on my bench, because that's a tough job. But he did a great job of that, too, so...I don't know. I don't know what it says. It says that I got... You know, maybe there's no superstars there yet, but I got a lot of good players that play well together.

On the potential momentum his team has now…
Yeah, you know, I think so, but I'm not getting ahead of my skis, you know? We were playing really well, winning by 10 points every game, and we didn't play very well against Michigan. We didn't play very well against Rutgers, and we didn't play very well against Minnesota.  So when you've been in it 100 years like I have…building block. It's a building block for Cam Ward. I think it's a building block for Jordan Scott. I think it's a building block that, if we really put something in on a two day prep, to change some things we do defensively and still find a way to execute them, yeah, I think that'll be a confidence builder that we'll be able to follow the scouting report and do the things we need to do to win games, because it's going to take a collective effort. You're right. The coaches, the players, hell, the trainer, you know? When Jordan went out, I said, 'Where the hell you going?' 'Gotta go to locker room.' 'What for?' 'I got to get stitched up'. Put a patch on it. Let's go. So, they kind of put a patch on, I think they glued it. You know, I looked at his eye, my trainer. Nick's the best, but the bandage was over his eye. I said, 'Nick', he said, 'Well, I'll change it at halftime. I couldn't, I couldn't do it quick enough and get him out here.' So even Nick did a hell of a job. So, everybody did their job tonight. And and I almost forgot to give credit where the most credit was probably due of all of them. I'm the luckiest human being on the planet to have fans like we have. I mean, they lit the place up. And believe it or not, it makes a big, big difference. When those lights went out and we were rocking and rolling. I just wish we were up enough so I could enjoy that moment, you know? I never get to see how it is, but when you look up and you see people going crazy in the upper deck, boy, that means a lot to Tom Izzo. And so, I would say, everybody but the media did their job tonight. Every single person, but the media. I'm not mad at you, Larry, but someday I'll tell you the story. But right now, I'm going to take a little time and get out of here, go home, and sleep in, and come in and watch the film, and do some work, and then, I don't know, what do you have for the Super Bowl? I never get to ever be in it anymore. You know, [Steve] Marriucci, and I used to, you know, just have chicken wings and you know, nowadays, you can have chicken wings, and you can have sandwiches and all that. We didn't have enough money. We had chicken wings and a potato chip. We enjoyed that damn Super Bowl. I'll tell you that right now. So, thanks a lot, guys.

Illinois Head Coach Brad Underwood

Opening Statement…
High level college basketball game. Two really good teams. About what I expected it to be with a team that had lost twice, and they played great. My hat's off to Tom (Izzo), they always do that.  I thought the game was a lot of little things for us. Things that we haven't been doing. We had a couple lane violations. We got ducked into the post ups, which we haven't been doing, just little things that add up over the course of a night. Everything in our programs predicated on when the ball doesn't go in, and obviously a tough night for Keaton (Wagler) shooting it. You go on the road and turn it over four times and give 15 offensive rebounds, most nights you're going to win, but tonight, we second chance point, Kur (Teng) jumps up, and makes the three off an offensive rebound. I thought that those little things were the important pieces in the outcome of the game tonight. I'm proud of our guys, I thought we battled, and tonight we didn't shoot it very well.  I loved our shots. I thought we got great shots. Didn't go in.  So my hat's off to Michigan State and they got back on the right side of it and today was their day.

On the team's consistent competitive culture…
It's just a matter of what you're going to accept. I think that rebounding is something that leads to winning. And I like to win. I'm a really crappy loser. We haven't been out-rebounded very much, but we work on it. If you come to our practices, you'll know why we're good at rebounding most days. There's usually three, four, five drills involving rebounding. It's an emphasis for all of our coaches every day. I think it's really conducive to winning basketball games and there's a reason Michigan State's won a lot of games in the last 35 years, because it's part of their culture as well.

On MSU's defense...
Nothing we haven't seen. We took 30, 35 or 36 threes. You give me Jake Davis shooting those threes that were wide open, you give me Merk (David Mirkovic), and you give me Tomi (Tomislav Ivisic) and those guys shooting them, those are the shots we want to take. Tonight they didn't go down. Keaton got some really good looks, and that's just the game of basketball. We like to be good at offense, but we haven't built our program on that. We try to win games when the ball doesn't win.

On Illinois's performance in the final minutes…
Yeah, an offensive rebound. Otherwise, we close it out.  He gave up an offensive rebound, and otherwise, we'd close it out. I think that your first four minutes are you, and your last four minutes are no different than any other minutes. I'm more disappointed in the lane violations, I'm more disappointed we had four guys in zone one trip, and one guy on man, and they hit a three. The little mistakes that we made that we haven't been making. The last four minutes, I was actually pretty pleased with it. I thought we had a chance to win a game and our kid jumped up and made one on a second chance.

On what Keaton Wagler can learn from his shooting struggles in the game...
He was due. It's just the law of averages. He was due. They did a good job, I would give them credit. I'll give them all the credit, they did a nice job, but those are the same exact shots that he's been making all season long. Tonight he got some good looks, he missed them. Next game. Shooters can't worry about tough nights.

On David Mirkovic's game...
Yeah, he dominated the game there for a little bit, and I probably took him out at the wrong time to give him a blow at about the six-and-a-half-minute mark. I think we were up four or five, and I took him out trying to give him a blow, but he's a great decision maker. He's a really good finisher. He's uncanny in terms of his ability. Again, he's like Keaton, for a freshman he makes really good decisions, and you know we opened over time with a play that I thought he got fouled on. You see the jersey being pulled and no foul called, but he missed that layup, but he got to the front of the rim.

On screening variety...
It's all we do is talk about screening variety and mixing them up. Getting bigs on the wrong side of them or creating the switch that we want. We set more flat metals tonight. We got some ball screens on the side, probably not enough. But yeah, it's one of the things that we do, and our bigs are really good at it. They read those things and you know Keaton's been electric at dicing those things up.

On the team's lane violations...
They've got a couple guys that pause. It's most an unnatural shooting form, but we talked about it. We talked about it in preparation that you had to watch the ball, you had to pay
attention. Again, and that's mental toughness. That's ultimately on me, but we've got to be better at that. That's the kind of stuff in March in the NCAA tournament sends your butt home.

On getting his bigs to the rim at the end of regulation...
I mean, we had a side out of bounds timeout, and I put the ball in Keaton's (Wagler) hand. He got it downhill, Cohen (Carr) made a heck of a block on it. Then we gave the ball to Jake Davis a couple of trips late and obviously he got downhill and made a big kind of sweeping left hook. Davis so good because he uses either hand, he's 255 pounds so he's got a body to do that. I thought Andrej (Stojakovic) had a great segment in the second half where he got downhill and was effective, but it's an important piece of what we try to do. I was disappointed we didn't get to the foul line more tonight but it's also a big part of what we've done.

On players hating losing like he wants them to...
We'll find out on Tuesday. That's a distraught locker room. There's a bunch of guys that have a lot of desire and want to and care. We've had three straight Saturdays now with top five opponents or close to on the road. It's what the Big Ten schedule gives you. And guess what, there's another one on Tuesday and you got to play your tail off and play hard and you learn from the mistakes, and you talk about them and off we go.

Michigan State redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr.

On what was needed from him in the second half...
Taking what they were giving me. That midrange area, some floaters, some layups, got some pull-ups. Trying to mix it up. At the same time, Kur (Teng) hit a big-time shot. Shout out, Jaxon Kohler. He hit a big-time shot to get us back in there. Him and Coop (Carson Cooper) dominated the glass. Without them doing their job, more than likely, we don't get the win. Jordan Scott, hell of a defense. Big time shots. He was just everywhere. Cam Ward had a big-time dunk. He had to make some big-time rebounds. Everybody just did what we needed to do, and I think that's what we weren't doing in the last two games.

On Jordan Scott's defensive performance...
I've seen it since he got here. He's been able to contain, hold his own, and play passing lanes. He came up with some big-time blocks and rebounds. He had a big-time steal in the middle, which led to, I think, a Coen (Carr) dunk. He was everywhere. It's special to see a freshman that young, that early, being able to contain and hold his own out there.

On playing a career high in minutes...
I feel great. That's credit to our nutritionists and (athletic trainer) Nick Richey. They make sure we have a lot of fluids, we eat, and we drink. Even our managers, handing me water, Gatorade, whatever. Just making sure that I was doing my job off the court to be ready for these top-10 matchups. You never know, they may go into triple overtime sometimes. Just happy that we were able to get the win.

Michigan State freshman forward Jordan Scott

On his defensive performance...
It was a big-time matchup today. I took it as a challenge, especially if you're the one that started off on them. You've got to stay out of foul trouble a little bit. We got caught up in the past two games, but we can clean that up and split the things we've got to take care of. I took that challenge, and I was ready to complete that today.

On guarding Illinois' Keaton Wagler...
He's a great offensive player, a great player in general. It was just knowing that coach wanted me to start on him, it boosted my confidence a little bit. I just got ready to accept the challenge and do my best.

Michigan State senior forward Jaxon Kohler

On Jeremy Fears Jr.'s performance...
I'm saying this as his teammate and as his friend, I think the way that he responded to all the crap that's been going on is remarkable. It's very inspiring honestly. It just shows you how mentally tough he is and how tough he is all around no matter what people are saying. No matter what's going on, nothing's gonna tear him down and he's here to win. No matter what's going on, that shit inspires us. And then he puts up a performance like that against a team like that. Blown away honestly.

On the game being an 'everybody did something' type of game…
Yeah, this was for sure a game where we needed everybody's effort. Going into this game, actually starting the day, shooting around and everything, we were telling everybody this is gonna be a game where we need everybody's effort at 150 percent. Whatever you think you can do, scrap that. We need everybody to do everything they can and more. And everybody had moments in this game that just changed the rhythm and the momentum of the game. It was energy, and it just gave us a spark, and we just kept fighting and fighting and fighting, so the team did an unbelievable job. Everybody did an unbelievable job contributing something to this game, and made this a win where we just kept fighting and fighting and fighting no matter what was going on, and we came out on top.

On the final possession at the end of the second half…
The trust that we all have for each other is something that you will never find anywhere else because all of the relationships that we have with each other. We've forged through fire and through heartache, through losses, and through tough times during the summer working together. We've just been through so much together, and especially the guys who have been here last year, we've been through some crap, we've been through it all. That really develops the relationship that we have and trust that we have in one another, and we also know what we're all doing on a day-to-day basis, like how much we're working out. I know Kur (Teng) works every single day on his shot and I know that right now his confidence in his shot is just going up. That's crucial to our season and success. I got the rebound and I knew it probably wasn't gonna be a shot that I could go back up with, his size and his strength, and I kind of held onto it and waited patiently. There was an opening and I saw Kur (Teng) wide open, and I just gave that. I tried to hit it right in the shot pocket, Kur caught it, shot it. I didn't even feel like I needed to box out because I knew that was going in. I know if he (Teng) misses the first one, he for sure isn't going to miss the second one. But honestly, the trust that I have for each single person on this team and staff has been forged through some great times and some hard times.

Michigan State University Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Carson Cooper

Jeremy Fears Jr.

Jaxon Kohler

Jordan Scott

Kur Teng

Cam Ward

Related Videos