Everything Tom Izzo said after Michigan State's 77-67 win over Maryland
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo met with the media following the Spartans' 77-67 win over Maryland to discuss a variety of topics. Below are Izzo's full comments on the game itself, his seniors, passing Bob Knight in wins at a Big Ten school, and more.
On Maryland:
“I’ve been saying it about Maryland and about Rutgers and about some of these teams that people don’t respect – you saw some pretty damn good players.”
“We did a hell of a job early. We did what we do, we let down a little bit. All of a sudden, the gaps got bigger and then they started driving us, and then started kicking out.”
“[Eric] Ayala, the kid came up to me before the second half started. He’s wiping his feet on the mat before he goes in, and he looks at me and he goes, ‘God, coach. I’m trying to figure this out.’ And I said, ‘Well, don’t’. Then he hit three threes in a row and I told him after the game, ‘Damn it. You figured it out.’ Hell of a performance by him.”
On the game:
“We did do a pretty good job on [Fatts] Russell, a hell of a player. Defensively, we were better most of the game, and that was the difference. We shot pretty well. We out-rebounded them, and we guarded them. That’s what we haven’t been doing in the last five games, we haven’t been guarding anybody. So, we did, and as they say, ‘Defense wins games, championships, whatever’. You’ve got to be able to guard somebody, and you have to take care of the ball.”
On turnovers, Max Christie:
“I’ve got two of my good buddies form the NFL here, and every time I ask Mariucci, ‘Who’s going to win the Super Bowl’, it’s either the team with the most guys left standing or turnovers. And I always tell my team that. It doesn’t change, doesn’t matter what sport it is. And when you have some of those turnovers for touchdowns, like we had – I felt bad for Max. Probably he and Gabe are my hardest working guys, and I never saw a ball go through his hands or the things that happened. But, we’ll grow from it, we’ll learn from it. It’s always easier to learn after a win and that’s what we’ll do.”
On getting a win before Big Ten Tournament:
“It kind of puts you back in the human race, and I think it’s very important. We just haven’t been able to put together some games. So, now the trick will be can we put together a couple of practices, can we clean up some of those spots. We were 20 up, and then all of a sudden we’re 10 up. Then we’re 18 up, and all of a sudden we’re eight up. Then we’re 15 up, and all of a sudden we’re three up. Those spots – and they happen quickly – so all we can do is show them that film, show them why we think it happened, and hopefully get a little better from there.”
“The one thing I do like about this team is we’ve done it before. We’ve guarded before. We’ve shot 85 percent from the free throw line. When I say before, I mean over 20 games. What we hadn’t done was take care of the ball, and now we’re starting to do that on a much better pace. But, I just believe that if we realize that we’ve done these things before, we won’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
On how the senior’s played:
“I was really impressed with Marcus tonight. We did go to him early, but I was more impressed in the huddles than I was with his play. He matured. He willed us to win.”
“Gabe, I think, had his moments. That senior stuff that you talk about, when you are so excited, and then he settled down and made some big shots and big plays.”
“Joey was solid as a rock. He made some passes and got some rebounds…but he had five assists. For a guy like him that’s a lot. I thought all three of them played well.”
On Senior Night, raising banners:
“We went three years in a row when, on Senior Night, we’re raising a banner. So, you’ve got to be a little disappointed if you’re not raising a banner. And yet, there’s a lot of people that don’t raise any banners.”
“I’ve got to do a better job too. It’s not one person’s fault. It’s not just the players, it’s not the system, it’s not the coaches. It’s everybody. Everybody’s part of the wins – like the 663, I told you I didn’t win one of them and everybody’s been part of the losses. I’ve got to figure out how to make sure we don’t do the things we did to make those losses happen on a regular business, like they were.”
“There are teams that are better than us right now, but I don’t think there’s anybody we can’t beat either. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s many teams that can’t beat us, but that seems to be all around the country.”
On passing Bob Knight:
“It will [mean something]. It’s almost humiliating now, a little embarrassing, because…I don’t know. I idolized Bob Knight when I got here. He was my hero. John Wooden for some, I was not quite…I didn’t know enough about him, so it was Bob Knight. What he stands for, what he did, and how he treated me. That was my first Big Ten victory, it was against Indiana, and he treated me the same then as he did the year we beat them and went to the Final Four. He gave me some great advice then, told me how to handle the media. Kind of an oxymoron there, but he did tell me how to handle the media and the road to get to a national championship. Because, he felt our team was good enough. I’ll always remember that way more than the number of wins. Because, the number of wins…who knows what the competition was then compared to now, and all those things. But, records are made to be broken and if I’m in the same sentence with Bobby Knight and Gene Keady – for Tom Izzo, that’s a hell of a place to be.”
On senior’s going through adversity:
“The First Four experience wasn’t great, but they have been through a lot. They’ve won a couple championships, they’ve gotten to a Final Four…and then they’ve been through the pandemic. Let’s not forget that. That was hard on some of them. I told you on Joey – that year was a disaster in a lot of ways, and not all his fault. Just the way he was built to handle it. I think we all learned a lot. You know what I learned in the end? There’s only one way to be great. You’ve still got to push people, you’ve still got to demand the people, you’ve still got to make people feel uncomfortable. And what I always tell them, and my favorite thing is, my job is to make you do things that you don’t even believe you can do. And that’s not always fun, but I think it’s the only way you become ultra-successful. And, sometimes in this last year and a half, I’m not sure I did as good a job of that. So, they’re going to get better, I’m going to get better and we’re going to get better.”
On Malik Hall:
“There are a lot of conversations, a lot of phone calls, texts and one early morning meeting. One of the things I tell guys is, ‘I’m not stupid’, at least most of the time. And I think that if I am pushing somebody, I know he’s got a lot to give.”
“I have a lot of respect, a lot of admiration and a lot of confidence in Malik Hall. I think, sometimes, he doesn’t have that [in himself]. And so, if I just let it go, you’re going to be average. And, if I don’t, he’s going to be mad at me. So, it’s a tough thing to deal with, especially through the pandemic, but I learned something this last three weeks too. Players learn, and coaches learn too, and I’m going to be a better coach for it.”
On Marcus Bingham Jr.:
“I was proud of Marcus tonight. I was proud of him because…we negotiated. There’s a negotiation now, it’s not a dictatorship like it used to be. It’s a negotiation, and we negotiated inside-out threes and he hit a couple big ones. We didn’t negotiate time and situations – that one on the left wing was a little part of that. But I said, ‘You rebound, and you can do this.’ That’s part of the negotiation. The guy led us in rebounds, but what I was proudest of with him – if you would have heard the huddles. Huddles are an interesting thing now that Draymond’s gone. They're not R-rated. They’re crazy, but they’re good, and Marcus was kind of begging people, willing people – I never saw that side of him. Some players grow in a lot of different ways. Marcus Bingham grew [into] that winning was more important than individual play, and that’s a hell of a thing to take with him for the next 60 years. So, proud of him, I really am. I’m happy for him and next year, when he’s somewhere, I’m still going to be calling him and telling him that he’s got to keep lifting weights and get stronger and eat better. That’s not going to change.”
“What I’m really proud of – Marcus has three classes left to graduate, and I think he’ll be the first in his family. And that’s been a fistfight. I asked him the other day, what if I had gave in to you? Would you have gotten it done? He started to say ‘Yes’, and I took a baseball bat out of my closet and said, ‘Don’t do it’. And he laughed, and he said, ‘No, probably not’. And that the way you’ve got to deal with people nowadays. He’s going to be a better player, and I don’t think he’s done. I think this could give him a shot in the arm, because he rebounded. Yeah, he hit a couple threes, so for Marcus that’s utopia. For the coaches, 11 rebounds and what he did there was utopia. Played pretty good defense, I thought that was great.”
On rematch with Maryland in first tournament game:
“Probably the assistants that have to scout it are feeling a little better. I’m not sure it’s an advantage. You know, now you’ve got to beat a team three times, but it is what it is. We beat Wisconsin four times and then the national championship.”
“Would you hope to play somebody else? Maybe. But, I’m just glad we’re playing with a little better feel. We know them, maybe we won’t let Ayala shoot the ball this time. But, I’m not sure we’ll get off to an 18-1 start like we did either, so that was pretty cool. But, all in all…I feel like this team is good enough and we’re going to find out in the next three days where we want to take it, because we can clean up those mistakes. I mean, there were some crazy mistakes. We can clean those up. We’re still shooting the ball well. … So, all those things we did well, our defense we did well, and now we’ve just got to put them together and try to do it for 40 minutes.”
