WATCH: WMU HC, Former MSU Associate HC Dwayne Stephens Talks Return to Breslin, More
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- No. 18 Michigan State was triumphant over Western Michigan on Monday, closing out non-conference play withn an 80-62 victory.
It was a homecoming game for Western Michigan coach Dwayne Stephens, who spent many seasons on Coach Tom Izzo's staff, including 10 as the program's associate head coach. Stephens had also played at Michigan State.
After the game, Stephens spoke about his return to the Breslin Center and the game as a whole.
You can watch below:
Below is a partial transcript from Izzo's openin gstatement of postgame press conference:
Izzo: "Well, I can't say I love these games. You play against your former guys, especially a guy that has given the program and this university itself so much time, both as a player and as a coach. So, maybe I didn't do a very good job. But he did a better job than I did. I thought we had some great practices. I was so excited about the way we were practicing. I actually told you guys [the media] I felt good; I'll never do that again. ... I thought we played like we thought we were going to win the game. And we had two or three turnovers right off the bat. 17 turnovers should be un-American. I should be arrested for that. And give them credit now, so I'll make sure to take no credit from them -- I mean, they played hard, but we threw some balls right to them. I guess that counted as steals, but it was self-defense; they were protecting themselves from the ball coming at them. So, I was disappointed. You can practice that good -- and my first key to the game was, 'Are we mature enough to take the practice to the game?' And the answer is no. We were not. And so, that's my chore now with the next five days. Usually, usually, you don't practice as well and maybe you play better. So, that part was disappointing. How in the hell -- we shot it OK -- but how we scored 80 points with 17 turnovers is beyond me. So, there was something good there. One of them is you make your free throws, and we didn't get to the line as much, but we made our free throws. I think that was one good thing."
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