Michigan State Spartans Basketball Coach Tom Izzo Post-USC

USC Trojans On SI

Transcript

00:00As an assistant, that's it.

00:01What starts bad ends bad, and how to start was atrocious.

00:04We wanted to go inside right off the bat, turned the ball over twice.

00:10We took a couple of bad shots, I think it was nine to three, and

00:14I think we only had one shot, and then we got down 21 to seven.

00:20And I'll give our guys credit, they bounced back, but USC played better than us.

00:25About the biggest things that happened in the game,

00:29we got punched in the mouth, and I don't know if we responded very well.

00:37Then before half, we did a little better job.

00:40But when you don't take care of the boards like we did,

00:47even though we all rebounded by one, that's kind of a facade.

00:50They had a couple of times when they had three and four rebounds in a row and

00:53scored both times, one on the three and one on the three-point play.

00:59And then uncharacteristically, we shot poorly from the free throw line,

01:03which we're an 83% free throw shooting team.

01:05And what did we end up shooting, 57% or something.

01:11And a couple of those goofy turnovers, and that's really the difference in the game.

01:15But I give credit to USC, they played well.

01:19And I've been waiting to see how we would respond to this adversity,

01:25and today we didn't respond very well.

01:27So we'll have to fix that quickly since we have another game coming up.

01:32Questions?

01:34Tom, I'm wondering about the early start in particular.

01:38How much did what USC did on the offensive glass take you guys out of

01:42the transition room?

01:44Well, I thought the turnovers took us out, first of all, and

01:47then they really did hurt us on the offensive glass.

01:51Our bigs did not, well, we didn't have a lot of guys that played well, but

01:54our bigs, we knew it was a matchup problem with their four men at 6'7",

02:006'6", athletic.

02:02And we knew that was gonna be a problem, but we just had some struggles with

02:05some guys that normally end up playing better than they played.

02:09And you're right, what was the fast break points, nine to four.

02:14We did not get out and run, cuz you can't run without the ball.

02:18And I think their offensive rebounding had a lot to do with that, so

02:22give them credit there.

02:23Was there any type of adjustment you saw Coach Lesnick with the team in the second

02:26half, he kind of took away that team from the guys who had some success?

02:30Yeah, I don't know, I mean, I don't know what he'd say.

02:35I think we took away some of that ourselves.

02:39We didn't do a very good job getting it in there, and

02:41then we had to play different guys, and our key guy was Kohler in there.

02:45And he was struggling, and then Shimon got hurt, and

02:50he was struggling, Chase Richardson.

02:53He missed a couple of shots, but he'd been hurt all week.

02:58And but he practiced yesterday and played, and

03:02I thought he played pretty well considering the amount of practice he missed.

03:06But yeah, in general, we did not get the ball inside very much, and

03:10we did not get it inside out.

03:12I didn't think, I was surprised that we shot 42%.

03:17I thought it was gonna be worse, and then we shoot what?

03:2040, 33 from the three, and they shoot 42 and 31.

03:25But it was the free throws and the rebound, and I think that was the difference.

03:30What'd you make of having to travel to LA for a conference game?

03:34It was great, it was great.

03:36I mean, all kidding aside, it was, I mean, the trip was smooth.

03:40I know it's, they said it's gonna be harder going back.

03:43I don't know if that's true or not, but

03:45it's a privilege that we get to play in places like this.

03:50And I do wanna thank our fans.

03:52We had a lot of fans there today, and I wanna thank our fans,

03:54all the Michigan State alums.

03:56They die for games like this, and we get to go to Florida, or Texas, or

04:01California, and get to be in places.

04:05So I feel bad that we let them down.

04:07It's hard with Urban and his wife there to not play Michigan State basketball.

04:13I think USC had something to do with it, but I think we deserve some blame, too.

04:17So I'll take some of that blame cuz we did not play the way we have been playing.

04:24Before the game, you said something on a radio broadcast that you can handle

04:29the moment of being on the verge of history with the record with Bob Knight.

04:33But you were worried about the players.

04:35Did you feel like there was any of that maybe self-created pressure for

04:39them, knowing that you had that chance?

04:42I had not talked about that at all up until two days ago when people were asking

04:46them, and they brought it up to me.

04:48And it was one of the things that I had breakfast this morning.

04:51I told them that this is your team.

04:56I've had a million guys that have helped me get to the number of wins we've gotten.

05:00And all I want is, I want them to put their mark on something.

05:05I think winning 13 in a row was a little bit of a mark.

05:08We're not losing a game in December and January.

05:13Every team should lead with something that they can hang their hat on.

05:17If I'm fortunate enough to do that, this team will have that along with it.

05:22But I don't think that was any pressure.

05:24That pressure doesn't make you play like we played today.

05:28We had good practices, so I would say 100% no.

05:34That is not, it's not anything to me, it really isn't.

05:39I don't think, I think they'd like to do it for me, but I don't think it's pressure.

05:44This UFC roster is obviously pretty unique, a lot of transfers,

05:49really interesting first year roster.

05:51Just what impressed you about the way that they competed?

05:54What did you take away about?

05:55Yeah, well, they've got some good players.

05:57I mean, those guys are good players.

05:58And I was really impressed, and I don't know what he ended up with.

06:04But St. Thomas has really impressed me, and

06:09he had an average game of Agee, who has been unbelievable with his threes and

06:15a couple of those games, and he didn't do much tonight.

06:17But we all know the straw that stirs the drink is clawed, and

06:20I didn't think we, I thought we did a pretty good job in the first half.

06:24But second half, he got there and muscled his way in, and

06:28we just did not handle that well.

06:31And we all, our staff, like Yates and

06:35Arbol, so they're good players, they got good size.

06:40Those guards are bigger than ours, and the foremen are smaller.

06:45And it was just a tough matchup for us, and

06:47sometimes matchups make a difference in games.

06:50It was a tough matchup, and if I had to do it over again,

06:53I'd probably do some things a little different.

06:57But I didn't, and so that falls on me.

07:02Anything else, guys?

07:03You mentioned about the matchup, that late half lineup that you had,

07:06I think Carr and Fiddler in there, it was like four and five.

07:10Was that maybe one of those things that you could have-

07:13Yeah, I would have gone that small normally, but

07:15I would have probably gone with a smaller four a little bit more.

07:19And like I said, I mean, we got good excuses,

07:22like everybody does, Schumann was sick, and we had some things like that.

07:26But there's just no reason that you get beat on the boards,

07:31like we did, and again, for me, winning by one rebound is not exciting at all.

07:41And especially when they had two or three possessions.

07:45Really, they shouldn't beat us by a lot more, because they had two or

07:48three possessions, but they got three at one time,

07:50four rebounds during one possession, and one of them ended up at three.

07:58And those are back breakers, and it seems like we just couldn't get over the hump.

08:03We came back, cut it to three to four, just couldn't get over the hump.

08:06Cut it to five, we had a wide open three, it just didn't go in.

08:10So give them credit, they played better than us,

08:12I thought they played tougher than us.

08:15I don't say that about any team, but I gotta give them credit.

08:18And we're gonna have to regroup, cuz it doesn't get any easier going over to UCLA.

08:23But it has nothing to do with the travel, nothing.

08:28It has nothing to do with people who are great to us here, our own fans are great.

08:35We gotta play better, that's our job.

08:38All set, guys?

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