Everything Tom Izzo said after Michigan State's 85-76 loss to Duke
Michigan State men's basketball season came to an end on Sunday when the Spartans fell to Duke, 85-76, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Following the game, head coach Tom Izzo met with the media to discuss Michigan State's final game, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski and other topics.
Opening Statement:
"First thing I'd like to say is how proud I am of my team. We've been through a lot. I thought, if we could get it within two points, ten-minute mark, pressure goes on them, and now we're five up with four or five minutes left. Like a championship team, they dug down and made some plays.
"We had a stretch there where we were one-up, and we had two blocks and two turnovers. Then the last five minutes, I think they made every shot.
"We didn't maybe follow the game plan totally, and some of it is because sometimes some guys are bigger, stronger, and quicker. And yet the job Marcus did and starting us off with those blocked shots. Gabe had an unbelievable day, hit some big, big, big shots. And Tyson coming off that ankle, him and A.J. did a pretty good job. We just didn't have enough.
"Last year I was mad at my team at the end. This year I'm proud of my team at the end. We'll learn from this and hopefully get better.
"I'd be remiss if I didn't say Duke deserves all the credit they got. They played well. Instead of cracking, like I think some teams would under that pressure, their little home court got them going a little bit. The crowd, I thought, was great although our people were good too, and they made all those shots at the end. That's impressive, and they deserve to be moving on."
On final matchup with Mike Krzyzewski:
"Once the game started, once we talked before, it was strictly -- there's some things we wanted to do that we did an unbelievable job of, and I was just proud the way we worked. I knew his guys weren't quitting.
"I did think, if we could get it close in those last five minutes, I thought maybe some of those shots would be a little tougher, but it just goes to show maybe how good he is and how good they are, that that's when they made them all. You know, they made them all. They made some tough shots. Williams, he made two at the buzzer in the first half. I swear he threw two of them up, but you've got to give him credit. They made some tough shots. Those guards made tough shots over people.
"So I don't know. I'll always pull for Mike. I think he's done some things that will go down in the lores of basketball, but I'll also -- you can remember this game in a lot of ways. My way of remembering it won't be quite as enjoyable, but it will be respectful."
On final five minutes, 20-6 Duke run:
"There's no moral wins. We're five up -- five up with five minutes left. Is that what it was? Does anybody know what the time was? I thought we took two bad shots, got them blocked.
"We made our mistakes. I guess I told you guys the day before, I told CBS today, the big key is keeping them out of the paint. They lived in the paint. I was really disappointed how we thought we had them down and which way they'd drive. They were going right time after time.
"Now, part of it is those bigger, stronger, better athletes taught us a lesson on strength. It's not a typical Mike team, if you ask me. That is as physical of a perimeter team as I think I've ever played against him, and they just drove it, drove it, and drove it.”
On coming back from several deficits:
"Once we settled down, we just kept battling back, you're right. I mean, the huddles were great. The guys believed we could win. We just didn't. Our young guys struggled a little bit, and that was one thing. We just didn't cover those drives. As the day went on, we went from shrinking the court to kind of hanging with our guy and those gaps got bigger. And when those gaps got bigger, they really took advantage of it, give them credit for that.
"When I look at it, we've been so bad in turnovers, right? You all wrote it, and most of the time you wrote it because I said it. I was right with you. The last couple weeks it's been seven, four, seven, eight, seven, and seven today. I think it's phenomenal we did that. We didn't outrebound them. We shoot 50 percent from the three. We shoot 90 from the free-throw line. We got beat on dribble drives. They have 44 points in the paint, we have 28.
"Marcus did some good things. It wasn't his fault on Williams. The guards were -- you know, two of them, I thought, were well contested he made. The other ones, I mean, the guards just drove by us, and then Mark has to help, and they dish it off, and he dunked it. Good plays on their part. That was the only thing I was really disappointed in."
On the tournament experience for his young guys:
"Well, I think it's really important, but we live in a society it's what you do for me today. That was part of my speech. You've got to realize, in the first half we talked about them getting in the paint, and we didn't change it a lot the second half. If they're just better, I'm a big boy, I can accept that. I didn't think we locked in -- I think maybe we wore down a little bit.
"I think it can help us a lot. I think it proves that on any given night we've been pretty consistent the last two, three weeks. We really have. We've done some good things. Some guys that made some shots today -- we had a couple guys, Malik had a tough night. We needed to get probably Max going a little bit more even though his stats look pretty good.
"We just didn't do the things that we needed to do to win these kinds of games. If we can learn from it, only time will tell on it. I'll find out when we get back and look at the film, just how many things we didn't do, and then we'll try to correct them."
On MSU run that led to 70-65 lead:
"I thought we were moving the ball good. We were getting in the paint and kicking it out. We got them to switch a couple times on Tyson, and he was able to hit some shots. But the discipline that you need when you get up, I think our inexperience showed. And theirs should have, but you've got to give -- you talk about their guys. I really thought -- it will sound a little crazy to you, but their two best players, in my mind, were Roach and Moore. I love Banchero, and Williams is hard to cover, but it was Roach and Moore that really took over in that time. They drove it and drove it and drove it, and those are the juniors.
"That's the sadness about what's going on. Those are the guys that have been in the program three years, and I thought their experience really helped them. I think they've gotten bigger and stronger, a good lesson for us.
"The sad part is it wasn't a nine-point game. It was a game that went exactly like I hoped it would go. I just wanted to be there at the ten-minute mark. I think we were six down. At the eight-minute mark, I think we were four down. Every huddle that's all we talked about is we're right where we need to be, and then we went up. Like I said a couple of bad shots, a couple of great plays. By then, they blocked two shots, but there were bad plays by us too. They didn't miss any shots.
"A couple of those ones at the basket were tough shots. Give those two guys a lot of credit because they made some of them. So Duke is the better team, and they proved it. When you're five down, pressure's on you, and you answer the bell, that says a lot about your team. If I can take that and bottle it and make my guys realize that these little mistakes, trying to go for a steal and then they get a three and try to go for a steal, and then they drive it and dunk it.
"You know, we made some mistakes, but seven turnovers, the efficiency we played with other than shooting it a little better from the field against a very, very, very good team, it was no stay close so you feel good. But it told me a lot about our team and our program, our program.
"Our program is right where it needs to be. We just -- now we've got to take another step. So appreciate it."
On pre-game talk with Coach K:
"No, we reminisced in the hall just now. Before the game, there wasn't a lot of reminiscing. It was just, I think, a mutual appreciation. It was short and sweet, and that's the way it should be. But it wasn't -- we didn't talk about wife and kids or his grandkids or where he's going to start vacationing or anything. He's got another game to play, and I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. Probably be beating myself up for a week because not many times do you get an opportunity to be right there in the threshold of something special, and it slipped away.
"I guess I've been on the other end enough times. I think back of the Gene Keadys or the John Chaneys when we beat them. I guess I'm being a little unrealistic. We were five up. I wasn't confident, but I felt like we were doing the things we needed to do, we were playing at a place we needed to play. I felt like we didn't get back very well defensively, and they just pushed it.
"A lot of it was Roach. I don't know what Mike thought, but I thought Roach and Moore were really, really good. Really good."
On his final message to team in locker room:
"Tear jerking. It was a tear jerking conversation. I felt like they gave me just about everything they could. We made some mistakes. Basketball is a game of mistakes. But I never thought they gave up, gave in, or didn't believe we could win, and that was a good sign.
"So it was a tough locker room. Last year it was different. That doesn't mean anything bad. It just this year we did everything we could do except maybe guard a little better at the end. Take a little better shots a couple times. But we'll learn from it, we'll get better from it, and hopefully as I said, great for Mike. I don't want to take anything away from Duke because I think they showed their truest colors.
"They lost at home to North Carolina. They lost to Virginia Tech. Same kind of games. We came back and went up. An average team with a lot of heart, and they just drifted into the Sunset. And I thought they reached down in Mike Krzyzewski fashion and did an unbelievable job of kind of taking it at us. We just didn't have enough left.
"That doesn't change how I feel about my team. We'll grow from this. We'll get better. I hope the people realize this program is here to stay because today was probably a helluva game for TV. A helluva game."
