Everything Tom Izzo said after Michigan State's loss to Illinois
Michigan State fell to Illinois on Saturday, 79-74, for the Spartans' fourth loss in their last five games. Head coach Tom Izzo met with the media following the game to discuss a variety of topics from the game.
On the game:
“I’m ashamed of how inept I thought we were offensively in the first half. We didn’t play very well. We just couldn’t make shots either. We had some good shots, Max and Gabe had some good shots, they just didn’t go in.”
“Second half we scored 52 points against the best defensive team in the league. We only scored 54 or 55 at Penn State. I think there’s always times when you can learn from games. I don’t like learning from a loss, but I thought we learned something from the loss. Second half we competed harder, we just couldn’t get it over that ten-point stretch.”
“I didn’t learn anything from Tyson. I know he could shoot the ball. We competed in the second half. I didn’t think we competed in the first half. I didn’t think we moved the ball very well.”
“It’s a shame. There’s nobody who works harder on this team than Max and Gabe, and a couple of them that are wide open are just not going in right now. Not through lack of effort, not through lack of time spent, it’s just the way it works.”
“The best thing I got out of today was not Tyson played good. I’m proud of him. Best thing I got out of today was we competed in the second half and really made enough plays to come back, we just couldn’t get it under ten. That was the battle cry in huddles – get it under ten.”
“I do think this is one of the rare times in my career that I felt that we made some progress with a loss. I don’t ever prescribe to ‘that loss was good for you’. It’s only good for you if you don’t have leaders and you don’t have competitors that are trying to win every game. So, I don’t know. We took a step in the right direction, we made some big plays, we really got after it defensively, we swarmed them a couple times.”
On Tyson Walker, AJ Hoggard:
“I think some of it was the way [Illinois] plays it. With Kofi, they do what we call ‘shacking’ it. They drop them, so coming off those ball screens he was open. Then we started re-screening it, because we wanted to get some threes…to his credit, he made them. A little bit – too much, too late – but give him credit, he had a big game.”
“Tyson’s a good shooter. We’re not going one-on-one, that’s not the way we’re going to win game, but he helped us some at the two-[guard position]. But that was a team that had a bunch of small guards too, so understand, that’s different than playing against a Purdue or like a Rutgers or Michigan that has bigger guards.”
“I thought AJ played pretty well too, but those big turnovers, they cost you. You don’t get to do that against good teams.”
On Illinois:
“I give a lot of credit to Illinois. They played well. [Trent] Frazier might be my favorite guy in the league, because he’s a fifth year guys that started the process, understood the process, went through losing and getting his butt kicked, and just came back, came back, came back. He decided to give it another run when nobody thought he would. He was the best player on the floor. Not Kofi – Frazier. He did it on the offensive end, he did it on the defensive end, played hard and he hit a big shot when it mattered. He didn’t do much in the second half, but in winning time he made plays.”
“You’ve got to give Grandison credit. He hit two at the end of the shot clock, one when there’s no time left and he just threw it up there. Those things cost you.”
On Kofi Cockburn:
“We didn’t guard him very good inside, but it’s hard to guard him when they just back you in, back you in, back you in. I’m sick of that, but we didn’t do a good enough job.”
“The problem was, we were going to double off of Grandison, and we barely even got a chance too because he hit that first one before we started doubling. And give him credit. He made the shots.”
“Kofi’s a better player than he was last year. I think you’d agree if you were an Illini. And I think Brad’s done a better job of going to him. One thing Kofi has done is he’s developed a left hand, so now you can’t play him one way or the other. I looked at the film last year – to me, he’s a lot more demonstrative and a lot more aggressive than he was a year ago. Or maybe it’s the fact the Brad has done a such a great job of getting him the ball.”
On officiating:
“I’m sick and tired of the officiating. The consistency, and I’ll just give you one example – [Illinois] guy goes down, we come down, they stop it. My guy goes down, Malik Hall, they go down, they let them play. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of that, and the consistencies inside. Tough game to officiate.”
“When my guy fell down, hurt, we just said, ‘Hey, let’s keep playing.’ [Illinois] had a guy fall down hurt, we said, ‘Let’s blow the whistle’ while we’re on the offensive end. I don’t understand that.”
On close games, getting more best players:
“I think it’s most important to get more out of our best players. We have to get Max involved. Gabe, yes, we have to get him involved. We can’t turn the ball over. Our margin for error is very small. I’ve known that all year. We’re turning it over 18, 19 times against Kansas, and the margin for error was small. Same thing against Baylor. When we don’t turn it over as much, we’re more successful.”
On competing:
“I told our guys, I’ve got a lot of guys back that built this place on competing. In my humble opinion, we haven’t. Is it because of youth? Is it because of mental or physical toughness? I don’t think we’ve competed. So, there’s certain things a coach will put up with – I’ll put up with every missed shot there is, especially when I know those two kids are in shooting every single day. There’s certain things a coach won’t put up with, and so, publically, we’ll keep working on our shot, but we have to compete like that, which I thought we did a damn good job of most of today.”
On Malik Hall:
“Malik was hurt. I think he was hurt a little worse than I thought. He said after that he tried to suck it up, but he wasn’t close to the same guy. He took that three and missed it by a foot. So, shame on me or my training staff for that, because I didn’t see what happened.”
“I think he wasn’t the same most of the day. He wasn’t as consistent as he’s been. He’s been maybe my most consistent player. But, he didn’t play good after that at all, and that created some problems for us too.”
