Xavier Tillman Michigan State Basketball PF Talks Seton Hall Tonight!
Breslin Center
East Lansing, MI
The Michigan State Spartan basketball team and their Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo are ready to go. While still dealing with the death of Zach Winston (brother of Cassius) they are moving ahead.
Spartan Nation was at practice where we talked with Xavier Tillman. Tillman talked jokingly about playing guard, and we looked ahead to Seton Hall. You can watch the video above but he also addressed:
On what it’s like being a part of the Gavitt Tipoff games for the first time..
I think it’s going to be exciting to get to play against the Big East. I remember watching it last year, wanted to get a chance to get in there and play against some teams like that, like Marquette, like Butler, stuff like that. So, getting an opportunity to play against Seton Hall is great.
On playing on the road in a tough environment..
It definitely will be difficult, especially for the young guys. When they make mistakes and then the crowd gets hype, and then they are going to look in the crowd like ‘Oh my God.’ It’s going to be fun to see how they react to it for sure.
On going up against their post players who have height and weight on him..
The whole game I have to think tactically. A lot of times when I play, I like to play with power and play with aggression. But now, I’m going to have to play with a little finesse and play with a lot of skillfulness. Shot faking, using my body going into them so they can’t block my shot. Different types of revers layups. Maybe spacing the floor with a couple jump shots. Just being sound and very tactical with my offense.
On difference between a true road game and a neutral game like playing in The Garden..
You have no fans with you. Your only fans are the ones on the bench, and if we are playing bad, coach isn’t going to be a fan either. Our only fans are the guys we come into the arena with. It’s going to be hard, but it’s going to be exciting too, to see how connected and close we are and what we’re going to need to work on from there on.
The Spartans return to the court for game three of the regular season on tonight. They will be taking on Seton Hall at 8:30 PM on the road. That game can be seen on FS1.
The Duke Blue Devils will be in East Lansing to take on the Spartans on Tuesday, December 3rd in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. That game can be seen on ESPN and it tips off at 9:30 PM
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