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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 16, 2015

Tom Izzo

East Lansing, Michigan

TOM IZZO: Well, pretty exciting time for us. I think when you -- this is the fifth of the Champions Classic. I don't think there's any question it's not only considered the top non-conference event, but I think one of the top basketball events of the year with the night, with Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and Michigan State, and it's a great way to get the season started, and it's a great way for us because we're going to sit there and look at it and analyze where we are and kind of give us a good barometer of what we've got to do, what we've got to do to get better and where we've got to go. It provides a great opportunity for players to play in an incredible setting.

This is where I think we'll use our Italy trip a little bit, because for a DD who has no clue or Matt McQuaid, freshmen who have no clue what it's like to play in these kind of games -- DD went against stronger guys in that tournament, when you look at some of the players we went against, from the teams we played in that thing. So I think it's going to be great to remind those guys that we have played against very good competition, and that's the advantage of doing it early in the year. It's the advantage of taking that trip.

But Kansas does possess one of the best inside games that I think we'll face all year. They've got depth in there. They've got five or six guys. They've got experience in there with four out of the five guys, and the one that's not, Bragg, is a heck of a player. That's going to be a big challenge for us.

I think the week -- how does it get better than this when you're at Michigan State, with our football team playing Ohio State for a big game. We're in the Champions Classic. Tough to imagine anybody having more fun than Hollis right now. Guy is on a honeymoon. He's got it made. It's a great time to be a Spartan. I think there's only three schools, that said, that are ranked in the AP top 15 from both schools, and we're one of them along with North Carolina and Oklahoma, and that's pretty good.

As far as Kansas goes, we've had some incredible battles with them over the years. They got us last year down in Orlando, and Bill I've known for a long time. We had some battles for Big Ten Championships when he was at Illinois. His team is probably as experienced as anyone we're going to face early on, even though they're starting two upperclassmen have all started and played a lot: Mason, of course; Selden, of course; Ellis definitely has played. It seems like he's been there forever. So I think it'll be a very experienced group and a real good test to see where we're at.

Questions, I'll take them.

Q. I wondered how you would characterize your rivalry over the years with Bill Self, going back to Illinois. A lot of these games seem similar to you, kind of some similar beliefs between you two guys on the court?
TOM IZZO: Yeah, I think they're have good defensively. We've been very good defensively. His kids are usually tough kids, and ours have been that way. I think they've been a little more inside oriented. We've been a little more perimeter oriented. I think he runs as good a system with that high-to-low as anybody who runs it. He recruits to it, he stays true to it, and they're very solid defensively. They don't do a lot of junk. It's not like they're throwing 10 different presses at you or zone defenses.

I guess our philosophies are similar, and they've been very, very consistent. I think they've won, what, 10, 11, 12 -- 11 championships in that league, in the Big 12, is amazing. Anybody who can have that kind of consistency, it really is amazing. But they've done it and he's done it well, and I think our games have all been very close, whether it be in the NCAA Tournament, whether it be when he was at Illinois, or whether it's been in regular season games like last year's.

Q. What are the options at the 4 in this match-up? Can Javon guard those bigger guys, or do you need some bigger players in there against this team?
TOM IZZO: Well, I'm not totally comfortable with it. I think we're going to be rotating some different guys in there. I looked at last year's stats. That's when I remember Dawson missed the first two games of that tournament because he was sick and he played like 22 or 23 minutes. In the championship Costello and Schilling were in foul trouble and one of them were hurt. They played like 14 and 15 minutes. I think Colby played 18 minutes in that game, and we played Bohnhoff. If you don't know who he is, I had to refresh my memory myself, but we played him a few minutes in that game.

It was a different game. I'm a little worried about our size without Schilling in there and without Marvin Clark, but their strength right now is one of our weaknesses, and that's just depth of bigs. But the at the same time, give DD a chance, and I think Costello is a little smarter than he was last year where he got in a lot of foul trouble early, but they create fouls down there. They're really good at what they do, and I think that'll be a big key to the game.

Q. I was just going to ask you about Schilling. He was supposed to get more X-rays.
TOM IZZO: Yeah, Schilling is going to be -- it's going to be boring for you guys to hear this, but he's going to be probably not day-to-day, but three days to three days, and that could last for weeks. Yesterday I looked at his toe. It didn't look so good. But the swelling has gone down a lot, and once the swelling goes down, at least there's no -- there doesn't seem to be any major tears in it or anything.

He was playing our best as our big. It is what it is, and we'll play with what we've got. I do think, and I didn't finish your question about Javon Bess. I do think Bess is getting better. He's like a miniature Day-Day. He's very intelligent, understands, has very long arms, so kind of deceiving on his height. But you know, it's not going to be a strength of ours right now with those two guys out, and putting some new guys in there like DD the freshman or like moving Javon in there some and Colby does have some experience, and he'll play. I think Kenny Goins will play some, too. But those guys are big down there, and they're big and pretty physical. So it'll be interesting.

Q. How much do you enjoy taking your team to United and Chicago where you've kind of got a recruiting foothold? I know the MSU fan base is pretty strong up there.
TOM IZZO: I wouldn't say we've got a recruiting foothold, but we've got an MSU fan base, that's for sure. It's exciting to be in this tournament, period. I love the tournament. I think it's great for Michigan State. It's great for college basketball. I think it's great for the Big Ten to have a team represented in it, especially playing in a Big Ten city.

So any time you get to play in a media market where there's going to be a lot of interest in the game the whole night -- I mean, the night has been a great night the last five years. I wouldn't say we've been over successful, but I wouldn't say we've been a failure, either. We've had some close games there. We've had -- we're 2-2 in it, and 2-2 against that kind of competition is pretty good. And so we'll see what we can do this year, but we are looking forward -- I know the players are looking forward to it. I would hope our fans over there are looking forward to it. It's just a great night for basketball.

Q. How much do you emphasize past games? I think you hit on it a little bit before, but this is Denzel's third time against Kansas, and they've been close games.
TOM IZZO: Yeah, I tell Denzel, he's played in more big games than any human being on the planet because we played an incredible schedule his three years, and we've played in some unique places. I think Denzel, that's what he enjoys most about being here, and I hope that's why guys come here is to play in these kind of games.

But I don't make a big deal about -- we looked at some film from last year's game just because we both -- they have a lot of players back. They've got five or six guys back that played a lot. Their best player last year, at least their pro guy, Oubre, he hardly played against us last year. I think he played six minutes or something like that. Cliff played a little bit, but then Cliff didn't play the whole second semester. So really the base of their team is back.

So we looked at a little film for that reason. But I don't think you look at it -- the one thing I took out of last year's, those of you that were there, I think we set a North American record for the number of lay-ups missed. We missed an incredible amount of lay-ups. It was mindboggling. I mean, we had different guys between our two seniors, even Dawson and Trice, we missed lay-ups and dunks, when it was a three-point game with 30 seconds left, then we missed a lay-up there.

You know, I think our guys, that means you can play with them. I do think this year's Kansas team is better. I don't expect Selden to go 1/10 or 0/10 or whatever he went last year, but I think they're more experienced. I think they've played together longer, so I think this is a better team. That's why they're ranked fourth. I think it's deserving. So it'll give us a good look at where we're at.

But over the years I don't say, Denzel, you've played in four games against Duke and three games against this team. They're all different.

Q. Would you like to see the Cheick Diallo kid in this game just as a competitor, and knowing that I guess anything could happen at any point, do you sort of --
TOM IZZO: Do you want me to say that for your benefit or for mine? Hell no, I don't want to see him. I mean, do you want me to lie?

The competitive side of me is competitive enough. They've got five bigs, so if they've got six, maybe I should hope for that, maybe it'll screw them up. But I've seen him enough in AAU events. He's a good player, but trust me, they've got enough good players in there without him. Some of those guys have started a lot of games, and so it's not like we're going to sit there and prepare for him or prepare not for him. I don't know what'll happen. Who ever knows. For Bill's sake, I hope he's eligible. For my sake, he can be eligible the next game.

Q. Denzel was in here just saying how he's obviously very proud of the improvement your team shows and how it plays in March but he's ready to start winning these games in November and getting in the top 10 and staying there. Is that something you've talked about for this team?
TOM IZZO: We do. I think sometimes we forget that some of these teams we play -- like when we played North Carolina on the aircraft carrier, that was a hell of a team, and we weren't very good then. When we played North Carolina the year that they won it and beat us in the championship game, that was the best team I've seen. They beat us by 25 at the beginning of the year and 23 at the end of the year. They were good.

So I think sometimes -- I want to make sure our own fans realize that we're playing all these teams all the time, and a lot of times not at home. The neutral sites, which I don't like personally, I'd rather play at home venues more, but we do what we do, and it's been successful for us. I love the games we play. But you do got to win some of those games, I agree. I think the most disappointing loss was maybe UConn over on the air base in Germany.

But when you play these kind of games, you do have to learn how to win them, and I think that's his battle cry, and that's what a captain should do. He should be talking in the locker room about it's great to play in them, and now we've got to win some of them. I say that it's great that Hollis schedules them. He's got to schedule a little better teams for me, meaning a little easier teams, but that's not going to happen. That's why they're big games.

So I say it's the one advantage of basketball over football is you get a chance to play these games, and it doesn't ruin the year. In fact, a lot of times it makes your year if you learn from however you do, whether you win and you learn from that and you move forward, or whether you lose and you figure out what your deficiencies are and you move forward.

But you know, we went a while without winning a preseason tournament. We went a while without winning enough of these games. But we're in them. A lot of schools aren't in them. They're probably asking, I don't know, I think Kansas's record is worse than ours in this thing, so maybe their fans are asking them that. Right now I know that the name of the game is to be good enough to be in them, and then the next step is to win them, and that's what we're going to try to do.

Q. You always make a lot of football references, and this year --
TOM IZZO: It's my favorite sport.

Q. I wonder about the parallel with your injuries and sort of the football team's, as well. With Schilling out, you say that he is playing the best of the bigs that you had seen, but how big is getting this type of game experience at this point in the year for Deyonta Davis?
TOM IZZO: Well, I think it's very important, and I think I told you guys, I kind of got on Mark a little bit because we've all got to keep with that theory, next man up, because we have to impress our fans, our media, and I told him if the next man up was as good as the one you lost, he'd be the starter. I feel the same way. But I'm going to tell you the same thing that he told you: We can't worry about it; we've got to go with the next man up.

But disappoints me a little bit because Gavin played so well over in Italy and so well early, and he did it -- I mean, he didn't expend as much energy as my wife does sweeping the floor, and he got hurt. He just turned and pushed off, and that was it. It wasn't a -- it was a weird injury, and I feel for him because he had worked hard. But at the same time, it has been good for Deyonta because Deyonta has got a chance to be really, really good if he can keep that motor running, and that motor, though, that and foul trouble, and that will be a game we're going to have to see if he can use his head and figure out how the game is going to be called and everything because they put you in positions to foul a lot. They're very good at it, very good, and if you remember the second exhibition game, I think he set a record in that game. I think he had four fouls in how many seconds. He had two in 16 seconds, three in under a minute. But then the last game he did a much better job.

So it'll be a big stage for him, and McQuaid, they'll probably both see a lot of minutes. I'm kind of excited to see how he does, you know. But I think a guy like Schilling, you're going to miss, and Marv, you're going to miss.

Now, Marv, we played him last year. It was one of the first games he really played in. If you remember he went 0/7. He shot the ball so many times I was trying to get him out. I finally almost had to waste a time-out. He just got it and shot it. It was just typical what freshmen do. So I'm anxious to see how my freshmen respond to a big stage. That's going to be exciting to see.

Q. Speaking of that big stage, how important do you think it is looking at the roster, two guys from Kansas and Denzel both played in that win back in 2012. How important is it to get these freshmen playing minutes early in their careers and get them ready for what's coming ahead in conference season and the end of March?
TOM IZZO: That was the one thing I really enjoyed about the summer where I say most people play club teams when they go over there, and we got to play Olympic-caliber teams. That was a big step. I remember the 7'4" guy we went against. I'm looking at Deyonta out there, and I'm laughing on the bench because the game didn't matter over there, and I was kind of hoping he'd get his brains beat in because then he'd learn and he's see, and he did. But then Zaza Pachulia, who I just watched play the other night, you know, he's a monster, and so it was great experience for our guys, any time you can get freshmen some experience early. But it worked out for Kansas last year where they didn't get him as much time early. Like I said, he played very few minutes against us and he was the 12th, 14th player taken in the draft.

I'm looking at it as, you know, we have a negative that we have two potential starters out. We have a positive that we have one of our best freshmen in a lot of years, one of our best freshmen big men in a long, long time is going to get some valuable experience against some of the best at that position.

You know, last year would have been guarding an Okafor. This year Perry Ellis I think is very, very solid down there and can score in a lot of different ways, and very smart, very smart player. It'll be interesting to see how our freshmen do. Those veteran guards that they have are very good. Selden is a linebacker and Mason is quick as a cat. We'll see how McQuaid does against that. I think that will benefit us. I know it'll benefit us down the road. That's why we do what we do.

Q. The most recent Spartan on your team with a victory against Kansas is actually Aaron Harris when he was back at West Virginia. Is there any special game plan you have for him?
TOM IZZO: Yeah, I just hope he scores like he did back then. Aaron has made some progress. I think everybody is waiting for him to just come here and be everything he was there. But he was off for a year and a half and didn't play in a game for a year and a half. It's going to take a little time for him to get acclimated to that. I think his practices the last three days have been twice as good. His second game was better than his first. His third game was better than his second. He's got to score more for us, but he's got to at least guard somebody so that what you didn't do early -- if he guards somebody then he stays on the floor and the scoring will come because he's a very good scorer. But he is a guy that has some experience, played in that league, and I think we'll use that tonight a little bit talking about what he did and how he played against them. Hopefully it'll be a confidence booster for him.

Q. You talked about the difference with football and basketball. In football you don't have a chance to recover from what you do early. With that said, is there a way to create more value in these games? Obviously you talk about game experience and learning about your team, but an actual --
TOM IZZO: That's the negative side. That's the negative side of -- I think what football likes about what they do is every game matters. But in one way, cut some games back maybe in basketball. You know, we have so many games.

But I don't know. You know, I think the value is, you know, sometimes not always seen by fans or media. It's what do you get out of it, what is your experience. What do the players get out of it as far as more than a win and a loss. In football it has to be a win or a loss. In basketball it can be the experience of getting better or playing a team early that maybe you'll play later on or you'll play somebody in their conference.

I don't know. I do worry. I'm like everybody else. There's so much going on right now. I mean, I was excited for Hollis, but he must be bouncing off walls in a way, too. He's got to be here one night, he's got to be there one night. There's so much going on, and TV has created a lot of that, and it's a positive, but I think what you're saying is you can get lost in the shuffle of things and the importance of them.

The importance is to learn how to compete, to learn how to play against the best, to see how you handle success and to see how you handle failure, and if you look at it that way, then these games are really, really important. If you look at what does a win mean in November or a loss mean in November, in our sport I can see why people think there's not as much value to the game, whether you're ranked one, two or three, as we're learning in football, even with those rankings doesn't mean as much early on. But I think the learning process for the players, for the coaches is really the critical part of playing a tough schedule early and seeing different kinds of styles.

It would be nice if football got to do that. You see a pro offense set, you see the West Coast offense, you see the wishbone offense. I mean, if you look at Air Force and some of the teams we -- it would be nice if you could use those, but in basketball there's so many different styles with zones and different zones and pressing teams and not and slow-down patient teams that work at -- I think there's just more different styles in basketball, so I always look at if I play somebody from each conference, I get a feel on how my team responds to the way maybe that conference in general plays, you know.

So I've just gotten a lot out of it. I've always believed that these games really are important. But I can see from an outside standpoint another big game in November, what does that have to do with the end of the year. I don't know what we can do except maybe shrink the games a little bit. I do think we're playing a lot of games. I mean, we're having trouble scheduling games now because there's so many games in November and December, and I see a lot of teams are playing back-to-back-to-back games. I'm not sure that's in the best interest of the student-athlete, either.

Some things for my committees, some things for my thoughts, not to talk about now. But it is concerning. It is concerning. If people look at these games as just that they don't matter, that's not good, either. I think that's one thing I've enjoyed. We've been in two of them that have really been good for us. The Big Ten-ACC Challenge and the Champions Classic has been really good for us because I think it has such a national flavor and so many good teams in it, and you really get a chance to compare yourself to some people and figure out what you need to get better at.

Q. I was wondering how important Nairn will be in this game on the defensive side in terms of spiriting out of it. Is he limited at all or hurting?
TOM IZZO: Yeah, he's got a little plantar fasciitis. I think he's had it, and he's just tougher than nails. Other guys have been out, and he's a warrior, that kid. So I don't think it's hindering him too much. I don't think he'd let it. But he is going to be important because Mason runs that team. He's very good, and he's strong and he's quick, and he can shoot it well enough to hurt you there. But he definitely can get in the lane and create some open threes for guys or some drop-offs if bigs are helping, and then their bigs take over on the offensive boards.

Keeping him in front of us is going to be a big key, and Tum is going to get a lot of that responsibility. I feel comfortable in that area. He's going to have to make some shots, which I think he will do a much better job than he did last year, I really do, but defensively he is our stopper and he's got to make sure he controls Mason some because the kid is I think a very, very underrated, good player.

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