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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 20, 2016

Tom Izzo

East Lansing, Michigan

COACH IZZO: Surprise, surprise, it's basketball season almost around the corner. As we released yesterday, you know we've hit a little bit of bad luck with a couple of guys. It makes it a little difficult in some ways to kind of figure out where we're at. But at the other side of it, it's not a ton different. We did not plan on playing with two bigs this year. We planned on playing with two guards, two swings and a big guy. That was the way it was going to be. It still is going to be that way.

But right now we're down a couple of big guys. Is it concerning? Yeah. But I think with the culture we've built, that's been passed down from a lot of players, I think we'll deal with it, we'll handle it. Somehow, some way it's going to work out.

It's been a program that we've emphasized our guards and our wings a lot, and they're going to get even more emphasis at least in the next six weeks for sure and who knows how much longer.

But with the schedule, there's only a few schools, if any, that have accomplished what we've accomplished in the last four or five years. We've won 27 games in each of those five years. I think we're the only school in the country that has done that. And our record of NCAA appearances is still the same. It's not changing, it's not going down, and something I'm very proud of. I'm very proud in continuing the 19 seasons to 20.

Consistency is what I said all along would be the mark of our program, whether we can stay consistent over a period of time. We are doing that, but we're just in the midst of doing that. It's hopefully going to grow from here.

The schedule in November will be brutal for me, it will be brutal for those of you that are following, and it's going to be brutal for our players. It's 13,600 miles in 22 days. That is taking on something that we've never really taken on before. With the one and two ranked teams in the country being Duke and Kentucky, we're going to play both of them. The fact we're playing a good Arizona team, possibly a good Louisville team, Baylor, and who knows who else will rear their heads before we're done.

We've never had a November where we played three or four top teams, opponents. This year we're going to probably have a minimum of four. I don't know what that means. It means that we're going to find out early exactly where we are, like we always do. The travel makes it a little more brutal, a little more concerning with the number of young guys.

As always, schedules are made in advance enough where would I do something this crazy if I knew Deyonta was leaving this early? Probably not. But at the same time I think it's an incredible opportunity. Our freshmen have been every bit the billing so far. We're going to rely on some of our returning players. Definitely as of right now anyway it will be Harris, it will be McQuaid, it will be Tum. Hopefully we'll get some guys back. If not, we're going to rely a lot on our freshmen.

I always thought our four freshmen would play some minutes, extended minutes. Now they're going to play a lot. But I'd expect by the end of the year those freshmen are not only going to be very good, but it's going to make us a better team if we have to withstand whatever happens to us early. When I say that, I mean sometimes if you lose a couple games and you let people get to you, you let things get to you, it can go one way or the other.

I don't know them well enough yet to know how they'll handle it, but I'm not really worried about it. I've been very impressed with them so far. They've picked up things quickly, but not quickly like last year's team. I only say that because last year's team was the exact opposite. It was a very veteran team that had been around.

These freshmen have bought into the culture here. I appreciate what our seniors and juniors have done for them. Even yesterday we had Costello around. Everybody is trying to help everybody. That's been great.

The four freshmen in Bridges, a blue-collar superstar, not many of those. I've been very impressed by the way he's handle the media. I've been very impressed by the way he's handled his teammates, his academics. He's brought a lot of things to the game. He's an incredible athlete, right up there with a J Rich who probably came in at 190. He comes in at 230. He's a little better with the ball than I thought. Shoots it a little better than I thought. Like all freshmen, our biggest fear is can he pick up the defensive concepts and play defense at a Big Ten level, or as we're going to find early on a national level. He's been impressive.

Langford, not quite the highlight reel player that Bridges is as far as up and down, but a very solid, steady player. Maybe the best defensive player of the freshmen so far. Long, solid, 6'5". Long arms, athletic. Very intelligent player. Another area that Bridges I think is good at. He really sees the court well.

What I do like about Josh and Cassius especially is those two guys came from winning state championships, so they know how to win. I think he's good. He was a five-time Alabama Class III A Player of the Year. In Alabama you can play in eighth grade, seventh grade, sixth grade. Like the UP, you can just play them. Whatever is there, you play them.

He did an incredible job at the school he was at and if I can get him from being too much demanding on himself, he's a guy that puts a lot of pressure on himself. I tell him, In baseball if you strike out seven out of ten times, if you fly out, if you don't get hits, you can be an All-Star. Basketball, you're still going to miss half your shots and you'd be considered a star. Josh still struggles with that a little bit, but what a nice problem to have.

In Cassius Winston, when he was a sophomore in high school, Dwayne Stephens and I were talking in the office, I said he could be the best passer since Magic Johnson in this state. Two weeks or three weeks of practice has not changed my opinion of him one way or another.

There's a uniqueness to all three of these guys, especially Cassius and Miles, that their off hand is as good as their strong hand. Miles shoots it left, but he writes and throws a baseball or football right-handed. Take a pick. It's either way, amphibious like it is in the UP, or ambidextrous like it is now down here, but either way he can use both hands.

I think Cassius is in that same mold. He's not a lightning quick guard like Tum, but he has such a great capability of the NBA calls it pace. He plays with great pace. He can change speeds. He's a little quicker than I thought. He's got himself I think in the best shape of his life. He can use his left hand as well as his right hand. Not quite like Neitzel where he can shoot shots from there, but he can definitely drive and finish with his left hand. Very good ball handler with his left hand.

But just an extremely fun player to play with, because if you're open, he's going to find you. With the number of shooters we have this year, I think that could be of great benefit to our team.

Again, as I said, he played in the finals one year, won a state championship at U of D. Very well-coached in high school. That's going to aid to his progress being sped up a little bit like it has to be.

In Nick Ward, he was probably the surprise of the four, the lowest rated of the bunch. I told Zebo last week when I talked to him on the phone that I got a clone to him, as I used to use the poor, poor man's version of Magic was Denzel. You know, Nick is a poor, poor, poor man's Zebo. He came here, not only has he lost 23 pounds, he was a little heavier than he needed to be, left-handed. He has a couple things that you got to love about a kid, especially playing in the Big Ten. He enjoys contact. He loves contact. He seeks contact. So that's a good combination to have.

He has a great skill around the basket to score. He has vacuum hands and shoots a little better from the line than I thought he would. The big key with him would be keeping him out of foul trouble would be one, and get him in the best shape of his life. When we recruited him, when you had Ben Carter, you had Gavin Schilling, you could think of him as one role. Now you have to think of him as a completely different role. But I think he's capable of fill that role.

He was the surprise in September. We asked him to lose the weight starting the middle of the year. He's done an incredible job of that, middle of the summer. It's just really a matter of the ability to stay on the court physically and the ability to stay on the court with the new rules now, where last year those touch a guy somewhere on the court is a foul, this year the emphasis is going to be on post play. So we're not going to be able to touch many people down there either. That is a concern of mine, to be honest with you.

We move into our sophomore class. This is the guy that I think is going to be a pretty big key to the year. Kenny Goins. He'll stay healthy, but can he take the step he has to take. He had moments last year where he played extremely well. He's going to have to play a larger role. He had 13 rebounds against a much bigger Louisville team. I think the reason we lost to Middle Tennessee State when he got hurt early in the game, we didn't have a matchup for the new modern day center and four guards that most teams are playing now. He was not in the game to have a fair matchup.

He had a near double-double against Purdue, West Lafayette. A game we came back and almost won. He plays bigger than his size. He gained some weight. He's up to 225. Shooting the ball pretty well. Kenny is going to be a big key. Very, very good defensively. Very smart kid both academically and basketball-wise. I'm looking for him to take a major jump.

He did not get to work out a lot this summer because of his knee injury at the end of that season, but he's progressed pretty well in practice so far. We're taking it a little slow with him, but he's really done a great job.

McQuaid, he, too, had a double sports hernia. It's like we're 'Injury U' around here, but all non-basketball injuries just about. That kind of states the case for McQuaid.

But he's proven to be quite a shooter. I was walking down here. We walked by the area up there where we have those TVs playing in the hallway. Our Kansas game was on with him. Sure enough, the end of the game, you know, he was in there. Kenny was in the game. Tum was in the game. DD was in the game. Denzel. We had three of these guys that were playing now that were playing at the end of that game in crunch time.

If you remember, McQuaid hit some big shots. He's done that a lot this year. We've lost a lot of shooting from last year, especially in Denzel. In Bryn I think we're going to gain a tremendous amount with some other guys, but mostly Matt McQuaid I think is going to be a key.

The third sophomore, Kyle Ahrens, tough, farm boy who is one of the better athletes on our team. But he is a very good shooter. He's got the bulldog mentality at 6'5". He'll play some four. We'll be moving him around. He'll be a pick-and-pop guy, strong enough to guard bigger people.

We think he, too, is going to take a big rise up when you look at what he's done so far. He's knocked down a lot of shots, he can go in and get rebounds. I think because of a couple of injuries he's going to get an opportunity. So far he's really, really taken advantage of it.

Our juniors, Tum Tum has improved. Shooting the ball better. Got that extra gear that very few in the country have. He's performed very well. He's done with the plantar fascitis. More than that, he provides a leadership role on this team. I say never, never, Draymond Green was right, when Tum was a freshman, he told me that summer after spending the summer with him, not ever knowing him before, he said, Tom, ever had a freshman captain? He said, You should think about this kid.

He's not a freshman anymore, he's a junior, but he might be one of the best leaders this program has ever had. He's one of the best recruiters. Anybody he touches, he's done an unbelievable job. That includes different sports.

He's embraced the freshmen from day one and been a terrific mentor to them. He's really helped those guys. As I said, he's personally shooting it better, he's healthy. He's always been a great defender. I do think between him and Cassius, the point guard situation for us is very solid.

Greg Roy is a walk-on here. He joined us last year. He's a great athlete. I think he'll help us some.

Then with the seniors, Eron Harris I think has sacrificed a lot for us last year. Came in here, prolific scorer. I don't know what he averaged last year. Probably nine, ten points a game, down from 17. But his defense went up extremely in every way, shape and form. He was a better defender, better ball screen guy. At the end of the year he's guarding the Melo Trimbles of the world. Gave us a chance to move Denzel around a little bit.

When Denzel was out, those four or five games, he averaged 17 a game. He's stepped up his game. He has put a lot of emphasis on the defense, now it's time to put it back on his offense. We're going to need him to score. We already knew he could score. What he's starting to do better is he's making better decisions. He's got balance to his game now, he's got an offensive and defensive part to it.

He, too, has grown up a lot. He understands what it is, what the culture is here, what his role is not just as a player but as a recruiter and as a person.

I'm very pleased with Eron. I think an area that he really has to improve on because maybe we're going to be a little smaller is his rebounding. We're going to ask him to do rebounding. He gained 10 pounds, not enough. He has one of those bodies that doesn't gain it. Not through lack of work.

Alvin Ellis had a great summer. He really committed to basketball. He improved his shooting. He's the only returner to play in more than a hundred games at MSU. I can't honestly say that we've relied on him, but I think he's taken a game that he liked and he's starting to make it a game that he loves.

He has experience. He has knowledge. He's a pretty smart kid. Can really, really shoot it. It's about making decisions and making a commitment to what he's got to get done that will determine his playing time.

In Schilling, obviously everyone knows about the release yesterday. Feel bad for Gavin. He's going to have surgery in the next week or so. We'll probably know more after that. Too early to get into the timetable. It's minor, not anything that's life-threatening. But I do feel bad for Gavin because he did have a great summer.

Last year he stubbed that toe in an exhibition game and it cost him eight weeks. Now he's got this. But his attitude's been great. I think he can be one of the great ball screen defenders in the whole country, which is very critical in this day and anal.

Ben Carter is going to be out of action for a little more extended period of time unfortunately. We really enjoyed Ben the small period of time we had him. A little better all-around player than I thought, probably like a Goran Suton. He had a high basketball IQ, could pass the ball, defend bigger people. But at 6'8", 6'9", he was needed.

Matt Van Dyk will be our Colby Wollenman this year both athletically and academically. He's a better athlete than Colby, not quite as big, but a guy we're going to need to rely on a little bit, especially in practice.

The last guy is Conner George, who is a redshirt from last year. He's kind of in the freshman class. If the rest of our guys changed as much in a year as Conner George changed his body, his body fat. His shooting was always good, but his ball skills. I take my hat off to this kid. He's really made an incredible progress in a year. I didn't know if he'd be here after a year. He's working his way in. Like Roy, they're going to be very helpful in practice right now, then hopefully beyond.

I'm worn out telling you about all these guys. I'll really get worn out and ask you to ask me questions.

Q. Regarding Gavin, has the surgery been scheduled yet? I know it happened Friday, so were you waiting to see how it responded?
COACH IZZO: Yeah, a little swelling in it. Take x-rays. The truth of it is, it's not great. I mean, if you look at what it could be, it could be a little more extended than what we would like.

Surgery is scheduled sometime next week. We haven't got an exact date yet. It didn't balloon up, but they like to have, when they have surgery, very little swelling.

It's a problem. There's no other way to say it. But it's not, like I said, we're going to play with two or three centers either.

Q. Looking at your point guard position, how do you plan to manage those guys? What is the key to who is on the court and winning time between those two guys?
COACH IZZO: Kind of too early to say that. I will say this. You have two opposite guys in some ways that get along very well together. I'm so impressed with the fact that Tum has taken Cassius under his wing like he has when it's a guy that could replace him, for God's sake. That's typical Tum.

At the same time I have a guy that can guard anybody. A weakness of Cassius, that's what it would be. I got one guy that shoots okay from the line. I got one guy that I think could challenge for a Michigan State record as far as free-throw shooting. Cassius, he misses one every week or so, but that's it. He doesn't miss many free throws.

What I've been impressed with with Tum is he's come back 100%. What I've been impressed with Cassius is he shoots it a lot better than I thought. Some of you saw him in high school and you probably never saw him take a shot because he could get to the hoop and finish. All of a sudden asking his dad at Midnight Madness, Where did that come from?

He's always had it, he just never used it.

I think there's going to be times when I'll play two point guards together. Cassius shoots it well enough where I think we can complement that, especially if teams are putting a lot of pressure on us and things.

Too early to tell right now. But we really need to have an exhibition game to see a little bit where we are with different people. Freshmen are going to look good today. Last night was a night where three of the four struggled. That's the way it's always been with freshmen.

But I will say this. This group has been the most special group of freshmen I've ever had here as far as both talent, school, attitudes, wanting to get better, wanting to be coached. Been a fun group so far.

Q. You've always talked about the mental side of the game not being something talked about. Eron Harris told me this last week. He said, Who cares if you can score 20 and give up 40 on defense, the biggest thing I had to learn is you can't be a great player if you don't embrace basketball at every end of the court. What does that speak to his mental maturity and his growth between the ears?
COACH IZZO: Well, I think Bob would have agreed that he was interested in scoring, scoring and scoring. To be a complete guard, you got to be able to pass some, be able to score a lot, be able to defend a lot.

Last year he proved that in different ways. Those four, five games with Zel out, he still proved he could be a scorer. Just about the entire year he worked to get better. By the middle point of the Big Ten, he was voted our best defensive player for a reason. I'm sure there were a lot of guys at West Virginia that said, Who? Is that a different guy? And understandably so. I'd be the first to tell you.

But I think he's grown up a lot. As I said, he's shot the ball very well now. Pro teams, football, basketball, they always talk about a year or two in, the game slows down. You can see the game better.

If I looked at Eron even last year, it was like he didn't know what he should do. I understood that. But now the game has slowed down for him and he's really shot the ball well from range, too.

Q. Four years ago at Media Day you had a freshman coming in that you said could be the best passer here since Magic Johnson. It was about Denzel Valentine. Today you said it about Josh Langford. How would you compare those two guys?
COACH IZZO: Cassius Winston.

Q. My apologies.
COACH IZZO: You're forgiven (laughter).

I believed it last year and Denzel proved that a little bit. In a lot of ways, I think probably statistically Scott Skiles, Marcus Taylor probably had more assists. But if you look at a guy that can control the game, I thought Denzel did a great, great, great job.

Cassius has a completely different aura to him. I tell him every day right now, the hardest part is he seems casual to me sometimes. I think he's got to pick up on that. But it's also part of his schtick, part of who he is. It's not really casual, it's just his way of pace and changing speeds and doing things differently.

He's definitely a guy, you tell him what he should have done, and it registers like in a computer.

I got you, coach.

I know you got me, but you'll probably forget by tomorrow.

No, I won't.

Sure enough, he doesn't. He's an extremely coachable kid that I do think with the shooters we have around, with Harris and Ahrens and Langford and McQuaid, believe it or not, I've been still very impressed with Miles, shooting it better than I thought. I think we're going to have a lot of guys that can fill it up.

You play a Midnight Madness game, we all know it means nothing. We all know nobody guards anybody. Score 88 points in a 20-minute running half was living proof of two things. One, we didn't guard anybody. Two, there were a lot of shots made. They weren't all layups. If you go in the gym by yourself, it's still hard to score 88 points in 20 minutes.

It was a fun brand of basketball. We were moving the ball. We were unselfish. We were sharing it. Guys are making shots. We got to make sure we don't forget that you can win some games that way. But if you win big games, you're going to have to be able to defend and rebound. The thing never changes. That is going to be our biggest task this year. Freshmen very seldom can guard anybody. It's just the nature of the beast. Depth will be a little concern inside, at least early on.

Put those two things together, we got our work cut out. But those four freshmen, we got one real good defender in Langford, a couple average defenders. Nick started out a poor defender, but he's really made some progress, a lot. Kind of as his weight went down, his game's gone up.

When I called Zebo and told him I got another one of him, I said, The problem is, he's one of you offensively and he's one of you defensively. If you could call him and give him a little help on that, I'd appreciate it.

Hopefully we can make some strides in that area.

Q. Do you recall a year where you've had this much turnover from pro to transfer to even now injury? Is Miles Bridges the most talented player you've had come in here as a freshman?
COACH IZZO: The first part of it is, no. In 2002 when we lost Zach and JR and Andre and Charlie, that group, we lost a lot. We had a good recruiting class. I think it was Torbert, Anderson in that group.

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH IZZO: Only brought in three? Must have been working on my UP math. Lose seven, bring in three. That wasn't very good.

But, you know, there's no question the big loss we had of course was DD. Not only was he a big loss because it was a little bit of a surprise. I got to make sure I never get caught that way again. I don't know if it's my fault. Definitely wasn't his. It was just what happens nowadays and the way things go.

As far as Miles, I hate to put that kind of pressure on him, but he's got shoulders two axe handles wide. I should be able to put that kind of pressure on him. He's definitely up there.

He's different. He's different. You know, he's got that powerful explosiveness like Jason Richardson, who was one of the best. Zach was one of the best. But Miles I think can play both ends. Miles has a high basketball IQ. He can do some Draymond things where he can make passes and plays. He's way better than any of those guys that I had with both hands.

As I said, when you throw a football with your right hand and you shoot with your left hand, you write with your right hand, you do other things with your left hand, he's either incredibly ambidextrous or he's really screwed up, one of the two, not knowing which hand to use (laughter).

He definitely ranks as one of the top couple I've ever had. I think could play himself into the best. What's been real fun for me is in this day and age, the Twitter era where everything is about me, with Miles Bridges, almost nothing has been about him.

I watched him interviewing out in Washington. I listened to him talk to his teammates. I watch how he embraces Tum, worried about his mother in the hurricane. Miles is a different kid than even the one I recruited, all in a positive way. Not that I had any idea. I'd known him since he was in seventh grade, I think. But he's just handled everything so well.

Now, it's before games, before any losses, before any problems, all those things. But at the same time he's been special.

I appreciate having a blue-collar superstar. That's what he was right now. Whether he plays himself into an elite player, that's what the next six months is for.

Q. It's been pretty well-documented and talked about the freshmen class, leaning on them a lot. Not to say that you don't have eligible, good leaders in the senior class. How has that changed how you're going to have to approach things, leaning on some more inexperienced guys to help carry the load here?
COACH IZZO: I don't think it will be a problem. It's one of my strengths. I have to have patience. Shows you the media is sleeping today. Not one of my strengths (laughter).

I'm going to have to learn patience and deal with patience. But I don't plan on changing a lot of things. I mean, these guys come in with bigger hype because they've earned it. Nobody gave these guys anything. They've earned what they've gotten.

Like I said, I look at their families. I look at their coaches. I look at accomplishments they've had. They've had to fight their way through to earn what they've got. They're not interested in being good players, they're interested in being great players. They're not interested in winning games, they're interested in winning a lot of games.

Really not a lot is going to change, except I think a lot more teaching by me. Last year, it's funny, Costello came back yesterday, worked out a little bit. I realized when you talk to whether it's all of you or just people in the streets, everybody gets sick of hearing me talk about the players before, but Costello and Colby did such a great job with DD, and Denzel did such a great job with Eron and some of the younger guys that hadn't played as much. I'm missing that right now.

I mean, Eron is doing a better job, but some of those guys are trying to learn how to play themselves.

So I think coaches, me in particular, we're going to have to spend more time. Yesterday I brought Miles in just to sit down and meet with him. Today I'm going to bring all four of them in, just to sit down and talk to them about the things that maybe as my line always goes: A player coached team is always better. Whenever I say that, I get letters. People say, What do you get paid so much for? You don't even work.

Well, I'm going to earn my money this year. I'm going to spend a little more time not coaching my seniors to coach them. We're all going to have to, players, coaches, the head coach.

I'm kind of enjoying something different. A little change. I'm going to enjoy having a little pressure on me to try to bring along some young guys. I think that's going to be a positive thing, not a negative thing.

Q. Indians or Cubs?
COACH IZZO: Well, let's see here. You know what, I like the Indians, I like what they've done, but you got to go with the Cubs. You got to get the curse out of the way. How about you?

Q. Yeah, Cubs. But I'm the guy who said Magic Johnson would never play in the NBA, so what do I know.
COACH IZZO: That doesn't surprise me, but go on (laughter).

Q. You talked a lot about Miles. Have you ever had a freshman that I assume is going to be a leader like this? Even Draymond wasn't a leader right away, was he?
COACH IZZO: No, Draymond wasn't. I was too dumb to play him too early. He played. What Draymond did is what I thought Ben Carter would do. I don't know how much he'd play, but I thought he'd finish games. Draymond finished a lot of games by the end of the year.

I don't know where Miles, he's got leadership qualities, but I can't ask him to do everything. I think Tum is going to do a phenomenal job in that area. But he will have to lead. He will be a key player. He'll have to be a key player on both ends. I can't hide him.

Early on I could hide Denzel a little bit or Bryn a little bit his junior year. I can't hide anybody this year. A lot of them are young. They're all young if you really look at it. Other than Eron, everybody is pretty young that's going to be playing, whether it's a freshman, sophomore or even a junior or two. I think Miles had handle those things just well. He's going to have some ups and downs early, but, man, I've enjoyed coaching him. He wants to learn. He doesn't think he knows everything. This day and age, that's a treat.

Q. Sticking with Miles, being that you're kind of hurt now in the front court, do you envision a role similar to what Branden Dawson's role was, being an undersized four? If so, what is his rebounding and defense like?
COACH IZZO: You know, I really don't. But I didn't when the year started when we didn't have any injuries. I just thought this was going to be a year with two guards, two swings and a post.

We've gone small at times. The problem is when we've gone small, it's been a lot of times a non-shooter, a non-ball handler. If you ask me, Miles can play two, three or four, if that's a numbering system. If you ask me, like everybody else, I think our thing has changed, too, where you're not going to see a lot of double posts right now in college basketball.

I see Miles playing a lot of different roles. What I've really enjoyed is we're using him in a lot of ball screens right now. His IQ is pretty good, but his strength, if he gets level with somebody, his athletic ability, I mean, there has been a couple times, I've been lucky enough to experience, whether it be Dawson or Shannon Brown or Hagar, all the way back to Jason Richardson, some 'aha' moments in practice.

Miles gives you a couple of those 'aha' moments almost each practice. Where he'll play, I'll bet you in a couple of sets that we've put in, because we're going to try to look for him, he'll be at the point. I mean that. He's going to be probably moved around more like Steve Smith, Denzel where we moved him a lot of different places. A little different than D.J.

Q. With what's going on currently with the football team, does that make you appreciate what you've been able to accomplish here that much more? Does that kind of become a talking point with some of your guys early? Coach Dantonio said the climb up is hard but the fall is fast.
COACH IZZO: Climbing up is hard and staying there is hard.

I look at football every day. I watch it every day. I look at it every day. I study it every day. I study ours. I study other programs. I think that's one of the reasons I embrace the sport, is I learn from it.

There's so many things that I could talk about with football. I've talked to Coach D more than a couple times in the last week and a half. It's what I said to you earlier, too. There's a lot of reasons. Injuries can play a part. Guys leaving. You lose certain players. You don't think of them as good. I'm watching Costello work out with our guys a little bit. I said, Hmm, the kid's pretty good.

He said, Coach, last year you thought I was a piece of, uhm, you know whatever.

I said, That's kind of the way it goes.

I think that's what every sport learns and you go through it. But I think the biggest thing that you learn that is a little different nowadays is, let's face it guys, when you're in a situation where you're having success, if you don't have it, we used to worry about the media piling on. I really don't worry about you guys piling on. I know all of you. You've all been fair to me through good, bad and indifferent.

There's so much more that can get through to a kid now. You lose a couple games and the world caves in. It's just more well-known now, meaning for the players.

That's what I talk to my guys about. We can be pretty good. I won't make any predictions early, but I think we could be real good. We could lose some games early. Could lose a lot of games early. Just the way it is.

We've taken on something that few have tried to take on. It's going to be a memory maker. One of these days, I keep saying it's going to be a bad memory, but for the most part all these memory making events I've been in, all these games we've played in, has always turned out to benefit Michigan State, our basketball program and our players. That's all I care about.

I think in football, I have all the faith in the world. I told him, Coach D is a funny guy. We're all great at giving other people advice. I mean, we're all great at giving other people advice. But he gave me some advice last year when we lost three out of four, whatever we did. It was, Stay the course. You built something here that's solid as a rock. Don't let a few bumps in the road let you change what you built, how you do it. You have to make a few adjustments, figure it out.

The other day I told him, You know what you got to do, you win one more game, you've averaged nine wins a season in the last nine or ten years. I've been here through all of them. I've been here through the 20 years before that and it's never been done. I told him to stay the course.

I don't think he was as receptive to that, taking advice as giving advice. But I wouldn't be any different than him. I mean, that's what we do.

The only thing I've learned is to just make sure that we keep our group close. When we go through tough times, we realize we're the only ones that really know what's going on, and fight through it.

Honestly, am I disappointed or bummed out for them? Well, of course. Do I lay in bed and say, Oh, geez, time to tear down the football stadium, like some people do. Hell, no.

They're going to be just fine because he's got a hell of a base, he's got a hell of a first floor. Just continue to build on that. That's what I'm going to do.

I've had some lows, too. The one thing I will say that I am concerned about. Concerned in basketball that the tournament has become the only thing out there. I'm concerned in football that, boy, when you only have four teams in, I'm not lobbying for something, I'm not the czar of football. I don't think people know how to handle losses from anybody, forget Michigan State. As much as I love to play our system, when you're looking at losing one game, two max, everybody thinks the season's over, I don't think that's good for college football.

So not worried about Coach D. Appreciate him. Care about him. Support him. Yet he's got big boy shoes. He's built it. He said he watched what we did. He one upped me. His last couple years have been something short of miraculous. That will continue. Need to get on track a little bit and win a game. When you win a game, things start moving up.

Q. The way last year ended in the tournament, how has that affected both yourself and the team the last seven months? Also, for Dantonio, what is your relationship like? How important is it to you?
COACH IZZO: Well, the first part is, it's been a bizarre year. I said almost to the day, you can start with my father, you can go to Denzel, you can go to the winning streak, you can go to the Big Ten tournament win, you can go to the NCAA loss, you can go to a week later getting invited to be in the Hall of Fame. I mean, I'm a rollercoaster guy, but I should get a free pass to those great rollercoasters the way my year has been.

Then you look at how do you learn from that. The only thing I learned from that is I learned that I made a mistake. Nobody else. I made the mistake. This year if we get down 12-0, there will be a timeout called. I mean that sincerely. I had so much faith in my team that I forgot that there's another team that is getting energy from those threes going in, the lead going to 8, to 11, to 12, to 15, and finally the Hall of Fame coach called a timeout a little late.

I think that was one thing I learned. Don't just have faith in your team, but appreciate that another team can live off some of the things they do.

I have no regrets, I mean no regrets. I said it after and six months later. I'll say it eight months later. I have no regrets about the preparation, the focus of our guys or anything. I have a lot of respect for what Middle Tennessee State did as far as making shots. That would be the second thing I learned. The timeout would be first. The second thing would be defense does win championships. If there's one thing that let us down, nobody, I mean nobody ever shot what they shot from the two and three against us. Even when we were so bad, it was scary back in the early days, nobody ever shot that against us.

So it just kind of fuels my fire on why you've got to be able to defend and rebound. That part of it was good for me. But I think by not calling a timeout, they got momentum beyond belief. My guys did drop. We bounced back, came back. I don't know if we went up one or were tied, but we were right there.

I think that that's what I learned. I learned I got to do a little better job in appreciating both sides of the court, their side and my side, and not just have all this confidence in my guys that they're strong enough to handle it, they're veteran enough to handle it. All these things that were true. But in all honesty, you got a mid-major team, I guess that's what they're called, that's not insulting, that were coached and played to a level that they probably never played at. Hats off to them, so...

Q. Your relationship with Mark Dantonio.
COACH IZZO: I don't like him anymore. He lost a couple games. Like the local fraternity, I don't like him as much (laughter).

No, it's great. We talked a long time after the game. Then we spent some time together during the week.

Some of you guys have been with me since the beginning. Some of you guys know me better than my wife knows me because you're with me during the times when things are really good or really bad. But I don't think anybody can ever appreciate what a coach goes through until you walked in their shoes.

In fact, that's what I'm learning about our society in general. I don't pass judgment as much as I used to until I've walked in somebody else's shoes.

The advantages, the ball is round, his is oblong, but I've walked in his shoes and he's walked in my shoes. Similar profession. Similar situation. Similar part dealing with injuries. Similar part trying to get players to play better than they even can. All the things are very similar.

It is extremely important, I think, that coaches at a university, if they can be, have great relationships with each other. I think we can look at each other and give them help and give them support, give them knowledge or statements on what we went through, yet understand what they're going through.

I've always had great relationships with a lot of coaches around here. I don't know, because Mark Hollis was kind enough to let me be a small part of the process. I pull for Mark Dantonio as hard as anybody. He's given me so much credit. Like I said, if you look at football and you look at basketball, you look at what they've accomplished so far, you look at what we've accomplished, they've one upped us. They've changed the program that is harder to change in a shorter period of time.

So we're going to remain good friends. I'm sure there's times he questioned me. I sat with Jud for 12 years, 13 years, whatever it was. I used to ask him on a regular Monday, Well, why do you think you should call George and tell him he should have passed on third and four instead of run? But Jud had all the answers. I'm sure there's once in a while I had one. There's times he wished I would have shot a three instead of not.

For the most part I'm almost making more excuses for him than he'll make, and I can do that because I can see it from the outside in, and he sees it from the inside-out.

He does the same thing. When I was struggling last year, he came over here on more than one occasion when Denzel went down, we're getting blown out by Iowa two out of four games. Things happen. Sure is good that I got an AD, a football coach and a president and a board that is supportive. I think a lot of fans, too.

Trust me when I say I understand why everybody gets frustrated with losses. I just wish everybody understood all the things that went into them.

Q. Another coaching question. From an X's and O's standpoint this year, where does it rank where you have injuries to the big men? What is the challenge from that for you to kind of alter what you do?
COACH IZZO: I know this is going to sound sick, I really do, but I'm kind of excited about it. I've looked at so many different things already. I'm trying to look at some things we can do differently offensively to make up for some things, look at some things like we've always done, because of the talent we have. I want to make sure we're doing a few things to put that talent in the best position they can be in, but never ever, ever, ever, ever change the basement. Never change that we better defend, rebound, be the toughest team out there. We better be one of the better running teams out there.

What we do with the X's and O's, just a dumb example. I spent two hours this morning talking about how we're going to cover ball screens because they're talking about now bigs -- I'm not sure they can breathe this year. So we might have to cover ball screens differently because we don't have as much depth, number one, the way they're going to call it, number two. We got to make adjustments.

Part of that, you know, coaches get like fans, get like media. You keep doing the same thing. Every once in a while you get smacked in the face and you got to change it, look it up.

It's kind of been longer meetings with my staff. It's been more agitated meetings because I'm looking for some answers on what different guys have done in different places. I'm having my guys call different places.

It's kind of fun. It really has been interesting. That was before anybody got hurt, just because I think we have a different kind of team than we had in the last couple years. That's invigorating, to be honest. I'm not sure I'll feel that way if we get guys in foul trouble or problems. But I am enjoying this process because I got great guys to work with.

That thing I talked about last year, about the culture and the guys, it hasn't dropped. That part hasn't dropped off an inch. A little bit of depth has. A little bit of experience has dropped off. But the other things haven't dropped off. We're going to be able to make this into a very, very good basketball team.

Q. What are your feelings about the new experimental rule coming into the Big Ten during conference games where they allow in the final two minutes of the game and in overtime periods, you can challenge whether a call is a charge or a block?
COACH IZZO: I find it interesting. If you're in that restricted line, I don't know, we got two of them out there now I guess. Might as well put a high school one out there and have three of them so you can really confuse the officials.

If you jump up in the air it's supposed to be different than if you just stand. If you jump up in the air and try to block the shot, now it's not an automatic block because you're in the cylinder. That ought to be good for more injuries, if you ask me, with people trying to jump up and do things.

I'm a big deal on this. I think we've gone way too far with all the rule changes and all this and that. I'm voting for one thing. I made it public six months ago. I'm making it public now. Go to NBA rules. Widen the lane, widen the three-point line. You're not going to have as much contact under the basket. Let's move the ball at the end of the game, make it more exciting. That's what I'm going for.

Then when you watch a game on TV, you're watching the same game. When you play a game, you don't have agents telling the kid, It's a different game. It's more the same game. I think it would solidify a lot of problems.

I don't know why we're trying to be different. We got the women's line. We finally figured it out. Three-point line is the same. Block charge, one six inches from the other one. I mean, is everybody's egos in the wrong place or should we get everybody together and say, Let's do what's right for the game of basketball, not the high school game, not the college game, not the pro game. Eventually everybody wants to play at the next level. The high school kids want to play in college, the college kids want to play in the pros. Let's all get on the same page.

I struggle with that. I mean, I struggled last year with the touch fouls. Everybody will say that the coaches adjusted. At the end of the year it was called a lot different than it was at the beginning of the year. You have all these guys falling out, people aren't interested in the game, not interested in the free throw contest. That's the one thing, I think we're all on the same page. I struggle with that.

I don't know. Block charge doesn't bother me. I don't know how they're going to get it right. It's a bang-bang play whether you're looking at it or not. I watched a baseball play, pumped for the Cubs, as bang-bang as you could get. Hell, I could see it from here, 2700 miles away. I could have made that call from here. He was safe, safe (laughter).

Okay, last one.

Q. You mentioned you have a different team than the last couple of years. Three years ago you had a team you knew that was good enough to compete for a title. Last year's team ended up being that good. What about this year's team? What's the potential?
COACH IZZO: The cool thing is if I answered you honestly, and I'm going to, I don't know. I don't know where we are right now. I do not know yet. We're doing some different things with some different people.

I do know this. We got a lot of really good parts and a lot of neat parts, a lot of guys that are on a mission. We got some older guys that I don't know if embarrassed is a good word but were hurt by the loss last year. We got some coaches that are. I'm one of them.

So it's going to be a year where I think everybody's going to have to work harder than they've ever worked. What does that mean? Somebody will write that we didn't work very hard last year.

It's just a little more unknown this year. It's a little more unknown. I don't know how freshmen are going to respond. This is new territory. If you're at Kentucky or Duke, especially Kentucky, in all honesty, not Duke, Duke this year has the number one class in the country, but they have four veterans that played a lot of minutes.

Very seldom are we left with I don't know what's going to happen. I can see us starting four freshmen sooner or later. It could happen. That's not the norm at 98% of the schools. So it's a little bit of new territory.

But what is fun is I got a lot of guys that want to learn. I got a staff that I think is invigorated by the fact that we're going to have to work a little harder. We don't have some seniors like Denzel or Matt or Colby that are explaining everything. We're going to have to spend a little more time. Probably going to get us closer to a few players.

We're going to have to coach a little different. We're going to have to even teach more. That's pretty normal. I think we're going to find out a lot in the first month, which might not be healthy for me.

But I guarantee you, that first month, whichever way it goes, it's either going to be, Wow, really good, or, Wow, we got a lot more work to do. But at least mine is not going to be phoney or hidden. We're going to know where we are, what we got to do.

The beauty of basketball compared to our oblong sport is you get a chance to regroup from that and get better as the season goes on and maybe make a run at something at the end.

I'm sure not giving you a politician's answer. I've watched three debates. I don't care who you're for. It was an interesting experience for my 16-year-old son who had to do a book report, I should say extra credit paper on it. I said to myself, That's his first opportunity to view politics. It gave me a great understanding why we have to be more patient with a lot of things. Just think how that kid's first look at politics is. I was just excited I didn't see the Kardashians on there. Other than that, I thought it's hard.

Some of our kids we get from different areas, maybe everybody doesn't have the same opportunity, so that's kind of helped me a little bit.

I don't know. But let me close by saying this, to get off on tangents, I've known some of you for so long, I feel semi-comfortable with you.

This is going to be a great year for me. It's going to be a great year because it's going to give me a chance to kind of look at things a little differently and have to really teach. Some years you get away with teaching hard. Some years you got to go off the charts. This is going to be an off-the-charts year.

Our sophomores are young guys. Let's not get mixed up by a top recruiting class. It does not always mean you're going to have the same kind of players as a Kentucky or Duke. At the same time these kids have earned their right to be ranked where they were ranked. That's in the top five classes. Now they have to perform like they're ranked. I have to put them in a position to do that. That will be my job. I'm going to take that job as seriously as I can, have some fun. Hopefully you'll have some fun. I look forward to seeing you.

Enjoy them today. I hope they do a good job for you. Thanks.

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