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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 25, 2018

Tom Izzo

East Lansing, Michigan

TOM IZZO: Well, it seems to be harder to believe each year that, number one, it's my 24th year. Number two, it seems we're starting earlier and earlier and earlier. Already we've had almost four weeks of practice in. Tournament of Champions is two weeks away, less than two weeks away, 10, 11 days.

Really starting earlier. I'm still into football season or soccer, volleyball, and sure enough we've got to figure out that it's football. There's no question that we lost a lot in Miles and Jaren, especially, of talent. We still lost one of the best leaders we've ever had in this institution in Tom, but there's also a new sense of optimism because sometimes talent doesn't win out over experience. Right now I think we're pretty experienced with the three juniors we have that have started most of their careers in Josh, Cash, and Nick.

And getting Kenny and McQuaid to have a full summer where they're -- you know, it's been a summer and a half now where those guys are getting back full. I think there's a lot of optimism by me and certainly by them. A little bit of uncertainty because any time you change to put somebody in the lineup or take somebody out, where like as much as we'll miss Jaren, we might miss Jaren in places we didn't even realize we missed him. We know how many shots he blocked. We don't know how many shots he intimidated, and that will make a huge difference.

This different group maybe isn't quite as star powered, but, again, the experience is there. So the two things I'm looking for is has guys gotten better is one? And number two, where are we going to get our leadership from? Our expectations haven't changed any from previous years.

Last year, it's hard to look at a 30-win season and say we fell a little short, but we did -- of your expectations, meaning the fans, and probably my expectations. But coming off one of the best regular seasons in the history of this school and winning 30 games, I think there's a lot of things we could build from there.

Never in my career have we led statistically in four categories -- assists, blocked shots, field goal percentage, defense, and rebounding. Maybe one -- I think one year we led in two, but we led in four. We were also third in three-point shooting, how ironic when I think we went 8 for 36 or whatever we went in that last game, and that kind of doomed us. But we were one of the leaders in the nation in three-point field goal percentage. So I think that shooting is going to continue. I really believe that we've had some guys that have gotten better.

The schedule is going to be extremely challenging again. No big surprise except not one of those games are at home. Everybody's on the road. We, of course, open with Kansas. I believe it's the third time in five years that we're opening that tournament with a Number 1 team we're playing against. We still have Carolina in the top ten that we potentially could play UCLA in there. Then going to places like Louisville and Florida are going to be very difficult but also, I think, going to give us a lot of knowledge in where we are, what we've got to get better at. It's helped us in the past. I see it helping us again this year.

Last year we featured that frontcourt that was young in some ways. We had Nick, who was a sophomore. Of course Jaren, who was a freshman, and Miles, who was a sophomore. Last year we started four sophomores and a freshman. At the end of the year, Xavier was coming on. So we were very young.

This year we have seven returning rotation players who have played for a combined 188 starts. So that experience, I'm hoping will help us. We return three of our top five scorers, I think four of our top seven scorers, six of our top nine scorers. But we also return 60 percent of our scoring, and that's not bad considering who we lost and what we lost.

I think we look at our roster real quick -- (phone rings). Love it. That should be a fine. I hear those are very common place these days. That would be a good place to start. I'll call Mr. Delaney on that and see if we can get that straightened out.

But in our captains, our team picked Josh Langford and Matt McQuaid, and they're two guys that were almost unanimous picks, and in Josh, he lived with Tom for his first two years here. He lived with Miles. He kind of has an understanding of what it takes. He has the work ethic to do it.

And I got to admit, so far he's become our best two-way player. He's not Gary Harris yet, especially the way Gary's been playing lately, but he has become a very, very, very good leader. He's worked especially hard on the off-season becoming -- he lost ten pounds. He's becoming a more polished guy with his ball handling, and passing has really improved. No one has worked harder than him unless it's McQuaid. So it's kind of ironic that they picked the two hardest workers. But I think he has been a great teammate. He has learned from Tom. They're best of friends still, and I think he's going to be a leader that is unproven yet but one I think is going to be very good.

In McQuaid, fourth year senior, he is right with Josh. Those two guys are probably in the gym more than anybody. He has the ability to knock down an open shot. Injuries have plagued part of his career, but he's been healthy. He became one of our best defensive players last year. A little bit like Draymond. He's not as quick as you might think, but he's very, very smart, and he really did a good job on some very good scorers last year.

But he's a program guy who's become better at communicating, and he's gotten better each year. The key is will he be able to knock down the shots that I think he should be able to and he thinks he should be able to.

Our other senior is Kenny Goins, another guy that's battled a lot of injuries, but probably in this day of hybrid four man or three man or guys that can play multi-positions -- at one point last year he's had games against Louisville where he had 14 rebounds. He's had games like against Purdue at the end of the year where he made a couple of big shots in critical times.

He can hit some shots, but he also can provide some energy and experience. And the ability in this day and age now, where I think college is going to get like pro ball, where people are switching four and even five at times, I think Kenny Goins could be, definitely can be a starter and could be a guy that really gives us some flexibility at that position. Not the size of Jaren, but he has a lot of other things he can do.

Cassius Winston is going to be a key. There's no secret that battled through a decent freshman year. Had a phenomenal sophomore year, when you look at the assists, when you look at the fact that he led the Big Ten in three-point shooting at 56 percent. I didn't even know that myself. I mean, I knew it when it happened. He shot 49 for the year, but those are staggering numbers when you think about it. So I think he proved to be one of the best shooters, not in the Big Ten, but in the country.

He needs to become more of a vocal leader. He needs to become continuously better defensively. That was one of the battle cries last year. He's lost a little more weight and tightened up his body a little bit more, and I think he too is ready for a real big explosion year. I think he's worked hard. He's better defensively. He's pushing the ball better. He's going to be a big key because, without a quarterback, you're never as good as you could be.

The other junior is Kyle Ahrens, and Kyle Ahrens, I think is finally healthy. That kid's gone through more injuries since his junior year of high school, never been on track. This year he's tied for the highest vertical, almost 40 inches, on our team. He's probably our toughest kid, and he can hit open shots.

He too, I think, can play three positions, the two, three, or four. Not as good with the ball as he maybe needs to be to be a two, but he's tough enough to be a three or four. Shoots it well, could be a hard matchup for somebody else, and I think can guard a lot of positions. He's definitely one of our better shooters, and he's an energy guy. I think could be a great offensive rebounder.

The third junior -- Kyle's a redshirt junior -- is Nick Ward. It's funny for me because Nick and I have had our differences, as everybody knows. The differences are usually because I think he has more to give than he sometimes thinks he has to give. But going to the NBA Combine or the camps and seeing some guys and playing against some guys and getting some input from the NBA, I always say can work either way. Other guys that come back are never all in. They're half in. They think they should be gone. They're kind of halfway out the door, and that creates a problem.

One thing I felt Adreian Payne did a good job of is he came back and really utilized and upped his scoring like four or five points, upped his rebounds, upped his blocked shots. Nick came back, and I swear to you the day he walked in the building, which was in April, he was doing two-a-days on his own. His whole demeanor changed. He's lost another 15 to 18 pounds. There were times this year he was under 240 this summer, and I was talking to him about putting weight on.

But he's one kid that going through the draft process, I really think, helped. I think his whole demeanor on things. He had an incredible summer academically. Just that maturing, growing up process that we don't give kids a chance to do very often. He started paying close attention to his diet, what he eats.

It sounds kind of crazy when you're talking about things like this, but I think Nick Ward might have benefited from the off-season as much as any kid on our team. Whether that will translate now into the things he needs to do on season. He's shooting it better, but he can't forget where his bread and butter is. I think the key to Nick having some success, can he defend those ball screens? Can he rebound the ball? He's going to be able to score it. So I'm actually excited about the new version of Nick Ward.

The other guy in that class, Conner George, he's continuing to get better. He's been playing a lot on the scout team. He can shoot it with just about anybody on our team. Hopefully, he's gotten better with the ball. He's gotten stronger. And hopefully he might see some time, to be honest with you.

The sophomore class is very small in a way because Brock Washington, Jack Hoiberg, and Braden Burke are three guys that are redshirts, so they're really freshmen, as far as Brock and Jack. Jack had a little eye injury, he's been out for a while. Brock had a sprained ankle. He was out for a while. But those two guys have definitely gotten a lot better over the summer, and I would be surprised if they don't see some time.

Braden Burke, he was a kid that I had to redshirt last year because he did play one year. So he's actually a redshirt sophomore. He too has made some progress. It sounds like everybody has made progress, but nobody, nobody on our whole team has made more progress than Xavier Tillman. He fits right in there with Josh and McQuaid in that he's a gym rat. He's one of the more tenacious workers.

Probably been one of the more enjoyable guys I've had to coach. I hate to say that to him too early since he's got some career left. But if I look at what he did in high school as a player, what he did in high school as a student, what he's done in college as a player, and what he's done in college as a student, where his weight was in high school, and where his weight is now, how much he's changed his body, how much he's matured, this kid could go down as one of the poster boy examples of if you put your mind to something and it's important enough. He's been a tenacious worker. He's getting to be a good leader. I think he's going to be a great captain someday. He's really developed in the off-season, and that kind of went on from the end of last season.

He has changed his body. He came in 275. He too was 240, 239, 241 so far in practice. That's a lot of weight in one year. Nick's done it over a couple years. But he's worked to change his body. He's worked to change his mind, his approach to school. He's worked to change his shot. When you watch him now, he definitely can shoot threes. He's just a tenacious rebounder, and I think the loss of weight has made him a much better athlete.

So those upperclassmen, I think, bring a lot. There's seven or eight of them that I think are all capable of playing. Instead of being young like we have the last two years, or younger, I think our key players this year are going to be juniors and seniors, and that's going to be refreshing, especially with a guy like Xavier, who's only a sophomore.

Getting into our freshmen real quick, I'm not disappointed with one of them. I've been a little bit surprised with all of them. Aaron Henry has shown the most so far because at 6'6", he played for an incredible high school. He won the state tournament down there, Ben Davis. He's a guy that I'm not sure we would have recruited if not for Gary Harris. We went and saw him. We questioned some things. We went and saw him again, questioned some things. And Gary kept saying, you know, I've seen this kid play. I've seen him in the summer. Stick with him. He's a great kid. So I told Gary the other night when I talked to him after his big game against Draymond, I told him that I owe him one because I think this kid is physically ready to contribute more than the other guys.

We had Foster. We had Thomas. We had Gabe Brown, and we had Marcus Bingham, and all those got to do the opposite diet that Nick and Xavier did. These guys got to gain weight.

Aaron came in at 215, 218. He's physically ready. He tied with -- for the highest vertical on our team. He can shoot it good, not great yet, handles it great. He reminds me a lot of Alan Anderson we had here. He's very versatile. He definitely can play the two, three, and four. Good passer. And yet he needs experience on how to play hard every day. The same thing 90 percent of the freshmen need to know how to do.

And Foster, he came in 155. He's up to like 169 or something. So he gained some weight. He's still what I would call thin. But he's smart, he's heady. Those of you who saw him last year, he has a knack for the game. He has great basketball IQ. I have two point guards who have very good basketball IQs. He is a great shooter like Cassius. He has a lot of work to do defensively, like Cassius did. I think we must breed point guards in this state that can shoot it but not necessarily guard it.

And that will be one of his things, you know. His father being a coach, it's been interesting because he's harder on him than I am. As far as a guy who can get a shot for himself, who's he going to be like? I don't know. There's a lot of guys you can look at that are small and maybe not real quick but are Heady and can get a shot off. That's the difference with him than a lot of smaller guys. He can get a shot for himself. So I've been really pleased with his progress. He will be the backup point guard, and he's going to have to play some for a variety of reasons.

And Gabe Brown kind of mirrors Aaron Henry. A little bigger, 6'6-1/2", little longer wingspan, but he's athletic and can shoot it. Tried to compare him to where Morris Peterson was at the same age, and he's way ahead of Morris. But like all the other guys, he's ahead of Morris as far as his athletic ability. Kind of skinny, came in at 190-something. But if you remember, Morris came in kind of heavy, so we'll swap those two.

But he too has to learn how to guard, and that's kind of the big difference in most of these guys. But a very good shooter with a tremendous passion for the game. He has some life. He has some fire. He's a little bit like Jaren. He's got a personality.

Thomas Kithier was the guy that I knew the least about. We liked him as a junior. Can't say that we thought we thought he'd be great, but he had this desire to be here. He has been much better than we thought. He had to sit out all last year because of an insane rule in this state, blunt about it. But he's finding his way on the floor after not playing his senior year. He's smart. Got a tremendous basketball IQ. He has a knack for moving without the ball. He has a knack around the basket where he's got the up and under. He's got a variety of those goofy moves like a Wisconsin player that has worked out pretty well for us.

And then there's Marcus Bingham, 6'11". We made him drink some water so he'd get up to 195 before he weighed in, like gallons of water, to be honest with you. Yet a 7'5" wingspan and a guy that can really, really shoot it. So as you can imagine, the mission has been, when you look at Jaren at 6'10", 7'4" wingspan, Jaren came in skinny at 221. Marcus came in skinner at 195. But thanks to him, our strength and conditioning coach, the new rules by the NCAA where you can kind of eat like 15 hours a day if you want, he's done all those things. He's up to 210 or 211, making progress.

But he's one of the team favorites. He's got a personality. He's not afraid. He's just too skinny right now, but he's not afraid of anything. Has a long way to go in terms of getting his body ready, but he's picked up things pretty well and doesn't have a long way to go as far as his skill level. Very, very skilled kid.

So that's our team. And I'm sure there's a million questions. The FBI, the G-league thing are ones that have reared their head lately. I'll just say two things, and then I'll open it up. As far as the FBI probe, that's a cloud for us. It's a cloud for us. I've heard different coaches talk different ways on whether it's really bad or not bad. You're getting the FBI into college basketball, it's bad. I'm no UP. I didn't know what the hell the FBI meant. We don't have those guys up there. But I've learned quickly it's not a group you want to be on the wrong side of.

I really hope that we can look at some things, make them better, and try to improve for players, coaches, and schools. But there are some problems. I don't know what's going to end up happening. I wasn't there for any wire taps. I wasn't in any hotel rooms. So it would be, again, crazy for me to comment on something that I know nothing about.

Who's the victims? I don't know. I don't know. I think we're all the victims. There's problems we're dealing with.

This G-league thing, I was on a conference call today for a committee that I'm on for college basketball. I think the impact it has on college basketball would not be as great because I don't think there's as many players. Again, I think we're constantly -- and it really bothers me. We're constantly making rules that we think gives kids freedom at 18 years old, and I'm wondering who in the hell needs freedom at 18 years old. But whatever people think, everybody's writing things about it. Everybody thinks kids should have all this. But I wonder if those same people raised their kids the same way.

I think it's a small number of players, but I worry about are these kids now in ninth grade, tenth grade thinking, I'm going pro, $125,000. All of us here know the government is taking a big part of that. Then they got to pay for their food. They got to pay for their housing. They got to -- they're not going to have the facilities we have. They're playing against 26, 27-year-old men who are fighting for their lives.

I'm not sure why everyone is so enamored of it. But whatever they decide, like everything else, I'm not in the room. I don't know why people are thinking of making these kinds of decisions, and if it benefits the kids, I'm all for it. I just think that we keep acting like all this stuff benefits the kids, and I wonder where all of us would be if we went that route at a young age. We've had some kids that have made it at a young age. We've had some kids that haven't made it at a young age, and I continuously say, once they don't make it at that level and they don't have their education and they don't have the things that most of us have, where do you go from there?

So it worries me a little bit. I don't know if it's going to affect that many people. I just think it's going to partially affect them because I think everybody thinks -- everybody that comes to these colleges, these BCS colleges, think that they're NBA players. Well, of the 50 top colleges or 75 top colleges, I mean, there's only so many players. There's only 25, 26 Americans that make it a year. So there must be another league somewhere that I don't know about. Everybody's not making it.

If I were them, I'd want the best chance to make it, and I have nothing that gives me the feeling it's the G-league. But if the NBA is going to do more, so be it. College basketball is still a great game, and we're going to get a lot of great players, and I think we're going to develop our players, and that's kind of where I'm at.

Q. Two from me. The first, Xavier Tillman, I spent significant time with him this summer, and he talked about all the changes you referenced, and he said, why go play for a Hall of Fame coach and not do what he said? If you don't want him to yell at you, just do it. Do you like that? He's almost like --
TOM IZZO: He's bought in. Yeah, he's bought in. We told him he's got to lose some weight. He lost some weight. We told him he had to improve his shooting, the guy worked diligently on it. I mean, it was impressive. We all know that he has a family. We all know that he's got a little daughter.

So he asked me, how do I balance that? I said, well, you're probably asking the wrong guy because I'm not sure I did a good job of balancing that. But if it was me, I would work while everybody else is sleeping. Well, a little later on in my career, I found a way to go home at 7:00 at night, stay there until 9:00, and then when everybody goes to sleep, I'd watch film until whatever, talk on the phone to some of you guys or recruits.

What I did with him is I told him, you're not probably tough enough to stay up late at night because these guys nowadays need their sleep at night. So I said get up early in the morning, 6:30 in the morning, 7:00. It helped that that's what Miles did. That's what Tom did. That's what Josh did. So he'd come up early in the morning. I'd come in there, and the ball would be bouncing, and he'd be working on his ball handling and his shooting.

For some reason -- I had him tell you this story when he came here about how he was eating, what his thoughts were on eating out, and how he's changed that. This kid has really bought in. I'm probably going out on a limb, but he's going to be playing at the next level someday, I think. Second part?

Q. Second is you're one of the cleanest programs in America, you yourself personally, the way you run your program. Can't argue that fact one bit. Does there come a time, Tom, because scheduling Michigan State, no matter what school you are, is a big deal, where you begin to look at programs that systematically cheat and say, no, I'm not scheduling them anymore. I'm not going to let them have a Michigan State, knowing they very well could have cheated to get players that could have been here?
TOM IZZO: You start out asking the tough questions. You know what, I don't think I'll ever get to that point honestly. And the reason I'll never get to that point is I think I know what goes on. Sometimes I know firsthand, but as I learned last year, there's a lot of things that are second, third, and fourth hand. So who am I to condemn? Who am I to -- I just got to the point about five years ago there's certain schools that I'll recruit against, and there's certain schools that call it I'll give in or I'll bail out. For the most part, there's a lot of schools out there doing things the right way. Our league's got a ton of them.

And I'm going to just do my job. I've learned a lot, and one thing that I really learned is when you get up on the top or you get up where you're pretty good all the time, a lot of people taking shots at you. And maybe that's the same for those programs. So I'm going to still play anybody, any place, any time. I might recruit a little different against the schools, but it wouldn't stop me from playing anybody.

The NCAA at the end of the year doesn't say you can't play this school or you can't play that. I'm going to play anybody. And remember that there's a lot of schools that are doing it the right way, and if there's some that aren't, then they can live with it.

Q. Coach, kind of following up on that, specifically, Brian Bowen. Here is a guy that from birth basically was groomed to be a Spartan, and we hear about everything that went on, and yet it didn't include Michigan State. With this whole FBI probe and process, do you feel there's a cleansing effect, that you're more on a level playing field recruiting someone like Brian Bowen going from here? Have you seen that yet?
TOM IZZO: No. I don't feel -- it's like everything else in life. We prove where smoking causes cancer, and there's still people that smoke. Drunk driving kills people, and there's still people that drink and drive. I don't feel a cleansing personally because it's really what most schools do. It's the way most people are handled.

I feel bad for Jason Richardson, what he went through just because he's been such a great kid here, and it hurt him, everything that went on. I guess I give them credit that they came out and said what they said. But I don't feel cleansed about anything that's happened to me in the last year, if you want the truth, because for me I know what I do every day. I know what I did. We're not perfect.

But the bone thing, again, I just -- I feel bad for the parties, and I don't know why people -- we have such impatience. Nobody wants to pay their dues to get places. Every assistant wants my job. No, every graduate assistant. No, every student assistant wants my job. That's okay if that's the dream and the goal, but they want it tomorrow, and that's what they've done with everything. And we've cause it.

So don't blame Brian Bowen, blame all of us -- you writers, me as a coach, them as parents. It's the adults' fault, and I've said that a lot of times in the last few years, and I believe it to the bottom of my heart. A lot of the things going on, a lot of the problems going on is there's a lot of parents that need to check their hole card too, and that's why I don't think 18-year-olds -- you know, we all want to think we were ready at 18 to make all these decisions in life, I promise you, and none of us probably were, especially me, but I think a lot of you weren't either.

I just feel that the cleansing, no. I don't feel cleansed. I feel proud and good for our program, that we're almost looked at that way. I'm not sure it will help us in the long run, if you know what I mean. But it's the way we do it, the way we're going to do it, and hopefully it will work out.

Q. When it comes to the three juniors you have -- Nick and Cassius and Josh -- when they come in as part of that class,and Miles is part of it and Jaren comes last year, and, of course, they move on to the NBA. When they came, there was so much anticipation and hype, and now, believe it or not, they're juniors, and now they're the old guys, and they're a little different. I know you love the experience, but do you see a different dynamic from those guys? How will they be different now as players? How will that help your team now that they've gone through all that?
TOM IZZO: It's like most programs do it. I said there's a couple programs out there that have made the one and done and just the freshmen, and you know what, whatever works for them is great. It's kind of distorted everybody else. You're a sophomore and you're not gone? What's wrong with you? We have two great examples here, one in Draymond, who before he's done, I think will be a max guy, and one in Denzel. Adreian was in that boat. It's about you get better every year.

The key is do you get where you want to get? The key is not when do you get where you want to get? If it takes three years or four years. If it takes two years or one year, does it really matter in the big picture? You're talking about a span of 50 years after you're done playing probably. If you've done the things right, you're going to have a hell of a 50 years. If you're so worried getting there that all of a sudden you're out of the league that we've had happen, you're going to be in for a very disappointing 50 years.

So I think what Cassius and Josh have done, I mean, the thought that everybody loves college and wants to be here is crazy. Nobody -- everybody wants to go pro. I don't know what your Utopia is for each one of you, whether you're in broadcasting, whether you're in writing. Do you want to write for Sports Illustrated? Is that good anymore? So if that's your dream, would you go there and try to do it in one year and if it didn't work out and you have nothing to fall back on, you'd feel differently about it.

So I think those guys realize that there is a process. Miles taught them, you know, you don't have to do it the way a few are doing it. The bottom line is an NBA team is going to take the best players available. Now, if you're really young and really tall, do you get a little bit of an advantage? Probably. I know some guys that are really young and really tall that are in a lot of the league from a lot of different schools. So that isn't a master plan either.

The plan is you'd better be mature enough, tough enough, and good enough to maintain it. It's like I get a kick out of schools saying, you come here, you've got a job for life. Every door will be open. You've got a job for life. I don't care if you're from heaven, if you go somewhere and apply for a job, you might get in because you're from heaven, but if you don't do your job, you're going to hell. You're out of there. That's the way it is. You've got to produce.

I think people don't understand that, that everybody matures at a different stage. One of the reasons Jaren almost stayed, they thought he was kind of young, meaning his family and himself. If you ask Miles now, he doesn't regret it one bit. He's still having fun, but he has some memories. For me, if they're good to go in one year, my job should be to prepare them as fast as I can, but the preparation should be more than just as a player. You've got to be able to handle that lifestyle. You've got to be able to handle what the world's throwing at you. Hell, I had a hard time handling it last year. I'm a little older than 18.

So I just think that everything we've done, we've rushed things. I think it's good to have goals and have goals that we accomplished, but if we keep forgetting there's a process to getting there, and you have to get there in a multiple of ways, meaning physically, emotionally, skill-wise, then I think we've got problems. I think that that's tough on these guys, and I feel for them, as far as those three that you talked about. Nick gained from staying. Does Josh want to be out last year? Hell, yes. Does Cassius want to be out? Does he want to be out this year? Hell, yes. Every kid wants to do that.

What's good about some of them is they're not as -- maybe there's a little better direction at home, and somebody's looking at the big picture, not the small picture. But I think we've gotten past this thing where I'm going to try to hold guys back and all that. I get more pride out of watching some kid live his dream than I do living my own now because I get to see some kids come from nothing like I did and are somewhere. And that is -- man, I'll tell you, it's a lot of fun. I think, for those guys right now, they're working on their craft to get as good as they can get at it and then see what happens at the end of this year.

And I tell them, the neat thing is you've got four years, but that's all you got usually. If you don't make it in those four years, oh, there's D-league guys that have made it, that didn't make it. It's a tougher road. In those four years, don't be afraid if you have to use all four, if you have to use three, if you've got to use two. Just make sure, when you go, you're ready in all of those three facets, and I don't think a lot of times kids are.

Q. Coach, Big Ten looks this year to be coming down to Michigan-Michigan State. What's your view on the state of the rivalry?
TOM IZZO: I think that sounds good on paper, but I think you'd agree that -- you know, there's more good teams in our league than there were last year. And I think some of them are going to be surprise teams. I think Michigan's going to be good. I think Nebraska is going to be really good. They've got a lot of people back. I'm surprised Wisconsin isn't picked higher. They've got a lot of people back. They had two guys with big time injuries sitting out that are back. I think Iowa's got five out of six or six out of seven back. I think some of us get the benefit of the doubt because we have some teams that year after year have been in the championship hunt.

But there's some guys on the block now. I think Indiana is going to be much, much improved from last year. They had a couple of injuries. So I think the league is good. I think it's great for the state that there is two teams in our state that are both predicted to be pretty good. We've just got to live up to the billing.

Q. If you had a game tonight, who would start with the three juniors? And how deep of a rotation would you like to have ideally?
TOM IZZO: That's going to be really interesting, you know, because those freshmen are going to take a little time, I think. I think Aaron is the most ready, and I think Foster has to be ready just because of the backup to the point. But I really think if we went tomorrow or tonight, we would start the three juniors. I think McQuaid would probably start. And then the coin flip is Kenny or Xavier, and the reason Xavier might start, but I think he gives us more off the bench. So I'm going to have to look at that. Those five guys right off the bat.

The guy that's been a little bit exciting for us that was out for a couple years is Kyle Ahrens, probably the toughest kid we've got and one of the best athletes we've got and one of the best shooters we've got. So how we work him in, so if we did it that way, that would be an eight or nine-man playing group, and then we'll see which one of those freshmen come along.

The problem with our schedule this year in the 20 games that I really didn't talk about, going up to 20 games -- I mean, I guess I've been for it because I understand the TV. I understand all the reasons for it. But it puts a lot on a time. You look at those games we're going to play. We're going to open with Kansas. We're going to play in Vegas very early against UCLA and maybe North Carolina or Texas. We're going to come back, and we're going to play at Louisville, and then we're going to play at Florida, and then we're going to play two Big Ten games -- all that before December 10.

That's like five, six, seven -- potentially seven BCS pretty good games in that short period of time and doesn't give the freshmen a lot of time to learn, except learning under fire, and that's a little harder to do when you've only got a couple of games in there that aren't against what I would say are high quality teams.

So the 20 games that we really didn't talk about and I didn't mention, but think of it this way. When we went from 16 to 18, those two extra games made the season like three weeks longer, and now we've got two more, and yet the season is longer. Talking to Mark Dantonio on my way to Arizona, they started on the 6th of August and could go to the end of November, and you get into the Big Ten Tournament, that's December 7. That's four months. We're going to be pushing six months plus. That's difficult -- difficult to keep a team healthy, difficult to keep a team motivated.

So that's the only thing that concerns me about our freshmen. Can I get enough reps early to help them grow? That was some coaches telling me that didn't play tough schedules, they got a chance to do that. So if there was one negative to the schedule, that might be it. Hinder those guys a little bit, but I think still in the long run, it will help them.

Q. When you look at the scheduling, there's been a problem getting teams to do home and home. They don't want to play at the Breslin Center. But also every year, you have to look at everyone's schedule. Who don't they play? Would you be willing to go to a full round robin in the Big Ten and get rid of some of those lesser games?
TOM IZZO: I wouldn't like that, and I'll tell you why I wouldn't like it. When I talk about 20, we only have so many games to play. I really enjoy -- I think the Tournament of Champions has been an incredible tournament for us. As I said, three of the five times we played the Number 1 team in the country. One time we were 1 and played Kentucky, who was 2. That was a hell of a way to start. Now that it's the real start to the season, it's even bigger. So you never want to get out of that.

We've got the ACC-Big Ten challenge. That's always going to be Louisville, Duke, North Carolina. For the most part, that's the way it's been. Next year we're in the Gavitt Games. So you've got all these games. Then you've got a Thanksgiving tournament. I think we're in Maui, so there's three more games. Pretty soon, you've got those three, Tournament of Champions, the Gavitt Games, the Big Ten -- you're talking six games against more high powered teams. You've got to survive somewhere to play some teams that aren't that way.

I just think we play an unbelievable schedule and have done it for all 24 years. I bet you our worst schedule in 24 years is better than most teams' best. I guess I'm proud of that. I look at the number of ranked teams I think Matt had in the press book or Max had. I think we still lead in the last 20 years or whatever, playing the most ranked teams. That causes me to be upset. That causes media disturbance. That causes me not to sleep. In the end, it's usually made us better. I don't think I'd like to go beyond 20, but I do whatever they ask me to do.

Q. A few years ago when they started graduate transferring, you basically had to stop the redshirts. That was kind of your philosophy because people were recruiting any kid that graduated. Even the year you had the four guys, it wasn't even a thought, it wasn't an option. This year, Tom, you got five with a bunch of experience back. Do you start to rethink your position of I don't want to redshirt anymore, or do you almost have to think about it a little?
TOM IZZO: The only reason I'd redshirt somebody, and we have a couple of unique kids where, when you've got to gain a lot of weight, it would be a thought. Marcus would be a thought. But I don't worry as much here of losing them, to be honest with you. I really don't think, we haven't had that many kids that have left. So I feel sorry for the schools that are losing them all the time, like Cleveland State did or some of these smaller schools are, and if I was in those schools, I'd never redshirt a kid. Or if I did, I'd never let one graduate, which we've had discussions on that. How ridiculous is that that we're trying to hold them back? There's a lot of programs trying to hold back kids from graduating. Isn't that sick that we're in that?

But the transfer epidemic is still -- there's still people for it, but I don't get it. I don't get, when the going gets tough, let's bolt mentality. If that's going to do you well for the next 60 years of your life, God bless them. But sooner or later, you don't get to just transfer. You don't get to just move on. Somebody in some job is going to say, hey, you don't get it done here, you might be out of luck. If coaches get fired, because we're not successful, they're not probably getting another job at that same level very easily.

So I think teaching somebody how to persevere through things. There's always some reasons, but now it's an epidemic, and I think it's sad for, again, me, I think it's sad -- self proclaimed, by the way. I think it's sad for the kids because we've learned the minute things don't go right, we bolt. Can't wait to see it on those boards. Every football locker room since I was in fifth grade, when the going get tough, the tough get going. The new one, the going gets tough, get the hell out of Dodge. Just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Q. Tom, a question about your staff. I think this is year eight with you having the same three assistants, which is a couple years longer than any other major program in the country. Wondering first what the benefits of that are, and do you have to guard at all against things getting stale? Do you have to work to get fresh ideas in at any point?
TOM IZZO: I think both. I think both are true. We've had guys that have had chances to leave. Like we said, the players sometimes, you want to transfer, go ahead. Find another place like this. Sometimes coaches don't do the same thing.

You get a little more selective as you make more money and get more opportunities and the facilities get better. I think you've always got to worry about getting stale. I don't mean because of the assistants. The head coach has to worry about getting stale.

If I learned one thing that motivates me, as negative as a lot of last year was, I won't be stale this year. That's a promise. No stale for me and should be no stale for my staff, and that was blatantly pointed out. Sometimes we feel sorry for ourselves. Sometimes we do this. Sometimes we get complacent. We won 30 games last year. We did it again this year.

We have worked on zone almost four days a week. And we had our rebounders thing the other day. And they said, are we please going to see some zone this year? I just read to you that Michigan State University led the nation in field goal percentage defense. But I played one play of zone last year to start the season in honor of Judd so he could look down and not cause thunder and lightning from up there. So I did that for him. And I just -- I'm amazed how people see things. If you don't win it all, it's trying to pick away some things that you can do.

Do you need some versatility in your game? Maybe. So we'll look at that a little bit. But I always go by the theory, if it ain't broke, why fix it? If you can lead the nation in field goal percentage defense, that's a hell of a stat. And usually wins you a lot of games, and we did win 30 games. And the game we lost was not because of our defense. It was because of our inability to shoot threes on that game, which you've all heard it. There's a lot of teams that shoot a lot of threes, and a lot of times you live by the three and you die by it. We don't normally live by it. We did in that game, and we died by it.

So, yeah, I'm going to look at our staff. I'm going to look at our players. I'm going to look at our system. We're doing some different things there. I'm going to look at our defense. But I think it's healthy to look at changing up some things and adjusting. We have more than you think. But those are all things that I lay in bed at night and think about too.

Q. When you were out on the road this summer, kind of going back to the whole FBI thing and everything that's been going on, did you sense any kind of different vibe maybe around the gyms? Was there anything you could tell was different maybe this summer versus others?
TOM IZZO: No, I didn't walk into any gyms and everybody ran to the exits and hid. None of that happened. And I didn't -- you know, all kidding aside, I mean, I think it was a -- it was something you thought about yourself. When your own character, when the character of your program gets questioned, there's never a comfort. You're never comfortable. But by the time summer came, I was as comfortable as I could be in my own skin, to use the old Dove commercial, and I really was comfortable in my own skin. I'm comfortable, as you asked me, that I don't worry about things I can't control. They consume me. They eat me alive for a while. And I just realize that I got to do what I got to do.

So I didn't go into those gyms. I caught myself in maybe April and May going around and being afraid to be as aggressive or talk about things. By the time the summer came, I just said, you know, I have nothing to hide. I have nothing to deal with. The FBI thing, you know, this exoneration or the NCAA exoneration -- you're not exonerated if you didn't feel like it was with any merit.

So I didn't feel that way at all, to be honest with you. I feel bad for what's going on in college basketball. I feel bad for the FBI probe. I could sit here like some and say it's one or two schools out there, and you guys aren't dumb. I mean, there were times this year that I wanted to call you that, along with a lot of other words, but I refrained from doing that, but you're not dumb. And you know people at other programs and other parts of the world. You've talked to people. I don't think things are usually as bad.

I think the minnow becomes Moby Dick in anything you do as it gets passed on. That's why I hate the Internet. That's why I hate Twitter. That's why I hate the social media. Did I say that strong enough? That's why I frickin' hate the social media and stuff like that?

But at the same time, there are problems, and we've got to live up to them. Whether it was the problem we had here, whether it was the problem at some of these schools, it's the problem with agents, problem with a shoe company, whatever the problems are, you've got to deal with them, and we've got to get better at it. We've got to get better at what we do here. We've got to get better at what we do to the game because there's a lot of people, when there's a lot of money involved, there's a lot of problems.

I'm going to do my best to -- I love the game, as much as I love this university. So as I said, I've got a job to try to make sure and make a lot of things better, and I'm going to do that each and every day I'm alive.

Q. You just mentioned the shoe companies. I kind of wonder what you make of that kind of fundamental conflict of interest with the shoe companies being, A, a major money driver for college programs, and then also the root of a lot of the issues with grass roots basketball?
TOM IZZO: It worries me. It does worry me. I have, I think, an incredible relationship with Nike, and I not only enjoy the people, I enjoy the time with them. But I would never in a million years ask Nike to help me with a kid or do this or do that. I don't think there's as much of that going on, I don't know, but there does have to be a little bit of a conflict. I can't argue that. If it benefits you in the long run, there's a conflict. If it benefits them, there's a conflict. Whoever it benefits, there's going to be some conflict if you're involved with those people.

But I feel very comfortable and cool and enjoying the relationship I have with them. If I was to be very honest, what I read, what I saw -- because I don't -- I shouldn't say what I read. You know me better. I don't get on the Internet. I don't get on Twitter. But what my staff brings to my attention, some of those numbers were mind boggling to me. I've been in it 35 years of recruiting, and I know a lot, I think. And they were mind boggling to me.

I just don't know, as you watch that whole thing, who knew what. Do we really know? It's hard to condemn. The things we do know, it looks like those people are in trouble. It looks like. The things we knew here, it looks like there's a person or two in trouble. I mean, the people that should be nailed or the people that caused the problems, but I think there's a lot of good universities out there, I think there's a lot of good in a lot of the shoe companies.

The conflict of interest question is a valid and real question that, when you're at the point I am in my career, when you've recruited as long as I have in my career, you shouldn't be naive to anything, and yet a couple of the coaches that came up with me were calling me and saying, can you believe this and can you believe that? So we were all a little naive to some of it, if it was true. If it was true. And I state that because I don't know.

It's not a very good answer, but it's the best answer I can give you because of this constant I don't know mentality. I know what I do know. But there hasn't been many times in my career, there's been a few, but not many times where someone said I want a new car. I want more money. I want a free pass to Wendy's for life. I --

Q. I was going to ask you for that.
TOM IZZO: To be honest, I was looking at you. Fred, I just kid you because I know you can take it.

(Laughter).

But at the same time, I reiterate, if there's one thing we're lucky about, there's a lot of good things in our league. I think there's a lot of good programs, and there's a lot of programs that do it the right way. But the conflict question, I think is valid. It's something we've all got to look at and think about. Probably the shoe company has all got to think about it. Probably goes back to the AAU thing and the grass roots and everybody trying to get ahead of everybody, everybody trying to speed the process up. That's a tough part. I don't have a good answer for you.

Q. You kind of talked about this already, but Cassius has been getting a lot of national attention. Could you talk more about his improvement over the last couple of years and where you think he is.
TOM IZZO: That's really exciting for me because, let's face it, his first year everybody questioned why this, why that. Cash has improved a lot. He really has. He'd be the first to tell you he's got some improving to do. Good enough to be good is one thing. Good enough to be great is another thing. But if you want to be an elite player and an elite point guard and someday an NBA player or a champion, good and great are just kind of rungs on a ladder. You've got to get to elite status if you're going to be that. There's got to be just a few of you around.

I told him that yesterday. I jumped him for something, and I think he looked at me like I was crazy because I don't do that like I did his freshman year very often. I said, now the stakes have changed for me. Now I know what you're capable of, and my job is to get you there every single day, and if you can do that every single day, I like your chances of making us successful and you becoming successful.

So he is getting a lot of national attention. When you have the assist to turnover ratio like he has, he deserves it. When he shoots the three like he does, he deserves it. If he wants to go from maybe the great status he's at to one more step, keep improving defensively, keep improving -- you know, pushing that ball, your conditioning be at a point where you can go the whole time, and I think he's doing that. I really do. So exciting time for me.

Cassius and Josh and Nick, those three guys have made significant jumps. Now, I still say Xavier might have made the biggest one, but maybe he had the most way to go.

One more question.

Q. Climb out on a limb, Tom.
TOM IZZO: I've been there a lot.

Q. The one kid that we're going to be most surprised at his performance this year.
TOM IZZO: That you guys will?

Q. Yeah.
TOM IZZO: You wouldn't be surprised by Cassius. You wouldn't be surprised by Nick. I think maybe Xavier. Maybe Xavier. The only reason it could be Josh is I think he's improved his ball handling, his passing, and he wasn't a guy that defended real well or ran real well. He's kind of improved in every area. He's the closest thing to a Valentine, who just kept getting better.

We forget that Denzel scored 3 points a game as a freshman and 7 or 8 as a sophomore, and I want to say 11 as a junior. But every year, every step, percentages, free-throw percentages went from 68 to 70 to 82 to 86. Three-point field goals just went up every year. He just constantly got better. That's how I look at Josh right now too. He's just getting better every year, and he works at it.

But for you guys that haven't seen him as much, Xavier might be a guy that's improved enormously and could be a guy you say wow, you know. Let's hope so for his sake, for your sake, and definitely for my sake.

I appreciate you being here. I hope you enjoy our players. I will be around some more. I've got a couple things I've got to do quick, some radio, and then I'll be here until we start practice, and practice is going to start whenever you're done with us. Thanks a lot.

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