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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 4, 2008Tom IzzoCOACH IZZO: I think my players are agreeing with the weather. I'm not sure we are ready to play with, because 70 degrees in November around here, it's un-American. But I guess our season is getting ready to get started, and it's during a time when we had a couple unique things happen here with our football doing so well and of course Joe's incredible weekend that I had to miss because of a clinic but I was really happy for him. And right now, we're a little beat up to be honest with you, with Delvon, he's coming but he's probably at about 60 percent. And then Marquise, G have been hurt. Durrell Summers has been, after having a great two weeks, has been hurt for a week and a half with a pulled groin. So we actually cancelled the practice this week which is another un-American thing to do and kind of had to change up a little bit. If you asked me who we are starting, I'm not even sure today, except that Tom and Morgan will definitely be in that lineup, and then after that, I'm not sure who is going to start myself. Hopefully I'll know a little bit more today since we had yesterday, it was just a walk through and let some guys heal up. I'll have a better clue today. And Northern Michigan, you know, we haven't played very well in our exhibition games the last couple of years, and I think more due to the coach than as a team; meaning I'm always trying to experiment and do some things, and play different ways. And I'm not sure what we'll have left to do this game because of who may or may not play or who may not play a lot. But we are trying to approach this on a little better level since we haven't played as well, really, in any of our exhibition games the last two years. So we are going to try to take a little more businessman approach to this, and yet in Northern, it's never fun to play a team you know very little about. They have four guys back, but they have four guys that were red-shirted and two of them started 29 games; the year before that they got hurt and were pretty good players. So you would think he's going to have one of his better teams. It will be a pretty good shooting team I think, and I think a team that will place us a lot at zone, which we have not had as much time to work on our zone offense, and so it will be interesting to see how we handle that. And so all in all, our approach is going to be hopefully a little better. We are going to expect a little more out of what we are doing. We are a little beat up. I won't have any answers for you on that until maybe tomorrow. Nothing serious, serious, other than Delvon's, but nothing that's just been a one-day thing either. For some of them it's been a week, ten days or a week, four or five days, and we are not going to play them during this time a lot in practice because of it. Questions? Q. Is there anyone who might not play, then, in the game? COACH IZZO: I think everybody will play as of right now. I said Suton, yeah, he's been hurt a little bit, too. The main one is Marquise has come up with turf toe without the turf (chuckling). I don't know how in the hell you do that but he's done it. I don't see anybody not playing, right now, anyway. And Delvon will do what we did in the Green and White. I'll have him in three- and four-minute stretches, try to get him 15 or 18 minutes in there. He was making some improvement, but you know, still, we're a little skeptical on how hard we can push him for a couple more weeks. Q. What did Suton hurt? COACH IZZO: Suton hurt his knee a little bit. He has had some tendonitis and came down during that scrimmage, landed on landed on Green. So he hurt that, they think it's just a little swelling from something he bruised, so I don't think it's anything. It's not twisted or any ligaments. It's just more of a bump and bruise. Q. Knowing the competition gets tough real fast within the next month, knowing you've got Carolina in about a month and all of these other teams, what do you need to find out about this team, as far as like a playing group and if you need to red shirt a guy? COACH IZZO: We just came out of a staff meeting and it's one of the things we said, we've not even put together a starting lineup yet, and that's not good. But we have only been practicing for two weeks, so everything has been moved up so much. I don't feel we are ready to do what we are going to do right now. What you said is true, even though it's the first exhibition, I guess we have a week and a half for our first game, so that's going to be a little better. Some years, we have played exhibitions almost back-to-back and then start the game; this year we are playing them a little earlier. I noticed Louisville the other night played Georgetown College, who is probably not as good as some of these teams, and they were down one with eight minutes left and won by five or six. You know, so the beat still goes on in basketball where, what am I looking for, I'm looking for us to play a little bit more cohesive, and yet, I can't totally blame them yet. We don't even have a lineup. We have not started the same group one day. Mostly because, I'm trying to figure out whether I want to go with Raymar at the fourth since Delvon is not ready yet and 'Quise has been a lot better but still up-and-down or whether we want to go with a big there. And then the other one is, our two wings, as I said, Durrell has had an incredible two weeks up until a week ago when he got hurt. Before that, it wasn't great, and Chris wasn't great until a week ago and he's been pretty good. But do we play Travis there; are we going to be able to guard anybody if I go with Raymar at the four and those two guards are wing guys; can we guard anybody at the other end. That's where I'm debating what to do with Travis or things like that. We are going to have to do something quick here because I don't want to be going it into the next exhibition game in the same boat. So unfortunately tomorrow, some of it might be determined by injury, rather than by performance. And we're just going to have to wait and see on that. I'd like to get more cohesiveness, I'd like to get more of a pattern that this guy is going for this guy and this guy is going for this guy. Right now, I haven't had that. Q. The personnel versus performance issues, with those two absent starting spots you are looking to fill, is it one or the other; is it more personnel trying to figure out rotation than it is performance right now? COACH IZZO: I'm hoping it is more performance-driven than it is personnel-driven. I think there's no doubt in my mind, Summers and Allen are two very, very good players, but good players have to play good and they have to play good consistently and they have to -- the one thing about basketball that's a little different than football, we need our guys to play offense and defense. We have to be able to play on both ends of the court. And if there's been something that's been encouraging, I think as I said earlier, Marquise has been better; I think Kalin; I think every guy has stepped up a little bit. If there's something that's been discouraging, I think consistency has not been very encouraging, and yet we have so many different guys to put at different positions because of waiting to see what happens with Roe, No. 1; and waiting to see what happens with our wing guys, No. 2. It has come down to just what I said, I think the first press conference, Allen and Summers and Gray are going to be important. They have got to be able to get some consistency to them, and if they do that, then we are going to be a lot better team early and a lot better team later because I think we will come along and get more out of them and I think some of those freshmen. Q. In terms of integrating Roe obviously, and Lucious and Green, I know last year that might have been an issue in some of the exhibition games, finding a place for chemistry and all that, how is that going with the freshmen this year, all three of them? COACH IZZO: Well, we feel that we have a playing group of potentially ten, potentially 11. But I think it gets more realistic when you look at it at nine; so someone has got to play themselves in or play themselves out. I think there's a pretty solid seven or eight guys right now that are battling for those positions and then another solid two or three guys, and Roe and Lucious can be in that group. I'd say that Zeke, Isaiah, is in that group. Let me think who else -- that's about it. Those three or four guys are going to be battling for two positions. So, you know I feel good about where we are. I don't feel great about where we are, but I have to cautious myself that I think every year, we get to this point earlier. You know, pretty soon, the NCAA is going to let you practice the day after your first game, I think is coming down the road. So we'll play a game, and then we'll start practicing, and that's about the way it is. I think a lot of coaches are concerned right now on where we are. It changes for us, too, every year: Where football has so many practices before the first game and it's religiously that way; some years we get two weeks, some years we get three and a half weeks and some years we've had 12 days. So that's just been a little hard to figure out where you're at, and I think hard for the players. Tomorrow, depending on the injuries, I may put two in the first time, two full teams, and may not, but I won't do that the whole first half like I've done other times, I'm going to have to start getting guys in and out. Q. So this is playing off the last question, but besides those three guys that you mentioned that are locked into those starting roles, is there any one person that's been a pleasant surprise that was not expected to compete for a chunk of those minutes, the kind of a stepping up? COACH IZZO: I think Gray was a pleasant surprise for most of the time. The injury had been a little bit less lately, but I think he definitely had stepped up a couple of notches. And I think until seven days ago, Summers has been a little up, a little down, a little up, a little down, and he had two of the greatest weeks that he definitely had since he's been here, and then he got injured and so now that's been hard to evaluate. So I would say those two guys have stepped up a few notches. Now, Suton is shooting the ball so much better. That's going to give us another dimension, no doubt, especially if Gray and Roe play well because he can score around the basket, so that gives you another dimension. So maybe those two or three guys. Yet none of them, except for Suton I would say has been as consistent, the others, not consistent. More because of injury than performance. Q. How much better is Northern Michigan than when you played? COACH IZZO: They couldn't carry us. No, we would have whooped them back in our day. I don't know, that's a good question. I don't get to see them enough. And it's really hard to evaluate this team this year because of the number of guys they had sitting out, but two of them I think started 29 games the year before, so that makes it a little more difficult. But believe it or not, we were pretty good back then. We gave Michigan State a run, Marquette a run, in a real season. So didn't give us enough credit for how good Garland and I were back in our day. Q. You mentioned Marquise a lot, and as far as his turning a corner and him improving, he has been, it seems, hard on himself, saying he's kind of underachieved at times. Is this maybe a bigger month for him maybe more so than most of the guys on this team? COACH IZZO: I would say so, because when you get to the end of your career, do-or-die time, you can't keep saying next year and he has been hard on himself. Probably rightfully so. I think that in some ways, injuries have hampered him early in his career, and maybe he just has not performed as well as I think he can. I still think he has great ability to do some things. I think when he can run and block shots and there's days in practice where he looks like, you know, a really good player, and yet his consistency has been a little shaken. Until this year, he's been a little bit more consistent; now the turf toe, disappointed me Saturday, because he hurt it early in the game, and I really want to see -- as you say, what do you do now as the lights go on? And the lights were half on the other day and we didn't get a fair chance to see him to be honest with you. Q. Did you vote? COACH IZZO: Ah, what are you asking me, personal questions? Q. I'm not asking who you voted for. I'm just asking if you voted. COACH IZZO: I'm not telling you I voted or if I voted. Yeah, you're crazy if you think I'm going to answer either one of those. You know me and politics; I get along like oil and water. But big day for our country one way or another. How's that for a political answer on a political day? Great ending. See y'all later. End of FastScripts |
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