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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 2, 2008

Tom Izzo

COACH IZZO: Well, it's been an interesting four or five days here for our guys, and I think we're definitely excited about the opportunity we have in front of us, even though it might be daunting to say the least. It's maybe the best team we've played since I've been here, I think, if you look at them on paper and on film, and yet at the same time, you know, like everybody says, there's ways you've got to try to beat somebody, and we're going to try to do it in ways that we think we can do it.
Our team is not where we need to be at this point, and it's not where we're going to be down the road. The Suton factor is still probably the same as it was last week. I do not anticipate him playing in this game. He's now -- really if he does play, it will be so limited minutes, it's not a great team for him to play against because of the speed of the game and the fact that his conditioning, if he did play, is going to be -- he has done nothing for over two and a half weeks now.
So that's the negatives. The positives are I think Delvon Roe is improving, had his best game as a Spartan his last game. His conditioning has improved tremendously. The only negative with him is the practice time and understanding how to cover ball screens and different things. It's been more by film than by work. But that is definitely encouraging.
I think we're getting more out of Marquise Gray, which is encouraging. I think we've done some things that we wanted to do when the year started. We wanted to get to the free-throw line more. We're actually making more than our opponents are shooting, which is a great sign. The problem is we're shooting 64 percent, which we've never done here, and I can't explain why in those two games, especially the Maryland game when we were 12 for 27 or whatever we were, and we missed three or four front ends of a one-on-one, that's uncharacteristic. Delvon is going to struggle a little bit at the line maybe, but the rest of the guys shouldn't be. There's some very good shooters that maybe have not shot as well, so that's definitely correctable.
You know, I think we're rebounding the ball better. I was encouraged against Wichita State, one of the best rebounding teams in the country. We out-rebounded them by 22 or something like that, 20, so that was an encouraging stat. Turning the ball over, we're down to 13 or 12 and a half, and we've got more assists, that's encouraging. But we're going to face a team that for the most part is one of the top scoring teams in the country, one of the top field goal percentage teams offensively, although we're right up there, too.
But as five players that -- or six players averaging in double figures led by Hansbrough who just took the day off so he can get ready for us, so that's encouraging, also.
There's no question that this game will be an up-and-down game, and to even play with Carolina, I think you have to stop Lawson. One thing we did a pretty good job of two years ago when we played them was containing him, not stopping him. We contained him.
Now with Ellington and Green shooting the ball so well, but they're getting wide open shots because everybody is collapsing on Lawson, so the Lawson-Lucas match-up will be important, and yet you don't stop Lawson with one guy. He's got speed as good as any point guard, but what he has different than like an Eaton from Oklahoma State who has strength but doesn't have maybe that explosive speed, he has explosive speed and strength.
I think some of the things we're going to have to do is make sure we keep him off the line somewhat. The ball goes inside, and Hansbrough hasn't changed in four years, he's still mowing you down and getting to the line, and he's averaging, I think, almost ten free throws a game. With maybe a little bit of a depleted front line, I think it's going to be important that we don't get in foul trouble again.
If you remember two years ago, not that it's exactly the same team, but it's a lot of the same players, same style, we were one up in that game, eight or nine minutes left, seven minutes left, and we just kind of ran out of bodies. We played Jake, our 6'5" walk-on, against Hansbrough, and it just wasn't as good down the stretch. So that is going to be critical I think is to stay somewhat out of foul trouble, especially with our front-line guys and the fact that a 30-minute-a-game player probably won't be playing.
So then I guess the big question before you ask them would be, well, how do you stay in the game. Well, I think you've got to stay in the game and have a chance to let them get frustrated maybe by -- we think there are three or four areas we have to make sure of. Our transition defense has to be phenomenal; our rebounding has to be good because if they're getting offensive rebounds they're scoring or getting fouled; if they're getting defensive clean rebounds, their fast break is electrifying, and that's one way to somewhat stop it.
We have to execute and score some. People have scored against them; we have to do that. I'm sure on a big stage they're going to come out and prove to the country that they have improved defensively, since that was one of the knocks last year, and I think we have improved defensively. But we have to execute, take good shots, because bad shots lead to the long rebounds, which lead to the faster fast breaks.
And I think we have to stay out of foul trouble. I think, you know, we have to learn how to defend inside, take a punch and make sure that we are not retaliating by bringing our hands down and things like that and creating foul opportunities in there. That is going to be, I think, a big part of this game.
And if there's a last one, we do have to shoot well from the line because I think we've done a good job getting to the free-throw line, 20-something times a game. If we were shooting what we normally do, 75 to 80 percent, you know, I think the weekend would have been a lot different, no question, if not in wins, in the amount we won by, and I think that's going to be a pretty critical part tomorrow because if you're making free throws, they don't get their fast break going as well, either.
I'll open it up for some questions and you can throw them at me.

Q. When you play a game like this on this kind of stage against this kind of team at this point in the season, do you find yourself ever having to say to the kids, you know what, don't try to do too much; this is a game where we just kind of have to stick to our plan and what we do, rather than thinking so much about them? Because I've got to imagine a team like UNC kind of creeps in your mind a little bit.
COACH IZZO: Well, it creeps in my mind but it's in a positive way. Matt came up with a stat; I think 15, 20 times in the history of our school we've gotten a chance to play a No. 1 ranked team. I think we played Wisconsin, and I'm not sure if Ohio State was recently or not when we played them. But you don't get that many opportunities just because it's the nature of the beast.
And then it is on a big stage, but I'm hoping they'll play shirts and skins. You have to realize that -- there's one thing we've done in this program; we've played in enough big games and we've played enough big teams.
Now, the argument would be, and I would be the first one that I could make the argument, this is probably the greatest collection of players and team that have size and has a point guard and has shooters, all the elements of a great, great basketball team, speed. But at the same time, we've played so many good teams. I don't think that will be a factor as much as just understanding the speed of the game.
I mean, that's what everybody I talk to says. They can play at a speed, and a lot of it has to do with Lawson. I mean, he just gets in the paint, he can score in there, not a great shooter, but he can score in there. He's got Cleaves' strength with God's quickness. I can't even compare his quickness to somebody else. And he does a great job of it. He really does a great job of either getting the wings open for wide-open threes or creating so much havoc because he can get in there strong enough to absorb some bumps, and he gets big guys to help on him, and then their big guys just clean up on offensive boards and have put-backs with nobody boxing them out because they've had to contain Lawson somewhat.
Yeah, you know, I want our guys to go out and have fun. I'm disappointed in the Suton thing because it's 30 minutes a game with a pretty good player that I think could drag some of their guys out, but it is what it's been, and there's nothing we can do about it. You know, I think the biggest thing is making them understand you can win a game. There's been bigger upsets than this. There will be bigger upsets than this this year. But at the same time, we're not playing -- right now we're not as in-sync a team as I think we could have been or would like to be, and so we can throw it all on the floor and don't have to worry about it, and I think that's a good position to be in.

Q. Can you slow down their transition and still play as fast as you want to play, or do you even think about maybe slowing things down at times?
COACH IZZO: You know, the only thing I plan on slowing down is probably breaks that are not there. I don't think we can create breaks. I think if we get good outlets or long rebounds or if we can come out of there and get the ball out quick, I think a lot of decisions are going to have to be made by our point guards. I don't think we should just run to run, because they have a lot of bodies, too, and I think that benefits them.
But we're not going to walk the ball up when we can be running it up. We're still going to play the game we play. I think -- if you took five on five and all elements were the same, they're a better team; there's no ifs, and or buts about it. So we have to do some of the little things like maybe determine when we break. We're going to have to be smart from a point guard standpoint; we're going to have to make our free throws; we're going to have to make sure our cutouts are better, the transition defense. Subbing is going to be important because our bigs are going to leave a guy in there. You normally would say give him another minute, but if the action doesn't stop, it could be the difference in three or four baskets.
So I think we're going to have to be on top of things, too. So everybody is going to have to be at their best, and yet that's what makes it so exciting.

Q. Is there any way to tell if a win will help you or if a loss would help you in tournament cities because you're playing North Carolina so early? Is there any way to tell how that could --
COACH IZZO: No, I don't really believe in that at all. I mean, of course a quality win is going to help you some, but a quality win in November, first two days of December, I don't think is going to solve anything one way or another. And a loss I don't think is going to change anything.
I mean, there's going to probably be 28, 29 minimum teams that are going to lose to North Carolina. I mean, they're going to win 30 games probably. I think everybody would say there's a lot of teams vying for a Final Four, and there's one team that's already been anointed in that position, and deservedly so.
I think it's more how we play and what we do and how we compete and whether we start picking up the little things. How our wings compete I think is going to be a big issue in this game; how Kalin plays is going to be a big issue in this game because you get a chance to measure yourself against the best.
I think everybody would agree in the country. Everything has been unanimous so far, so everybody has been on the same page. We know this is the best team, we know they're the best players, we know they've got one of the best coaches, so you get to compare yourself to see where you are in December and then see what you have to do in the waning months to get where you need to be at the end.
If you win the game, then you get a chance to say on that night we played pretty good. But I know where our team is right now, win, lose or draw, and we're not where we're going to be in January or February. So if we win the game, I wouldn't be ready to say that we're one of the best teams in the country because that's not where we are right now.
But I do think, in saying all that, that we've played moments of very good basketball even against Maryland, definitely against -- I think we played moments against Oklahoma State, a very athletic, a very good team in my mind, one that I think would give us trouble. I think we did a great job of running things and running our offense and defending. If we came out of there with some positives, we did defend better overall, which we needed to make some improvements on.
So that's what I'm looking forward to. I'm looking forward to seeing how we compete and how we measure up against this kind of team.

Q. Do you plan on using Kalin on Lawson because of the quickness, or do you plan on using Travis more so because of the strength?
COACH IZZO: I plan on using Kalin and Travis and Delvon and Raymar and Freddy and Jack and whoever else we can throw a body at him. The guy isn't the greatest basketball player we've ever played against I don't think, but he is an exceptional -- he's the best at getting the ball from one end to the other, by far, that I've ever seen, because he can do it with strength; he's not afraid of contact; he can do it with speed; and he can do it being at warp speed but somewhat under control. There are some guys that are so quick but they're always out of control. He is somewhat under control. Now, he's got pretty good guys running with him, but that's what he does well.
We're not covering with just one guy. I mean, the half court we will, but in the open court we're going to cover him with probably four and a half guys, which means that you're going to give up some. But if he gets in the paint -- if he's getting into the paint all night, we're in trouble, okay. If he's getting in the paint all night we're in trouble. Does that mean there's going to be a couple open threes? Does that mean some other things? Possibly, but we have to keep him somewhat out of the paint.
That's something we did very well when he was a freshman, but he's a different player now, but we did do a great job of that when he was a freshman, and that was by committee, not by one man.

Q. I don't think Dr. Naismith and his bushel baskets envisioned dome basketball, but I don't know if any coach has had as much experience coaching as you. My question is with shooters and their comfort zone and idiosyncrasies, it's a different environment, different rims they say. How much of that is real or perceived, and can you simulate it in one morning shoot-around, which I guess is all you'll have?
COACH IZZO: The second part of it is no, you can't simulate it. But the good news is it's the same for their shooters. I was surprised when we played Kentucky down there. I'm not saying either team shot great, but I don't think either team would have shot great if we would have played at Kentucky or Michigan State. I think they were two really good defensive teams there.
That's my point about getting in the paint; you know, lay-ups are lay-ups no matter where you play them. Jump shots, there can be a little variation comparing to where you're playing. And if we're giving up lay-ups or put-backs, I don't care where you're playing, those have a 98 percent chance of going in most of the time. So that's the concept.
You know, there is getting to be this growing, is it good in domes, is it good to play basketball in domes. I don't think the shooting has changed that much, I really don't. I think the atmosphere is what people are more complaining about than the shooting, because you've still got to remember, it is the same for both teams. I'd like to use it as an excuse, but it's the same.
They made a big deal about the 42-minute delay hurt your team. Did Wichita State get to go practice somewhere or did they get to play another game in the other gym? They had the same thing we had. Or the crowd, do you hear it as much, or does it become as big a factor? Yeah, intimacy, whatever you want to call it. But I think that is what people are questioning.
I do think Ford Field is one of the nicer sites as far as you're right, I've played in a lot of domes for those Final Fours, but the way this is set up, I still think there's maybe not as many great, great seats, but I think there's a lot more good seats. I can promise you this: Win, lose or draw, the dome won't have anything to do with it. It's going to be the speed of that one guy going up and down and how he controls the game or how my guys control the game that will probably make a difference.

Q. You have some better options than Jake Hannon. No offense to Jake Hannon, but who do you put on Tyler Hansbrough? How do you even attempt to match up with him?
COACH IZZO: We're going to put somebody on him that can take a hit -- I don't want to say that (laughter). You know, Hansbrough, he's a very physical player, and he takes advantage of that if you let him take advantage of it. And I think, you know, what we have to do is make sure that the initial shot is one thing, but I think the two areas where he's the best at is he gets fouled, he's going to the line over ten times a game, and he gets his missed shot. I mean, it's almost like he thinks every shot is missed, which is what a great rebounder should do.
Sometimes when you're standing there and you're worried about fouling him, you put your hands up, and he takes the shot, there's a tendency then to turn and look where the shot is, and really what you've got to do is turn and look where he is and you've got to make contact with him. We're trying to work on that.
I think the hardest thing we had to do was yesterday to be honest with you because coming back late, our guys were beat. We went light yesterday and we're going to go light today, which is not my style. But when you make a schedule like this and then TV changes some things and some things get changed by a day from what we thought it might have been, all of a sudden, you know, four games in seven days, or six, whatever it is, is tiring. So I think that's going to be more of a factor than anything.
We're going to put bodies on him. We've got I.D. we're going to be putting on him some and I think go a little smaller with Day Dave (phonetic) who's tougher than nails, and he'll get educated tomorrow a little bit. We're going to throw some bodies at him. And you're right, we have a few more bodies to throw than we had last time we played them. And yet, Jake at 6'5" did a pretty good job on him if you really look back at it.
So I think that keeping him off the line and keeping him off the boards, he's going to get some baskets because he's an all-American player.

Q. You've seen a lot of players. Why aren't there more big guys like Hansbrough that play that hard? It seems like the effort he puts into a game is sometimes just as impressive as all the skills he possesses.
COACH IZZO: Well, I think the effort he puts in is almost better than the skills he possesses. That's not taking anything away from his skills, but I think you could argue he plays as hard as anybody that's played the game in a long, long time. Every coach in America is looking for that. Every coach looks for a guy who has toughness, skills and a work ethic, and if you see a special on him and the guy spends a lot of time in the gym, he's improved his shooting from really almost a non-shooter to now he's making some threes.
I mean, you know, you've got to pull for him after this game because he exemplifies everything you want. He stayed in school like a Cleaves because his dream was to win a National Championship. He works on his game every day. That's obvious. You can talk to anybody and they'll tell you that. He has toughness. He has a passion, you can see that. He has the qualities that all of us want in every player, and yet few of us get in any player, to have all those kind of qualities. And that's what makes him special, and that's why he is special and deserves the accolades he gets.
Yeah, you know, I think as some coaches in Maui told me, they brought their team back to watch him, just to watch him and how hard he plays, and they weren't even playing them. They were already out of the tournament and they went back and watched. I guess that's as big a compliment as you can give a guy.

Q. You mentioned Danny Green who's much better, Ellington is better, what about Deon Thompson, a guy who played a little bit against you two years ago but seems to be a much better player?
COACH IZZO: Much, much improved. Somebody said he's lost a total of 35 or 40 pounds since he came there. I didn't realize he was that big when he got there. But he really looks like a sleek greyhound now, and I think it's really helped his game. He's shooting the ball better.
But again, he's living on those offensive boards. Those guys are getting so many baskets, it's so hard to look at a team, even my own, with one or two players out, the game is different. Delvon brings a difference to the game just with his passing ability.
I think that Thompson has definitely improved, but I think the difference is Lawson just -- he just makes so many people better. Sometimes it's not even with a pass to him, but sometimes it's with the penetration and the pass out, and people are out of position, and sometimes it's -- I've watched a ton of film here, and it's amazing; as good as they are inside and big, sometimes nobody has a body on anybody. I said, well, we've got to get a body on him. One of my assistants will say, yeah, but he had to help on Lawson here and he had to help there.
It gives guys freedom to really -- if they are good players, which they all are, it gives them freedom to be great players because they're maybe not going against somebody as much. They kind of have some freedom to move because of, I think, what Lawson does.
Lawson is -- he's the key. He's the one that stirs the drink, there's no question, and he's made all these other players better. I'd say if I looked at this team from a couple years ago, I'd say you hit the nail on the head that Thompson is probably their most improved player, and Green I would say is the second most improved player. They've played a lot of games together in that time, that's why.

Q. When you've had to so carefully assemble a team, parts that will stay, parts that will go, parts that all are going to be necessary components to you putting together the kind of team that ideally you've put together here through the years, and then you run into two front-liners that are out of this quality and of this necessity to your need, does this go past the point frankly on a human scale, past the point of frustrating to being exasperating for you?
COACH IZZO: For not being around here much, that's a pretty good question (laughter). What's hard is you get into the point of -- I was just on the phone with Judd Heathcote, and he spent three days with us and analyzed some things. So I've still got the shakes because I just had a half-hour phone call with Judd.
But frustrating has been a good word for the last three weeks for me because of the unknown. You know, I'd rather know that a guy is out for a month or I'd rather know Delvon -- I keep looking at him every day, and I think, God, he's doing better, we've got to keep him out of this, we've got to keep him out of that, he can't do this. Then I'm at halftime of the Maryland game, and I think, at least Delvon -- yeah, but he played 12 minutes, so we played him five minutes the second half. I went in saying, I'm not screwing this kid up. We knew these four games, we knew they were big games, but we knew this would be the toughest time of the year for him. If he gets through this, hopefully another game and then we get a break where he can rest it for finals, and then it gets a little bit more spaced out than normal.
The Suton thing has been very frustrating I think for him and me because it's a strained knee. It's functionally working pretty good, he's just got pain in it. I thought he was going to have maybe surgery, arthroscopic surgery last week. The doctors did not feel that was the best way to go. I think everybody, specialists, everybody concurred. I don't think there's any questioning of that. But it's how long then, and that is unanswered.
So what you do is then you move Morgan inside totally, and now how you switch and how you play defense and all the things you do, it changes. Everybody wants some continuity, especially when you've got more than a few young guys who are playing. I mean, Allen and Summers are still young guys, I mean, as far as the amount of games and minutes they've played.
So it's been frustrating only because I know how to handle it, but I also know I've got a bunch of big games, and if we have a normal schedule, it probably wouldn't be as frustrating. But with the monster schedule and knowing where you think your team could be, yeah, it's been frustrating, but it's nobody's fault and there's nothing we can do about it.
I do think that there's been some bright spots; Green, Gray have made some improvements. I think Raymar understands that getting to the free-throw line is important. He's gotten there a lot more, figured out how to do some things there.
But yeah, if I was to be honest with it, it's been probably the most difficult month that I've had here in a while, just because it's always in flux. Every morning it's let's call the doctor, call the trainer, figure out -- it's not that many injuries, but the two guys -- you know, if I penciled that in when we signed Delvon, we would have penciled in 55 minutes for those two guys, and now we're getting 15.
So I think it's hard for fans to keep that in perspective, but I don't blame them because it's a lot harder for a coach to keep that in perspective. I keep that out of perspective.
I had to remind Judd, he said, "Delvon Roe really played well that last game." I said, "Yeah?" That was already expected. You didn't expect it because you didn't see it. But he does bring another dimension to our team because of his passing ability and the fact that he's very explosive that we haven't gotten a chance to see yet.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow. That might sound like I'm crying the blues about it, but every coach is going to stand up at their press conference if they're playing North Carolina right now and say, wow. Nobody has been really within 20, 25 points of them. I mean, Notre Dame came back and hit some threes at the end, but they were down 20-something. Santa Barbara actually gave them their best game. It was Hansbrough's first game back and I think they were trying to play him into things. Every coach is going to be in the same position here. It's figuring out what you can do.
I think it is the fun part of the job, you know, is -- I don't want our players to play tight, I want our players to play like they've played in these kind of games before, because there sure has been a lot of big games that we've played in, and that's why we've done it over the years. As I said to Travis, I said, hey, or G or Marquise, who have been in Final Fours, even though they were red-shirted, we've played in a lot of big games.
Is this one bigger because it's at Ford Field and that's where the Final Four is? No, it's bigger because it's against, arguably, in some people's minds, and rightfully so, maybe -- there's going to be talk, is this one of the best teams ever. If they keep everybody healthy, I think that is a very fair argument. If you look at size and strength and speed and shooters and coaching and all the things that go into it, I think this is one of the best teams.
But that will be played out over time, but at least we can go in saying, hey, you know what, we get to definitely challenge ourselves against the best that's out there right now, at least so far.

End of FastScripts

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