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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 24, 2009Tom IzzoCOACH IZZO: Well, what I'm most excited about, and Matt Larson does all his research, I saw a lot of things that we've accomplished and done. But maybe the biggest, most exciting part of this is when he said there's only three schools in the Sweet-16 who have also finished in the top 25 in football. And that's us, Missouri and Oklahoma. So Mark Hollis will be happy. If your boss is happy, you're happy. I guess that's a good way to start it out. But this is an exciting time for us. I don't think there's any question that you learn in this NCAA tournament, the last couple years especially, that it really doesn't matter what seed you are. I heard somebody say, What's so exciting, they beat a 10 seed. If that's a 10 seed, then, you know, I don't know my basketball. That was a very good basketball team we beat. Unfortunately, there's a lot of good basketball teams left. Our region was a little bit goofy there for a while, but it's turning out to be that 1, 2 and 3 are sitting there. For us to move on, we got to be a 3, maybe a 1, maybe a 12, but maybe a 1. So it's not like there's been many breaks along the way. And that's the way it should be. It's great to be in Indianapolis. It's great for our fans, I hope. I hope we'll have a slew of them down there. It should be as exciting of a Sweet-16 tournament as I've been involved in when you look at the teams. Arizona, coming out of nowhere. But Kansas and Louisville have been two teams that have been pretty highly ranked all year long. As far as our team, we're healthy. We didn't practice yesterday. We had a little team meeting. We'll practice today. I still think we have a lot of work to do. The good news is we've had eight different players score in double figures. The bad news is you still want somebody to be consistently there every day. After looking at the film, I thought Travis, of course, had a great game. But I really thought, under the circumstances, we were very concerned about them putting Simmons on Lucas because of what we saw Simmons do to some other great point guards, including UCLA's. Then when they went triangle-and-two, took it a step further. I thought Kalin handled it well, not getting many scoring opportunities, but had a 7-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. That was big. Suton has been dynamite on the boards, still averaging in double figures. That was encouraging. Chris and Durrell, I think Chris played pretty well all weekend, and Durrell definitely had a better last game. What does that mean? Who knows. It definitely means you feel better about it, and hopefully you have a good practice today. Shooting is all about confidence. I think Durrell feels pretty good about himself. I think he also learned that there are other parts to the game. If you rebound well and you play better defense, you stay in the game longer. And that helps everything. That's been a positive. We're shooting almost 76 from the line. That's a big positive, especially in tournament play when you know most games are going to come right down to the wire. Maybe last but not least, from a statistical standpoint of reiterating all the work Matt does, we're 16-4 away from here. That means we've found ways to win on the road and win at neutral sites like we never have in the past. And with that, since the last couple games are on the road, I still think our team feels pretty good about that. We talked about that. We talked about the focus, what we got to take care of. I thought both those games we finished pretty well, and that's another thing you have to be able to do in the tournament. As far as Kansas goes, they're a better team than they were when we played them the first time. There's no doubt that we played one of our best games in a way. Yet, as my wife reminded me this morning, she read the paper and said that we had a sickness report, all these stats from the first game. I forgot Suton was pretty sick that day. That was his sushi, I don't know. That's what happens when you don't eat spaghetti or pasta, is you get sick. So Suton was going through that. I don't know if he played 17, 18 minutes, but he was very sick before that game. You know, we weren't really at full go either. Yet I think Kansas, their freshmen, have gotten better. I think they've gotten a little more consistent. And they have two players that are as good as anybody in the tournament. The big kid, as Brian Gregory told me, he blocked five shots not leaving the ground, had 10 for the game. I tell you, I watched a lot of Collins this morning. If he isn't the best guard in the country, he's right there when you look at everything he can do: shooting it, dishing it, being strong with it, defending, getting from one end of the court to the other. Him and Lawson do it as well. We had a kid, Lucas, who does it as well without that kind of strength. Where you look at Lawson and him, the one thing he can do is laterally he can go, which he's very, very good at, and very impressive. Those two guys I think are guys that are as good as anybody in the country at their positions right now. That makes that team tick. I'll open it up for questions. Q. Speaking of Kansas, one kid who didn't do a lot in the game here but has played well is Tyshawn Taylor. How has he changed? COACH IZZO: He's an incredible athlete. He did make the first dunk of the game here. I just watched him have an incredible breakaway against Texas. But very highly regarded guard coming out of high school, out of New Jersey. He is better. He's a lot more mature now. I think he and Mario Little, who just came back, I think he broke his hand, they were talking about redshirting him. He has played better for them. I'd say those two guys, the twins, the Morris guys inside, have all gotten a little bit better. The one that was playing more early now is playing less. The one that was plays less early is now playing more. I just kind of look at them by numbers. 22 is playing more than 21, because I can't tell them apart. So they have improved. Both those shooters didn't shoot very well for most of the game here. Then, you know, since then have shot the ball better. But I think it still comes down to you have to stop those two guys and make sure the others don't beat you. But those two guys can beat you. That's the problem. They're capable of getting 30, 35 points, and changing a game both with their defensive ability. One is a shot blocker, one is a defender. Their offensive ability, one is a scorer in the low post, one is a scorer from anywhere on the court. I think that's the way the game's gonna go. Q. I imagine if you had a plans to play North Carolina after what happened, your players would be pretty motivated. You pick Kansas as pretty good here. Is that the bad news this week or don't you believe in that? COACH IZZO: I mean, I'd like to play anybody who beat us. I'm sure they would, too. When you get into the NCAA tournament, pretty hard to have motivation. First of all, we beat 'em by 13 points, not 35. But we did play pretty well in that game, had them down. I don't think our guys look at it like that's the same team. It was two, three months ago. I don't know they'll look at it in that way. What coaches try to do now is, you know, any motivational tactic you can get, they're going to try to use. They'll try to use theirs and I'll try to use mine. After the tip, the game is played and nobody cares. So that's all good for radio and television and newspaper hype. But I think once the game starts, you know, I have great respect for Bill, as he does I. It wasn't like there was a big feud in the game or anything. So I think it's just a matter of playing the game. Q. Did you ever in your wildest dreams think that Suton could be this kind of defensive stopper given what he did Sunday and over the last couple years against some of the best players in the country? COACH IZZO: You know, I didn't think so when I recruited him. I thought he'd be more that guy that could pass and shoot and score. You have to give him credit for that. You know, he does it more with his brain than he does with his body. He's a very, very intelligent player. That's the one consistent we've always said about G, is he really understands the game, both sides of the court, offensively and defensively. Even though at times he's wavered a little bit in his overall game, that part of his game has never wavered. You've never heard me say he doesn't understand, he's not smart enough. Very, very, very intelligent player. He can watch film and see what a guy's tendencies are and use those to his advantage. And that's why I think he's had some success. And yet in the last game, you know, he had some teammates that did a pretty good job, too, what we were trying to do. So he's a good game plan guy, too, because he can follow a game plan. So I am pleased for G. I'm really pleased. You look at the last two years in his tournaments, he's averaging almost 14 points, 11 rebounds. That was against some pretty good teams. So it means that he's coming to play at the right time of the year. Q. You spent a lot of time in Minneapolis schooling the young guys about the importance of the NCAA tournament, what it all means. USC, overall team play, does that show that these guys get it now, they understand? COACH IZZO: I said I worry a little bit for Delvon. I almost look at him sometimes and I think he's doing a great job, but he's almost hitting that freshman wall. When I've been through what Delvon Roe has been through, I don't know if I'd be hitting a wall, I'd be flat on my back. He still has rehab so many hours a day. But I do think they're starting to understand the sense of urgency. We made a tape yesterday on just some things that happened throughout the first round of the tournament, you know, with the missed free throws, with the missed blockouts, with the one play making a difference in the game. It's easy to talk about that as a coach. I'm sure way back when Gus was here, you know, he did the same thing. That part of coaching never changes. It's how you can get it through to people. And I think one way that we have an easier time now getting it through is you can show it on film and they can see what happened rather than just hearsay. They can see it. But I think until you've gone through it, it doesn't have the same impact. We almost made a bonehead play down the stretch on that steal and a dunk that could have cost us the game. And then we came right back and made a couple of great plays that won us the game. That's what we're trying to emphasize, you know. It was funny, because I called Brian Gregory late last night after watching their game. With 12 minutes left to go or something, it's like a six-point, five-point game. Two or three things happen. One a bad call, one on a couple bad shots. In two minutes it went to 14 and the game was over. I just told him, If I was you, I would be taking that three-minute part and show that today while it's fresh in their mind, and that should be the motivation for next year. That's what I try to do with my young guys, is just make sure to continually emphasize that in one-and-done time, the 'my bad' can take a hike. You just don't have time for 'my bads, I'll get it next time.' No kidding, but we won't be here. Sometimes you can put too much pressure, sometimes not enough. I'm gearing mine to making sure they know what I'm thinking and not have to learn the hard way. Let's learn the good way, not the bad way. Q. Are you getting a sense that the guys are getting those butterflies in the stomach? Do you think they'll respond positively to that? COACH IZZO: I think this is the advantage of playing good people all the time. This is the advantage of playing a tough schedule early. This is the advantage of going on the road a lot. Where I question every year, I know a lot of you have been through it, where I lose six of those non-conference games and I start beating myself up, Why am I doing this? This year it was we really didn't get better in December because we were on the road so much. Why did I do that? I ask myself those questions all the time. Thank God enough of those times there's been something at the end that I can say, Maybe this helped us. And I look at the number of road games this year, I look at our road record, what we accomplished in the league, what we've accomplished away from Breslin, because you have to play the tournament away from here, and maybe, just maybe, that's something. I think our players, I can use that and they know it happened. They lived through it. So I think they're nervous. But they're confidently nervous. They feel good about where we are. We have to get Raymar. There's always somebody. I constantly say this: If there's no controversy around you at this time this year, you or I should create some, because we seem to have survived and done better. Every week, I never saw a report in the paper where it had the stats from the last game and all the important things and sickness report. I even forget about it. So those are the way things happened this year. And I think now you can use all those adversities in a positive way. If somebody gets sick Friday afternoon, let's go to work. We've been here, done that. That's one thing this team has done, is they've been through a lot of things, they played a lot of great teams. They've been embarrassed on the biggest stage you can be embarrassed on. When you've gone through all that, I think that makes it easier to talk to them and understand what they're going to do this week. Q. In the first game against Kansas, Draymond Green didn't have much of a big role. That was before his breakout against Indiana. Now he's become an important reserve off the bench during the tournament. Can you talk about what the addition of him could do facing Kansas? COACH IZZO: You know, I had so many guys that stepped up. We forget about Korie Lucious hitting the four threes against Iowa, Marquise Gray getting 11 points in six months. Delvon, I'm not sure, as I remember back, he was just coming off that sprained ankle then. That was when he first started getting to practice every day. So we're a different team than we were then, too. Draymond, if you ask G, we're talking about just as smart a player. If you asked G, he's told me, would probably tell you, that Draymond Green is one of the smartest players he's ever played with. I don't know if it's in his gene pool, if it's his high school coach. I can't take credit for it. He came here with a tremendous understanding of the game. Anybody who understands the game always seems to be in the right spot at the right time. That doesn't mean you can finish the job by making a shot or making a great pass, but if you're in the right spot at the right time, your chances are much better. I think in Draymond's case, he's grown up a lot. He'd be the first to tell you early on something would go wrong, I'm on his tail, he's pouting half the time, then he comes back out of it, then he's pouting. He's been so much more consistent in the last month, and I think it's just part of the freshman process. He has the advantage that he has a tremendous understanding and really sees things. He hasn't really fallen in love with watching film yet, so I think he's got a ways to go, but I think that's a positive thing for both him and Korie. Dell watches a lot more film than those two guys. I think if they do that, his game's going to go even higher. He'll be an important part of this. But I go into this game, the good news is, I think we have a lot of players to play. The bad news is I don't necessarily know what part he'll play because it seems like somebody's always risen up, and sometimes I still don't know who it's gonna be. That's not always good. But it's worked for 28 games. Ain't broke, why fix it, you know. Q. Back to Suton for a minute. You talked about how sometimes it's hard for you to get through to him. Do you think his background, where he came from, Bosnia, does that make it more difficult for him to understand or for you to understand him? COACH IZZO: You know, I do. I think I always know how to get through to him, but I'm not sure he's always on the same page as I am in figuring out what he has to do. I have a tendency to wear my emotion on my sleeve and I make things life and death. I said when I had Kelvin Torbert, lost his mother when he was six, almost lost his father twice when he was here, then finally did lose him right after he graduated, and he was one of the greatest kids I ever coached. I think people that have been through a lot more than I have been through, when I try to make things life and death, that's a poor phrase, I really can't say I mean that, but I think it's just a phrase that coaches use, those guys are probably sitting there saying, It's important, but it's not quite that important because I've been there, done that. I always felt that way about KT. I think it's a possibility. It's something I haven't really talked to G about. But he's definitely been through some things that most of us haven't been through. So when you do that, you can go one of two ways. You can have a sense of urgency that, man, I don't ever want to go through that again, or you can feel comfortable with you're at saying, I've survived that, I'm just going to truck along as I go. The only problem I've ever had with Goran is I think he still can be better than he thinks he can be. I want him to be better than sometimes I think he wants to be. And yet deep down I think he still wants to be a heck of player. And he's probably -- the happy medium is he's probably a lot better and done a better job than I give him credit for. If in one, two, three or four games we're done, I'll probably tell him that. I'll keep it a secret before then (smiling). Q. Media day before the season, you and the players talked about Ford Field, talked about the Final Four, then it was a long-range goal. Now that it's two games away, do you maybe talk about it a little bit more? Focus change at all with that? COACH IZZO: No, we've actually talked about it less in the last two months, if you want the truth. We did talk about it that first day. I thought that was a goal to put up there, because the uniqueness of having it in your state. I recruited Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers with that in the back of their mind, my mind. But I realized the pressure this team was under. During the year, that was talked about very little. I'd like to get through one more game. If I got through one more game, then I could talk about that a lot. But we really haven't talked about that nearly as much as people would think. In fact, almost none. If there's one thing my experiences have given me is I know how difficult it is to move on each week. I sure don't need more pressure for them, I mean, me telling them. Other people, that's just the way it is. I understand that. But me telling them, You got to get there so your mom can walk out the door, jump over the street, be there. I haven't done that. I haven't used that. You've got to have things you use and then you've got to have things you save. That's one I've been saving. Q. True and good 7'4" centers don't come around often like Aldrich. Can you compare him to any past centers you played? You're so good defensively, do you change the defense because of him or stay status quo? COACH IZZO: You know, usually with every great player, the one thing I think we've done a pretty good job of over the years, in fact, Gus always brings it up to me on the radio, we've always done a pretty good job on the other team's best player or players. I wouldn't say always, but I would say most of the time, because we do gear our game plan around it. Just like I think Tim Floyd did a great job of doing the same thing. Once in a while, those backfire on you. So if I learned something from our USC game, is we're going to have a game plan and then a contingency one in case one of the guys we're off of him, trying to help on Aldrich, starts going nuts, then I've got to go to game plan two or game plan three because the difference between the regular season and the tournament is you don't get to come back the next day. We'll have a game plan going in. It won't be altered a lot more than some other teams we played. They make it a little harder to get some weak-side help. He is so big. There's seven-footers that are seven foot. Makes sense, right, Fred? And then there's seven-footers that have arms that are like octopuses. His are like that. Kevin Willis was seven foot tall, 11 and a half size shoe. Kind of alligator arms. This guy has long arms, long body, so that creates more problems. He has a good shooting touch. He's a very good free throw shooter, 80 some percent. So you don't want to foul him. That's the difference maybe of last week and this week. You've got those kind of issues that are completely different. This is a very good free-throw shooting team and the big guy shoots them as well as anybody on their team. Q. After that last game on the podium, you just looked spent. How difficult is this time of year on coaches? How do you get through it? Are you mixing Red Bull and Mountain Dew? COACH IZZO: No, I haven't gotten into that. I've got to start doing some of those things my friends in the UP do, start chewing, Red Bull, whatever they do up there (laughter). But they stay awake longer. You know what, it has been a different great year. That doesn't mean bad. It's just that there's been a lot more issues, problems. Nobody's fault most of 'em. Injuries or illnesses, things like that. The road. So it's been. But if I gave you that opinion or if I showed that, that was false because this is the greatest time of year ever. I mean, everybody likes certain times of year. March is the greatest time of year, bar none, if you're a basketball coach, and you've had some success like we've had. Reggie lived for October. Tom lives for March. And so I might look worse, I might feel worse. But as far as inside, this is it. I don't live for opening day. I live for March. Love every minute of it. People said, You're looking this, you're feeling this. Thank you, you know. If I wasn't, if I was looking good and feeling good, probably wouldn't be playing. So I might look good and feel good to you, but I'd be feeling awful to me. So this way I feel good to me and look awful to you. That's a helluva deal, really is. It's a great deal (laughter). Q. Speaking of Raymar... COACH IZZO: I won't say it, but go ahead (laughter). Q. You've probably been in more push-pull relationships this year with players than any I can remember, play the way you want them to, should or can. What is it going to take to get him back on track? Is it leaving him alone, trying to light a fire under him? COACH IZZO: I never do that. That's no fun. It's not even controversial. You can't leave a player alone. What the hell do you coach for if you got to leave a player alone? I think one thing is keep him out of foul trouble. Last two games he's played six minutes and five minutes or seven minutes in the first half. That isn't because of my decision; that's because of foul trouble. He's one of those guys that he does get down on himself. He doesn't get down on coaches. He really doesn't. You'd be surprised. He gets down on himself. When he does that, he might make a third foul. So I have to keep him out in my mind because he's so important the second half of games because we can put him in, switch four, do some different things we don't normally do because of his versatility. So I think part of it, he came back second half, played awfully well against Robert Morris, and just never got in the swing of it. Started the second half this game, just didn't get into it. But I'll be honest with you, he has practiced very well. I mean, the week before this tournament, I think he had the best practice since he's been at Michigan State. He's been shooting it well. Defensively he was unbelievable two or three of those days. He's been rebounding well. Ray, I haven't had many guys -- I don't like Ray sometimes because Ray is hard on Ray, and that's my job. He's stealing from me. I would like me to be hard on Ray and Ray be good, you know. But Ray is hard on Ray, so then I got to be good. That is not in my nature and I don't like doing that. It's a problem. But he does get down on himself. That's been an issue. He's gotten better at it. I'll be honest, he had such good practices, I am not worried about Ray. I'd like him to play a little better because I know how valuable he is to us. But Ray can be not very good and still do a lot more things than some guys that are really good, believe it or not, things we don't see. He's in the right place at the right time. He, too, like Suton, is very, very smart. The difference is he's got skills that sometimes he doesn't use because he does get down on himself. I don't know. I know this is hard to believe, but I love Raymar Morgan because I think he's -- I've always had success with versatile players, and he has great versatility. What he's got more than some that I've had, he has a great understanding and intelligence of the game of basketball. You can tell him one time what to do in a scouting report, that thing is done (snapping fingers). He knows what to do. He'll do better. Q. He told us that we're going to get the Raymar back. Is some of that because he's trying to push it too much, the foul trouble? COACH IZZO: If you would have saw one or two of those fouls, you don't get to see them in slow-mo, the second one the second night, I mean, you know, I can't blame Raymar for that. It wasn't being over, you know. I think that was a good statement, what he told you guys, because I think he felt it and he believed it. He's not one to boast. So I thought that was very positive. I still think he feels that way. One of these games we're going to get Raymar, Durrell and Chris together playing well. When that happens, we're going to be a great team. I think we still have a chance for that to happen. Q. Speaking of Chris and Durrell, obviously they had some shots the other day. Seemed like they had some good defensive moments. How far have they come on that in the last month or so? COACH IZZO: I'd say Chris has made the most progress defensively, and Durrell has the most ability. But it's funny 'cause we did talk to Durrell about rebounding the ball, he gets eight rebounds, a couple big-time rebounds. They were both better defensively. They're both starting to run the court better. You know, if fairness to them, if you were a shooter, it would be like being - I don't know - a good baseball player, you're a hitter, all of a sudden he can't hit, your fielding sometimes can go down. You still have to be able to do what your forté is. Those guys are shooters. It's easy for a coach to say, If you're not shooting good, do something else. Well, yeah, you know, but it doesn't usually work that way. I think they understand now if they're not shooting well, they've got to do something else so I can keep them in the game, then their shot will come. Durrell started out making shots. He can make shots. Chris had a couple. But we are getting more out of those two guys. I'm anxious for practice today just to see how the carryover is. It's not like one game changes things. But they are very good shooters. Durrell was the guy that lost it for a month, went into a slump, and he's worked very hard at it. Give him credit on that. Paid some dividends this last game. Hopefully that will continue. Q. I was reading something on ESPN that said I think you're second all the time to Pitino in records against lower seeds in the NCAA tournament. What's allowed you to be so successful throughout your career, and talk about playing Pitino in the Elite 8? COACH IZZO: You just threaten your guys, Don't lose to the lower seeds (laughter). I still go back to a lot of those things, having good players. It's never going to change. They bring up what coaches do. In Pro Bowl, they never bring up what coaches do, they bring up what players do. There's probably a happy in between somewhere. We help each other. But I don't think a good team would be as good without a good coach, and I don't think a good coach would be as good without a good team. So they kind of go hand-in-hand. We have been fortunate not to lose to teams underneath, I guess. I didn't see that or I don't know how many games we've won. But, you know, Pitino has done a good job. It's hard to look ahead to Louisville when you have a Kansas staring you in the face. The only guy that would be happy about that is Vitale. He'd have an all-Italian deal, Mafia be in town or something, I don't know. For me, it's Bill Self, it's Kansas, it's Collins and Aldrich. If we get fortunate to win that game, you know, we were in the Final Four a couple years ago with Rick. He's done a great job there. He's got a great team. I will watch one or two of their games. I watched one or two this morning. I will watch one or two tonight, along with Arizona, just so that I feel comfortable with everybody going in. As far as everything else goes here after lunch here, it's going to be pretty much straight Kansas other than a film or two. Q. You've told us why you think Kansas is a lot better than the last time you played them in January. Do you think you'll have any trouble at all convincing your team that the team you beat by 13 points is a lot better? COACH IZZO: I don't think so because I can just tell them that I think the team that beat us by 35 points, I think we're better than we were then. That doesn't mean we could beat North Carolina or anything, just like it doesn't mean anything with Kansas. I think they understand. We went to Northwestern and won by 18, come here and lose by 10 or whatever. I do think when you start talking Kansas, Duke, Kentucky, Carolina, even Louisville, you're talking about teams that are every day on their minds because they watch 'em on TV, they see 'em. They know how good they are. They know who they've beaten. It's not just our game two and a half months ago. I don't think I have. We've had one meeting, two meetings now on it. Today we'll have practice. I'd be shocked. If I am having trouble doing that, we won't have to worry about Louisville or Pitino because we'll lose. That's pretty simple. Q. Talking about getting Raymar, Chris and Durrell all to play at the same time, do you still strive for that perfection, having other players, or there are so many pieces, somebody is going to have a bad night, and somebody is going to have a great night on any given night? COACH IZZO: No, I haven't fallen into that one yet. I still think everybody has their job to do and even is hopefully good at their job. I mean, I still need Marquise and Draymond to be the rebounders. I still need to get more defense out of certain guys. I mean, Travis can score 18 points. He could score none in this game and have a bigger impact than his 18, I think. That's how good I think Collins is, to be honest with you. I'm not asking many of those guys to do things that I don't think they can do. I mean, Chris and Durrell have been shooters their whole lives. That's what they do. I'm not asking them to reinvent the wheel; I'm just asking them to do what they do on a little bit more consistent basis. That's why I think I'm going to keep striving for that and never give in to, Hey, I've got somebody else, this is what I can do type theory. I think we've got to push them. And I think the good thing is that they might not like it all the time, but 95% of the time what I want they want too. What I want, they want too. They just think it's going to happen. I always think you got to work for it. I mean, that's the way it is. That's the way any young guys are. That's the way we were. And so that's why it's my job. It's not just gonna happen. You know what, Durrell, I only know one way to get out of this slump, just live here. That's the only way I know. I can't give you any other advice. But here's some numbers. Call Morris, call JR, call this guy, that guy. They're gonna tell you the same thing. They've been there, done that. I haven't, but I've seen it, and that's the way I look at it. Q. Back to the question about how bad you look. COACH IZZO: That's a compliment, thanks (laughter). Q. Are you waking up and throwing a DVD or have you learned at all that a diversion from work makes you more productive? You said you watched the baseball game last week for two innings. If it's taking your kids to school or anything, maybe a jog, does anything get you away from it to make you more productive? Do you know what I mean? COACH IZZO: Yeah, I know what you mean. I did go pick up my kids yesterday from school because I hadn't seen my daughter. From 3 to 3:15, that's what I did. Came back, had a team meeting. It was a fun ride, St. Thomas to my house and back. But, yeah, you throw DVDs in. You get obsessed with you're preaching to your players that one play can be the difference. My job as a coach is to make sure there isn't one play that surprises me or my players. So you're always looking for, we have a deal where we have a five-game cap usually in the Big-10 where we look at the last five games. We look a lot of those on film. We have a stat sheet on each team the last five games so we get a feel for what they've done recently. In the tournament, we have a five-game, a 10-game, and 15-game one. We've gone back and looked at film and said, Who played them well back in December? Why didn't so-and-so score so many points? So you get a little anal, a little goofy right around now. I have 10 managers up there that work harder than I do. They keep throwing this stuff at me. I just kind of love it. It's awesome. Then you get there that day, and I do go for my jog game day, say, Those five days don't matter if those 12 guys don't want to play. Then it gets a little defeating to yourself. But I think what's been good about Michigan State, all the assistants I've had, those guys can be mad, they can be upset, they can wonder why 20 meetings, they can wonder this and that, but they go into the game, they know they're prepared for what's gonna happen. There won't be one guy, you can coax him into saying, thinking, Are you sure you're prepared for this, this and this? I guarantee every player is going to say, All the rocks have been turned over, all the stones have been flipped. We know what's going on. There will be no surprises. There were no surprises with the box-and-one, triangle-and-two. That's the only thing I can give to them. The rest of it they have to give to me. I can give them that, that's about it. Then it's their baby, that's the way it works. Q. Can you talk a little bit about Travis Walton. Think back to the day when you were recruiting him. What did you see in him then? Do you see those same sorts of things now? How has that evolved over time? COACH IZZO: Well, I think I told this group before that we'd gone through a point in time where we went to the three Final Fours, we started getting better recruits as far as on-the-board recruits. I think we started to lose who we were. Who we are is still the blue-collar team that toughness means as much as anything else. So we were looking at some guys. I kept telling my staff we got to get some mean SOB in here that is going to start acting like me because I'm getting older and I don't want to act that way anymore. Who popped up by the guy in Lima. He was a good player. I mean, he was recruited. But he wasn't on everybody's All-American list, but he was tough. He worked at his game. His high school coach used to be an assistant at Xavier, so he had some college background in him. He was just a guy that spent a lot of time on the game. So he spent a lot of time and he had some toughness. He's still the same way, you know. I mean, I still have more -- talk about Raymar this and that, it's Travis that drives me up the wall sometimes. But it's usually in a positive way. I mean, every time I get mad at him for something, I realize that's probably how I was. I tell him, I don't know if that's a compliment or an insult, but it is what it is. I shot it a little better than he does, but he was probably better at other things than I am. What he's brought to this team is some toughness, but he also has embraced our past, and he's embraced it, he's embraced those guys. Came in last night to watch some film, he was in watching film. He said Matean just called him. He embraces those guys. When I'm telling those stories that you have to tell to your team at some meeting in the hotel before the game, this guy did this, this guy did that, that's what you have to do in these big games. Then this he go back to their room, instead of saying, That was a bunch of BS. You know, Morris told me that that happened. And that's why embracing the past is good in programs, and that's why tradition is good. He embraces that. I'm not saying other guys don't, but not to the extent he does. Thanks. End of FastScripts |
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