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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 30, 2010

Tom Izzo

COACH IZZO: Last time I saw this big a crowd was when somebody got fired? What the hell is going on here (laughter)?
As you can imagine, a pretty exciting time for us. After spending a lot of time watching some film the last day and a half, I thought Dick Vitale said it best the other night, that's what I'm going to stick with, that this is no Cinderella team in Butler. They are in name, but they aren't as far as program.
This program not only has won over quite a few years now, but this, unlike George Mason, for us was a ranked team from the beginning, a top-10 team from the beginning. What they did is they did something most teams can't: they started out there and they ended up there. That speaks volumes for their coach, their program, and their players.
I think, you know, two definite guys that have a chance to be pro players, I've been impressed with Mack, everybody knows they've got a lot of good players, but the kid Mack has impressed me as much as anybody just because he can do so many things. He is a Chauncey Billups type clone, doesn't panic, has size and strength. They run a lot of good things.
If anybody questions whether it's just the Hoosiers, it's not the Hoosiers, it's a team that has been there from the beginning. It's deserved everything it's gotten.
As far as the home court advantage, I sure do know what that's like. I'm hoping it doesn't work for them like it did for us against UConn. I'm hoping it works for them like it did against North Carolina for us.
I say that because I think we've learned, realized to play in the Final Four, the distractions that go along with it, which I thought our players handled well last year, are one thing. But we also went down to Indianapolis, played in this dome before, and played a Louisville team that had 30,000 people there, and we found a way to win that way.
We've got a lot of things ahead. We've got a lot of work to do. But we're as excited as you can be.
As far as my team goes, Kalin Lucas did have surgery this morning. That went very well. Chris Allen is I guess moderately improving. Practice time for this week will be limited. Delvon Roe, it will be really limited. That's still part of our problem, because we want to cover things a certain way that might be a little different with certain guys in it.
If there's one thing that keeps me up at night, it's the unknown more than it is the known.
So the rest of my team I think is as healthy as they can be and playing as well as they can. I think Morgan and Green are still big keys for me because they're the stabilizing force. Durrell Summers has just been dynamite. He's done everything we could ask and then some. I think what's fun to watch in him he's enjoying and having some fun with it. If I took my text messages from two months ago from Durrell and today, they just -- they're just so much more fun from his standpoint.
I enjoy watching somebody grow and get better and fulfill the things that I think he wants to fulfill.
I just get -- I'll open it up for questions and you can ask me what you want instead of me rambling on what you don't want to hear.

Q. On your list of things that you enjoy about this job, where does it rank when you have former players like Sutton come back, guys in the league or texting you?
COACH IZZO: It's number one for me, it really is. Players will come and go. Going is one thing. Gone is another. A lot of players have programs that come and go and are gone. One thing I felt that we tried to build here, and I guess you would have to give some of the oldest of that group, though we had Johnny Green back this year, but Magic, because he lives in this town, has been the Pied Piper for that, then you get to the Steve Smith era, Eric Snow era, and the Mateen Cleaves era, all those different groups that I think have maintained what we'd like to see.
I think it's the players that have kind of rallied each other, including the last couple years, where Mike, a couple guys have put together just some groups to come back. We have a game where we do that.
Those things for me are the most fun evenings, to be honest with you, because everybody looks at something so differently. You always tell them when you leave and hit the real world, Good luck, because it won't be like this Disneyworld you're living in. They think getting their tails chewed or somebody getting on 'em about being latet for a class, missing a bus, I say, Wait till you get a boss who fires you when you do that.
Then as they do and they come back, the war stories start. It's good to know, too, that young guys and players are no different than old guys. All that started out this big, it ends up Moby Dick. I listen to my guys when I come back, listen to them tell players what they went through. Those stories get bigger and bigger, better and better. That's the fun part of it.
We have a lot of guys trying to get back, some of our pro guys have tried to get back. Just about all of them have called or texted. Definitely a good time for me.

Q. How has Durrell's role been changed? Have the injuries helped him getting more playing time?
COACH IZZO: I'll be honest with you, I can't believe, people just got to realize what I tell them is the truth. It's not that there's injuries. It's not that he has to step up. It's that he grew up. And you grow up by going through tough times. I've said that the whole year. I've always said, Ask Durrell. Those were always pretty good answers. He was pretty up front about it.
I'm not coaching him any different. We're not running anything necessarily more for him. He is more focused in. He is a better player because he is concentrating. He's doing the things you've got to do.
I can name a variety of players that have gone through it. It's just that the scrutiny on this year's group, maybe I caused some of that, so I'll blame myself, has just been more. We don't want to appreciate that, Well, why did he get better? Well, he got better because he grew up. I think his mom played a big part in that. I think his uncle played a big part of that. I think his teammates played a big part of that. I think I played a small part of that. I think Durrell played a large part of that.

Q. On Sunday we heard players saying, Nobody thought we could do this. What is your reaction to this perhaps being the unlikeliest of teams that you've taken to the Final Four?
COACH IZZO: God, it's nice to have that problem to figure out which one was the most unlikely or which one are the best. That's a good problem to have. That means you're going enough times there is confusion. Those are good problems to have.
If I said we were a top-15 team early, which I believed we were, and not 2, but 15, I've always said, There's 14, 15 teams every year that have a chance to get to a Final Four. So I thought at the beginning of the year we had a chance. A little more outside because of some unknowns. As the year went, that dwindled a little bit. I said, We're not going to be good enough if we don't take care of some things.
Just when we started to get some things together, even into February, the injuries to my star point guard happened. You got to get around them. A lot of people have injuries. But that makes a difference, you know. I talked to Bobby Huggins yesterday. We laughed, and he cried, and I laughed. When we won the national championship, if Kenyon Martin doesn't break his leg? They were the No. 1 seed, we took their spot. That meant we played different places. Would we have done that? You know, I'm man enough to say, I don't know. We got a little break there.
So somebody got a break when Kalin went down in February and he wasn't healthy for a while. Delvon's situation. Then in the tournament, we've added Chris Allen. We've really gone through some problems with Kalin because now he's not even playing. And he was playing really well. If you looked at the first two games of that tournament, he was playing really well.
So I don't know if this is the most unlikely or not. I thought the beginning of the year we had a chance. There were some years it seems like right now every year we got a chance. That's the good news. But a realistic chance? This year I think we had it when we started. I thought it kind of disappeared in the middle of the year. So I guess it is a little surprise, if you want the truth.

Q. You said Kalin had surgery this morning. What's his mood like? What went into the decision to have it today? He'll be able to travel to Indianapolis with you all?
COACH IZZO: Well, I talked to his mom and dad. His mood was great. He was still sleeping. There were no problems.
But Kalin, you know, he went through a tough time down there the last day, the night before the game, the day of. I think everything started to hit home. As I say, my talk about the real world and Disneyland, you know, real world kind of hit him. I don't get to play tomorrow. This is what I worked for. This is what I live for. This is what I do.
As happy as he was for the team, as good a job as he did with them, I mean, you know, there were a few tears shed. And I think, as he said to me later, There's a reason for this and I'm going to be better in the long run. That's hard for a 21-year-old to even say. For him to be able to do that, I think it means that he's taken another step forward. He will overcome this. Magic talked to him about rehab that he went through with his knee, told him how important.
That day, he came up to me in Indy, said I'm going to be rehabbing morning, noon and night. Mateen came in yesterday and spent an hour with him in the training room. Mateen came up to us and said, Boy, he's really a different guy.
So I think everybody grows. That's what's neat about a season. You never know when it's going to happen.
But he's going to be okay. It's just going to take some time. He is hopefully going to travel. It all depends on how everything goes. If he can do it in any way, shape or form, even if it has to be Thursday or Friday or even Saturday morning. His dad said, If he needs to be till Saturday, we'll bring him down then. He'll be there for the game any way possible. I'd like him there earlier so he can enjoy what he helped us get. I'm not sure we would have won those first two games without him, to be honest with you.

Q. Have you heard from Oregon? With the cameras here, your response to the rumors, if you will?
COACH IZZO: You know, I haven't heard from Oregon. I have no response. I don't mean that disrespectfully. I just found out over time that it never pays to respond. I have not heard from them. I'll look you all in the eye and tell you I have not heard from them or anyone from there in any way, shape or form.
Just last week Tubby Smith was going there, going to Auburn, he had signed a deal. I mean, believe me, if it was true what the TV station I guess said out there, I mean, I can't picture any school going and saying they're going to do this, this, and this, telling a television station. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
But I've been fortunate. It seems like I should say unfortunate, but I've been fortunate that my name does come up in some jobs. That, believe me, is fortunate. That's a privilege. That's not a right. Yet it always comes at kind of a bad time. What I mean by that is there are distractions.
I've had enough distractions this year. I can only promise you guys that this will not be one. I am going to put everything I can into trying to bring this university its third crystal ball. That is all I'm doing. I really can't answer any more questions about it except to say, don't be like all the other recruiters in the Big Ten. I was going to be gone, let me see, 10 years ago, eight years ago, six years ago, three years ago. Most of those schools have gone through three coaches and I'm still here. As long as they want to keep me, I plan on being here.

Q. You said the other day that you thought maybe this team, you've had to reach deeper for different contributions from this team. Do you still look out there late in games, Elite 8, stand in amazement at some of the lineups you have there?
COACH IZZO: I guess that's a polite way of insulting some guys (laughter). I think they could even take that.
You know, sometimes I yell at my staff and asked who put 'em out there. I realize it was me. Sometimes I have great appreciation, being a former walk-on, you know, what those guys give me.
You know, it's like when we put Isaiah in. He hasn't played in a while. But Mike has this hunch that Isaiah works so hard in practice, does so much, he comes up with one loose ball. What's one loose ball? When you win by one point, one loose ball is a lot.
Sometimes this has been amazing because I don't think anybody here knows, not through your fault or mine, it's hard to tell what Delvon has gone through or what Chris is going through. So we are depleted in a lot of ways, but we are getting a lot of basketball to a lot of people. You know, what you preach all year, what I've preached that this team didn't have enough togetherness, enough chemistry, what a great time to not have to guess whether you had it. I can look out on the floor and say, Yep, we got some of it because we got guys playing that haven't played much and are actually contributing.
That brings a team closer together probably than anything I could do.

Q. You know have a sixth chair for your trophy case. Do you know what a six-sided table is? Do you know that the guys in the physical plant are already starting to work on that?
COACH IZZO: I just talked to a couple of them back there. I don't know if any of you got to see my other table. It's unbelievable. It is phenomenal. Some love went into the work of that table. I do greatly appreciate that.
You know, I do struggle with all the talk about the six Final Fours, this and that. When you talk about some of the group of coaches, it's kind of mind-boggling for me at times.
But I still think I've been lucky. I still think that the credit should go to the staff and the program. I just wish, and some of you have, some of you got to do things with me just a couple years ago where you're around that whole night of Selection Sunday, you see about the only thing I do that night is buy the pizzas for all the elves that do the work. As we all know, I make enough money to buy them pizzas. That's my contribution.
I've put together what I think is the game plan of how we're going to do things. Then like a good country, a good state, a good government, a good anything, a lot of people do the work to make that happen.

Q. I've also been told you do some woodworking yourself and they are inviting you to work on this project.
COACH IZZO: You know, this year I'd be more than happy to join you guys back there. I'd like to sand a few things, varnish something, get my fingernails dirty again. This white-collar job where you sit behind a desk gets a little boring from where I'm from. Let's climb some ladders, lay some carpets, pull off some shoes with manure on it. Let's get back to the real days when things were not as ritzy, but a lot more relaxing.

Q. Hexagon is the answer.
COACH IZZO: Hexagon. I took math in high school. I could have gave you that.

Q. What do you think they've done to contribute to this? What kind of coach could Mark or Dwayne --
COACH IZZO: Monty deserves a head job right now. He really does. You look at my three assistants. I've had some good ones here when you look back from the beginning with Tom Crane and Stan Heath, Brian Gregory, Doug Wojcik, Jimmy Boylan, that have moved on and gotten good jobs. Mike moved on and came back. I think Mike and I have been friends since I was 18 years old. So he just wanted to come back and spend some time with me.
He figured, we used to talk in college, I told him a hundred times, If I ever get a job, I'm taking you with. The day I got it, I drove to Ypsilanti, begged his wife to give in.
In Monty and D.J., you know, that's the problem right now. I think if you want the truth. There's so much talk of what, like, I've accomplished. It's really what we have accomplished, what our program has accomplished. Those guys have been with me for three of these Final Fours. You know, we had to retool after we lost all those guys, after the three in a row back in the early 2000s. These guys have been a big part in that.
I think Monty could be one of the best. He's as good an X-and-O guy as I ever had. I told him a couple years ago when we were looking at jobs, I thought he had to tweak a couple other areas, which he's done now.
You know, what I've got in those three guys that a lot of people don't have is I have loyalty to the Nth degree. I get mad at them just like I get mad at myself or mad at you. You talk about three loyal guys, I mean, they're loyal to me, they're loyal to this program. I never question that part of it. So it makes working a lot easier.
Now I think, you know, it took a little longer for them to really feel like they could make an impact. They came in like a player. We'd been to three Final Fours. What else could we do? Well, now we've done some other things. It's taken us a little longer to get to three more Final Fours, but they've been a big part of that and I think they deserve a ton of credit.
I've gotten way too much. I don't say it with humility, I say it with honesty. I do my job, I think I work. When I turn the lights off, usually there's two or three guys next to me with the lights still on. That never gets talked about enough and it really should because it's a big part of our program.

Q. These rumors start to swirl, what do you say to your team or what have you said to your team?
COACH IZZO: The nice part is those guys usually think it's a joke because, I mean, as Mateen said, It was that time of year. It was that way when he was here, it was 10 years ago. I think what most of them hope is that it's a pro job. They think I'm dumb enough to take 'em. I already told them, I've had you for two, three, four years. If I got a pro job, do you think I'd take you for another three, four years? We laugh about it.
I don't think it even fazes them. This time I didn't even say a word to them. You know, they say, Coach, they want you moving again. I said, I got to stick around you for a couple more years. We just kind of laugh about it, to be honest.
Yet I don't laugh at the thing, like, of disrespect because I think it is a privilege to be considered or talked about for jobs if people think you're doing a good job. I think some of these people that think I'm doing a good job to pick up one of my assistants because they could do a good job as Roy Williams did when he went to Kansas. It doesn't always have to be to a smaller job. Maybe that's what I'll work on.

Q. Everybody loves the Butler story. They're playing at home. You know what it's like, the emotion of playing at home last year. Do you worry at all about your team getting swallowed up by that huge story?
COACH IZZO: Well, I do a little bit. I said I remember in the third Final Four we went to, we played Gonzaga and Temple. You know, everybody was in love with Gonzaga. It was in Atlanta. It wasn't at home. But they were all in love with Gonzaga. John Cheney was one of the guys that got me going on scheduling hard. He was one of the first big schools to come in here and play us. So I had a special affection. Those were like the two America's teams at the time.
I felt like the guy who shot Bambi because, you know, that happened, and we won. But at the same time I think our players realized that, you know, last year they sat there and got clobbered down there and made kind of a point to say, We got to get back next year and we got to take one more step.
So I love Butler. I love Brad. I think he's done an incredible job. I really like their players, what they stand for. I watched Hoosiers, so I know what their arena is like, all those things. But, you know, there's no sentimental thing from us. I don't think our players will get caught up in that because we've been through 75,000 people at a game. We've been through 38,000, 35,000 at Louisville fans. We've kind of been through that.
I think these guys figure that, you know, maybe it's their destiny, maybe it's our destiny. We paid the price last year, a lot this year. We'll see who plays better. I don't know if destiny will have an effect either one.

Q. By my count you plays five NCAA tournament teams in the first five weeks of the season. UAB, Northwestern, they took some lumps in those games. Do you draw some comparisons? Do you see their scheduling in November and December, they're drawing on some of those experiences late in the season?
COACH IZZO: You know, I don't know. I look at their schedule and I think they did play some pretty good teams, some better teams, and yet I've always believed for us it helped us. I don't know if Brad scheduled them for that, if they were just in a tournament. Everybody has a different philosophy. I think anytime you can compete against some of the best teams in the country it's got to help you because you benefit from winning or losing because you're going to find out some things about your guys.
They did take a few lumps. I think Minnesota beat 'em. Did UCLA beat 'em? They lost by two. So, you know, I didn't look at much film from way back then only because I tried to pick, you know, the conference teams you usually play a little better. The NCAA teams, you get the little higher caliber teams. I looked at the schedule. But I haven't really looked at a lot of film with those earlier games.
But I'm sure it helped them some. I'm sure that everybody that plays a better schedule, it helps you some in the long run.

Q. You reference wanting to get back. The other day you talked about Dremond's speech after the Carolina game. How much for you is this unfinished business and for the players?
COACH IZZO: It's hard to say unfinished business is a Final Four. I think I would have said it more in '99 for a 2000 team because we just about had everybody back. I could see where North Carolina, because we had some guys to stay in school to try to accomplish that, two or three guys to stay in school to try to accomplish that. I'm not sure this team is quite in the same realm as those. But I think what you realize when you get that close and you walk off a court and the streamers are coming down, you realize somebody else is celebrating. You watch their fans, you shake their hand and walk by 'em, as I told them in the locker room that night, you know, you did everything but have that final feeling. But that final feeling sometimes, as time goes, we forget who is second. You remember who won it. You know, so it's been a battle cry in a way.
But this is a privilege to be here. You know, it really is. If you think you just have the right to come back because of what you did last year, it's insane. You really can't look at what you did last year very much, except to learn from it, because it's so hard to get back here.
The Sweet 16s are hard to get to, I think. I really do. We've been fortunate, lucky, get a couple breaks here and there, whatever it takes, but it is hard to.
I think our players are looking at it like we had a taste of it last year, let's try to take it another step farther. But realize the task at hand is daunting, to say the least.

Q. I'm sure you haven't heard from the president because he doesn't have you on his bracket anyway. I'm curious with all the coaches and people you talked to, have you had a notable phone call that maybe you didn't expect with this sixth Final Four?
COACH IZZO: You want to hear something crazy? I was sitting there in Indy. I went for a jog, had to do an interview that morning. I took my phone. I don't know if it got wet or what. My phone went out. I didn't get it back yesterday till late afternoon. I didn't get many calls from anybody. I told my secretary I was going to try to work most of the day. I don't know if I got any notable calls. I don't know if anybody did call.
But all that I care about is, you know, when I got to practice, those were the right calls because all the players were there and that's all that mattered to me right now.
I'm trying to approach this thing a little differently from the standpoint of I'm going to try to do what people have told me. I'm going to try to work harder early and see if I can enjoy a little bit of it, spend a little time enjoying the things that were so hard to get to. We all start taking it for granted like it's on the schedule, even though I know better. So not yet.

Q. Way back when you had to break things down, what were you working less? How do you utilize technologically to help best you coach?
COACH IZZO: When I worked for Judd, when I started, we had the 16 millimeter yet. That wasn't because it was that long ago. It was Judd was that archaic. He wouldn't switch over to video. I mean, that's when they had the VHS. I said, Coach, why don't we get a VHS player and tape the games. We used to carry the tape to recruits.
This arm right now is three inches longer than this one because we carried that projector a zillion pounds through the airport, could have just taken a nice little tape. It took a while to change Judd over. He's not a guy that enjoys change a lot.
I'll never forget, after the first three years, you'd sit there and tape the tape. He'd have the two receivers there. You would screw it up all the time, which one is recording, which one is play, which one is pause. I used to screw it up. He'd get mad when he was watching it.
But the first year I became full-time when I came back from Tulsa, he walked into my office and said, Here, Captain Video. He threw this piece of paper on this system the Milwaukee Bucks had. Jim Boylan, Sr. was on our staff, he who was friends with the Bucks because he had played at Marquette, Mike Dunleavy was over there still as a player coach, or something, a GA. We flew over and met with Mike. He was a nobody then. Next year, I think he was the Lakers coach. It was bizarre. He took us through this. I tugged Judd into it. It was a pretty expensive thing at the time. I want to say 50 or $75,000, which Judd still got his communion money in his pocket, so it's hard to get him to spend that kind of money.
I remember Jimmy Boylan, Jr., who was also on the staff, and I, it was like getting a new car. We sat in that office. The first two weeks we never left the office just kind of putting this thing together, working on it, seeing how cool it was. Felt like we were in a TV studio.
The only other funny part about it, I tell Judd how important it was and how much it was worth. He thought you could just -- I think he thought you could talk to it and it produced the film. Judd, I got to break it down, I got to log it in, do this, to that. Get me a 15-minute film on this.
Those of you in TV know that 15 minutes of actual film takes hours and hours. He told me at practice he'd like it by the next morning. That's when I learned to sleep with my eyes open. It was easier to just work all night and have it for him than to try to explain to him how the machine worked. And that you don't say, Give me all the Michigan's offensive plays, doesn't work that way.
So I was lucky. Judd, you know, the caveman way of doing things was the one that got me into the video, that got Jimmy Boylan to Houston, which got me into the video more. Then the football friends of mine that just lived and slept with the film. That's why we do what we do.
But there's a lot of great programs that are doing the same thing probably, but that's how we got there.

Q. After 12 seasons, your daughter has become a teenager, you've adopted a son. How much do your kids understand the magnitude of what their dad and this program is doing?
COACH IZZO: The problem is I complain about it. You guys are fans thinking the Final Four is on the schedule. Steven Mateen, he's upset if the place doesn't have a pool. He just thinks, When we going to the Final Four, dad? Do you want me to take my team or do you want to just come along for the ride (laughter)?
That's a good question. Do they understand the magnitude? No, because they've been brought up on it. I mean, Raquel has been to all six. I think I have a picture of her in my office from the first one, you know. That's almost disappointing for me because you should enjoy it more, it should be more exciting.
Last week, Do you want to come to practice?
Friday, I'll take you over to the Friday practice.
No, I'm going to play video games, Dad.
I want to smack the kid. I told Mary she should drag him out here.
Thank God, we've won enough where they don't have to listen to too much around town, which coach's kids have to go through. I think Raquel is enjoying it more, realizing it more. And Steven, he doesn't. I don't think he's going to plan on learning much about it in the near future. As he said, Dad, three good things happen next week if we win.
I say, What is that?
He said, We getting to a hotel with a pool.
I looked down and said, What about playing?
Yeah, we get to play in the game and I get to miss two days of school.
I said, Yep, I've been there, done that. So I understood that (laughter).

Q. I think it was Jim Boeheim who said on the radio yesterday about Butler's guards, how good they are defensively. I think he called them the best two defensive guards he's seen in a decade. Do you see the same thing?
COACH IZZO: Yeah. If there's one thing that has impressed me that you wouldn't think about, they are really, really good defensively. Now, ironically we've just played another, I guess they call them, mid-major. I kind of fear using that word because it's not true. But if you look at Northern Iowa, they were really good defensively. Both teams have some toughness and are very, very good defensively.
I've been really impressed with both guards. I've been really impressed with what seems likes an opening here, and all of a sudden, boom, they close it up so quick. They do not extend. They play a lot like -- I'd say it's more of a team that the guards, like when we had Cleaves and Bell, they play a lot inside out. But they just don't give you many looks and openings. That's what we're going to have to try to exploit.

Q. I don't know if you really get into dates and sites, but the fact this game is taking place on the anniversary of the national title and Indianapolis, I know that was something you really emphasized at the beginning of the year. Has that kind of sunk in, that you're back in Indianapolis, the 10th anniversary, time for something special again?
COACH IZZO: It's funny because Earvin said to me before he left the locker room the other day that Indianapolis has been good to me. I don't know if that was a compliment or a threat. Don't screw it up. Because they won there against good Ol' Digger, Notre Dame. Of course, we won our national championship there. We've benefit in the Elite 8 game last year, which was big. Last year was the 30-year reunion of Magic's team to get us to Detroit. All those guys came back. It was one of the more awesome things I ever was a part of.
This year the sad part is we haven't been able to celebrate our 10 year because we have guys playing in the NBA and overseas that we just couldn't get dates. But a lot of them are trying to fly in for this.
But I'm not superstitious about it. I'm just excited about it. Anytime you can bring up positive things and get guys, I always call them memory-makers. Earvin now, it's been 31 years. It's still a memory maker for him. Mateen was here yesterday. Morris called in. I remember when we were there, Coach. But they ripped down that dome. They tore it down, they've got a new one now.
Yeah, it will bring back some memories. Unfortunately that's not going to help us beat Butler, but I think it will be good. Wednesday night will be good because that's the one night we get there, we get a little time maybe to walk around, kind of show some of those young guys, like Kalin and those guys that were 10 when we won it, that dome is gone. Now they have a new building they're building there, but it was pretty cool when it happened.

Q. You saw you were going to spend some time together Wednesday night. You travel together, stay in the same hotel, dinners together. Do you have traditions you're going to do before this game or superstitions? Do you have them, any of the players on your team particularly superstitious?
COACH IZZO: I bet there are some players, knowing those guys. But I've never been superstitious with the same tie or all those things, eat at the same restaurant.
But, you know, we're going to -- the one thing we did last year that I thought was fun is try to get to some restaurant where we could play some games and do some things. We're kind of busing down instead of flying down. I thought that was one of the decisions I made with this year's team, that our chemistry and camaraderie that has been coming together I think has been helped because we've spent more time together. Sometimes you just fly in, fly out, everything is forgot. You bus down, you get a good movie, everybody is laughing or joking.
Sometimes our video guys will put something together, something that's funny. Maybe it was like when we ate the meal Saturday night before Sunday's game, they were in the background, just played all the Final Four stuff last year. Those things, I don't think they're superstitions, I think they're just kind of great motivators and they're great things to bring a team together.
I don't know. I usually give the guys, they don't get much time off, as you know, don't get much time to do anything. Wednesday night is usually the night at Final Fours when they can do it because Thursday you're really getting ready and Friday you've got such a busy day and Saturday you got that little game that they play.

Q. What had you seen from Draymond Green during the tournament in terms of his leadership in the locker room, anything different from the regular season? From a media perspective, he seemed to be everyone's favorite in St. Louis. He seems to be embracing the limelight and the cameras. What are you seeing from him?
COACH IZZO: He's a ham bone. He is enjoying it. I think it matters to him. I think he cares about the image of the university, the program. I think he wants to be a spokesman. How can you not like a kid that does that. And he's pretty honest, too. Sometimes too damn honest. I think he gets some of that from me.
I think he says what's on his mind. He has a great way of including everybody because he does care about all those players. That's why they vote him captain at a younger age. That's why they go to him. He's just got one of those personalities that probably we needed even a little earlier, but it's come at the right time.
He's been good all year, but he's been dynamite in this tournament. He's getting to the point now where he's starting to feel more comfortable with himself as far as a player, a ball handler, a communicator. He'll stay things in the locker room, in the huddle.
But as I say those things, remember, I was shocked sitting there last year in our locker room trying to figure out, what do I say to a team that just played in front of 75,000 people, 60,000 Michigan State fans, and we laid an egg. We didn't play very well. North Carolina beat us good. As I was struggling for the words, because I was so proud of the team and what they've done, it was him who said that big statement about, you know, a year ago North Carolina was getting beat by 40 at Kansas and now they're national champs. If that wasn't some insight to maybe what that future was going to bring for that kid as far as having the ability to see beyond the moment, there never could be any better.
So I think that tells you a little bit about what he's like.

Q. Seems like you were asked a lot this year about Raymar Morgan, his inconsistent play. I remember a former player sitting down and talking to him. Now he's been maybe the most consistent guy down the stretch, free throws to win the ball. Is he just playing better basketball at the moment?
COACH IZZO: Here is a guy with over 1500 points and 700 rebounds and I'm constantly saying I want more out of him. I guess that's the negative of playing here. The positive is I still think that kid has more to give, even now.
We've all known that a lot of time Ray has been his own worst enemy. He's not down on himself or his coaches or teammates, he gets down on himself. Like everything else you do you've got to grow out of.
I think he was really making some progress last year in the first half of the year. Then the injury, the illness, broken nose, pneumonia. It kind of really bothered him.
You know, this year he's had to regroup with a different team. Maybe lacking the leadership of Suton and Walton. It was kind of dropped in Ray's lap, you got to do this. You can't try to make somebody something that they're not sometimes, yet you can't let somebody be something that he could be better at if he's not good enough at it either.
That's the fine line I've played with Ray. As I said a hundred times, he's got a great mom who probably pushes him harder than I do. And he has been our most consistent player in the last now 12, 13 games. I mean, not always scoring a million points, but just doing a million things.
I think that Raymar has elevated his game to a level where he's going to be able to play somewhere, I really do. I think that because he is the most multi-dimensional guy I got. He can score 20 points, get you 10 rebounds, defend a point guard, defend a center, and he's smart, very smart kid both on the court and in the classroom. So he's got the whole package: strength, toughness. It's whether he can continue to grow out of hurting himself a little bit. He's done a much better job of that. If he gets through it totally, I think you're going to see Ray take another step forward.
Ray is going to end up one of my favorites because he's done so much for this program, he really has.

Q. How do you think Kalin's relationship has evolved with his teammates?
COACH IZZO: Well, I think when we say that, the one thing I've done all year, I say their relationships have to improve, they have to become better teammates. I always have to make sure I tell you that makes it sound like guys didn't get along. Make sure for the national people that are here, it means that guys just went their own direction. It didn't mean they didn't get along, they just went the wrong way.
To have a good team, you can't have that. Some guys' personalities are different. That's hard to understand.
I'll bet you if you asked them the same questions today, as you would have asked them a month and a half ago, I bet he'd give you completely different answer.
To watch him talk to Korie, to watch him lay in that room at halftime of the Maryland game, to listen to him on the bench, what he said to me the last couple games, how he's handling it, to watch them lift him up, see a smile on his face, even though there were tears in his eyes, kind of says it all. It's kind of why you coach.
It's just like raising a kid, when you have those moments where you say, Wow, he kind of gets it. It's worth all the crap you go through, believe me. For me right now, the only thing I hope to do this afternoon is get over to the hospital and see him. He has grown a lot. I think the players have a different feel for him.
You know, liking somebody is okay. But caring about somebody is special, you know. That's the old quote, adage, whatever. Would you want him in a foxhole with you? If guys are going different directions, even if they're friends, you probably wouldn't. I guarantee you a lot of guys would want him in that foxhole with them now. I think that's why he put off the surgery. That's why he's doing everything he can to get down there now. I think he realizes he's a valuable guy. It's not just by his jump shot or his speed.

Q. Seems like the teams in the Final Four are more team-oriented. Is that good for college basketball, do you think?
COACH IZZO: Yeah, you know, I never thought of it that way. I do think when you look at the four teams that are in it, there's a lot of good players, but I wouldn't say anybody is relying on one player as much.
I think that when you look at it, I mean, I know Hugs went through some things earlier in the year, his team became closer. You look at Butler, they've been talking about the togetherness of their team. And Mike always does that at Duke. So I think what you do, you have four teams that at least all try to coach and teach the same kind of things. For the most part, I think you got four teams that have earned their way here by probably playing good defense. If there's ever a year when maybe there's some of the four better defensive teams in it, I think this would be a year. So, yeah, I'd say this is probably true.
I don't know if it's good for college basketball or bad, but it's probably true, what it is.

Q. I don't understand this as a knock on Kalin. Is Durrell's emergence due to the fact that Korie is a little different point guard, getting the wings involved in a different fashion?
COACH IZZO: I really don't think so. I think it's more Durrell. If you watch Durrell right now, he is sprinting off those pin-down picks instead of jogging off 'em. A lot of the passes have come from even other people on those things. Durrell gets some on the break, although he got some, like in the Maryland game, he had 12 points before Kalin went out.
I just really believe it's that if Kalin was playing, and I could put Korie in there with Kalin and Durrell, I think Durrell would even be better. It's hard for us to see that jogging off a screen is that much different than sprinting off it, or closing out on a shooter is that much different, or going in for a rebound and being there and going in and getting your nose on the rim, which he can do. There's two different things, you know. He is playing with some energy. He is playing with a purpose.
You know, it's kind of funny because usually when you push guys this hard, they're playing to spite you. I'm going to show him, you know. I don't think that's the way he is. He's just not made up that way. I think he's really become onboard and understands.
Yeah, maybe it's the players that call or stop by or tell him. But he's bought in right now. And I told him, I told him in Spokane, I told him at halfcourt this weekend, you know, If you think for a second I'm dumb enough to figure that everything's perfect yet, forget it. I said, Because we're going to stay on you with all these things and look around because this is what you've accomplished when you've done them right.
He laughs. He jokes. I mean, I think he gets it. I'm sure there will be setbacks here and there. But I see Durrell Summer taking major steps forward. That kid is going to come become someday and we're going to laugh. He said to me yesterday, Hey, coach, doesn't look like we have room for another banner in the auxiliary gym. I said, Durrell, why don't you keep working and donate enough to build a new one and we'll build bigger walls.
He kind of said, Okay. I think Durrell Summer has just been dynamite. It's not jut his shooting. He's done a lot of things.
In fact, it's this morning, Coach, are you working? Are you ready to go? You know, usually Durrell doesn't say that. So he's a little jacked right now. That's kind of a fun thing to see.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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