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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DETROITMarch 16, 2018Tom IzzoMiles BridgesCassius WinstonJoshua LangfordDetroit, Michigan Michigan State - 82, Bucknell - 78 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Michigan State. Coach, an opening statement. COACH IZZO: It was a game that I thought was one of the more bizarre -- I thought we were playing Purdue. It was a fistfight. It was physical. It was kind of out of control. I thought we did some very, very, very good things when we had the 11-point lead. And then Nick, as good as he was in that stretch, I didn't think we took over. And I blame Miles and I blame Cassius and I blame myself. I thought we got sloppy there for a while, and that lead changed like that with a couple of bad shots. And the second half we got rolling again. And thanks to Cassius running the thing and we really went to Miles and Josh we went to all night. So I thought everybody stepped up and kind of ashamed they hit all those 3s at the end, but at the same time give them credit. They made some shots. I thought for the most part the second half we played very, very well even defensively. And I thought offensively we moved the ball very well and even missed some good shots. So considering the lay-off, I thought we were pretty sharp in maybe 30 minutes of the game but when we weren't sharp, it was really disappointing how we -- it wasn't one mistake, it was like 3s and 4s and that's got to change if we're going to be moving on. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the players. Q. Miles, talk about dueling a little bit with Thomas and how unfortunate it was that he fouled out, even as a competitor, that he fouled out there, the technical? MILES BRIDGES: He's a great player. But it was good for us that he fouled out. (Laughter) but, no, he's a great player. We don't want to give him any open looks. We had him work for every shot he got today. But he did a great job. Q. Miles, can you please talk about the night Xavier Tillman had tonight. He didn't play like a rookie, did he? MILES BRIDGES: No, he's actually been great for us all year. He plays like a veteran, big. He talks on defense. He likes to move the ball on offense. I love when X is on the floor. Q. Josh, hitting that first shot, how much did that take maybe a burden off your shoulders as you continued to hit shots? Take us through what was going through your mind getting in rhythm. JOSHUA LANGFORD: It felt good hitting that first shot. But I think the biggest thing I was trying to focus on was just trying to help my team win, and that was on the defensive end, not just on the offensive end. And my team did an unbelievable job finding me. Q. Cassius, what was it like playing this first round game in Detroit? CASSIUS WINSTON: It was great. You look up there, I saw my brothers and my family, my grandma and stuff was in the crowd. So they don't get a chance to come to a lot of games, especially at this stage. So to have an opportunity to play in front of them at this stage was amazing. Q. Cassius, talk about Langford and the way he began today. And at that time Bucknell was making some nice shots. Can you talk a little bit about the game that Joshua had tonight and you facilitating the ball to him a little bit? CASSIUS WINSTON: Yeah, definitely, when Josh hitting shot my assists they skyrocket up a lot. He was due for this type of game. The amount of time he puts in the gym, his shot is going to fall. We knew it was coming. So he picked the perfect time to get it going. So we always are looking for him, always getting pin-downs. We trust him with the ball making those shots. Q. Josh and Miles, first half it looked like it was going to be Josh's kind of game. Second half, more of Miles. What does that say about the threat that you guys can be in this tournament? JOSHUA LANGFORD: I think that speaks volumes about how deep our team is, and it's something that we've always talked about since the beginning of the year is how good our depth is. And anybody on the team can get going and it just speaks a lot about the team and how unselfish we are as players. MILES BRIDGES: We were opening the floor for everybody else. Nick did a great job by posting up, getting us open looks. And Cash did a great job by facilitating to us. Try to take every shot they gave us. Q. Miles, 29 points for you, a whole lot of green and white cheering you on. What role did the atmosphere play for your team tonight? MILES BRIDGES: Yeah, our fans, I feel we have the best fan base in the country. They really came out and supported us today. And that really helped us when we were down a little bit. When Bucknell was going on the run, our crowd really got us going. Q. Cassius, can you talk about your alley-oops that didn't make your coach really happy and one that got Nick hurt? CASSIUS WINSTON: Man, you had to bring that up, huh? (Laughter). COACH IZZO: I don't care right now. No big deal. CASSIUS WINSTON: Sometimes I get in the habit of trying to make a big play or a home run play, which I got better at, but I've got to break that habit. I tried to make an alley-oop to Miles and one to Nick that almost got him hurt. I've got to do a better job just playing smarter, just looking at the situations. Q. Did you feel any affect from the long lay-off from not playing for about two weeks? MILES BRIDGES: No, I feel like our practice really helped us get going because our practice, when we're practicing hard it feels like games. So it got us ready for the tournament. CASSIUS WINSTON: Yeah, definitely. If you would have been in the gym with us, you would have seen that we was going at it for sure. We wasn't sitting back and chilling or nothing. We were going at it a lot. It almost felt a little better to be out there playing in a game. JOSHUA LANGFORD: I agree with those guys. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Coach, where is this team at compared to where you need them to be to go forward in the tournament, especially against some of the bigger teams coming up? COACH IZZO: We said going in, you know, T.J. and I talked about, we kind of talked about our substitution pattern and we said we were going to put X in there early. We said we were going to get Ben in there. Kind of unfair to Ben because he hasn't played much, and yet he's been doing such an unbelievable job in practice, especially against zones and that. Our offense works better through him. We wanted to get his feet wet. Like I said, I was really pleased. It shouldn't have been a 4-point game. And taking nothing away from them. But I thought we played very well for most of that game. They're a good team. I mean, I saw some of the 3 and 2 and 4 seeds, or 15, 14 and 13 seeds, and I swear to God, when I first watched them on film I said, you know, this is Middle Tennessee-plus. And I just -- I think what we didn't do, and I did tell Cassius and Miles this, when we made a mistake, we let it carry over to two and three and even four a couple times. And I told Nick that. And so we're still growing. I mean, we're still trying to get better. But we really took a big step, because it was a physical game. I can't believe Josh Langford got a technical. He hasn't said a word since he's been on campus. There were some questions I had on some things. But I thought in general, considering we're playing without Jaren Jackson, who, when he was in there, was awfully effective for the, I don't know, five minutes he was in there. And so I think this team still has a ways to go. I think we found out what we said, that a tough player makes a difference. And Xavier was just tougher than everybody. And Miles is right. I did get on Miles. I got on him at halftime. But, boy, we started running some stuff from him and he started answering the bell, one after the other, and the tip dunk kind of typified it. And so I think we're making some progress. We took a step forward. There's no question about that. Q. Xavier Tillman, you saw he was going to get a lot of playing time and we were going to see him on the floor early. He didn't play like a rookie, did he? COACH IZZO: No, I think the best thing that's happened at our place is over the years I've always taught guys that are players that aren't getting enough reps to be on the scout team. And that kid is so good on the scout team, he never took one rep with anybody other than he played Bucknell all night. But he's so smart. A little bit like Draymond, he's got a little bit of that cerebral basketball smarts. And he picked up everything from watching film and running their offense. And it was amazing, I think, what he did, and I think those guys were excited about it. Yet, I thought Nick, you know, did some good things. So the two of them together was a pretty good combination. Q. Miles Bridges' selfish basketball is fun basketball to watch. Is this the tip of the iceberg or maybe more of what's below the surface for him? COACH IZZO: It's funny, most coaches, we're always dying to say, we have an unselfish team. And I keep telling this guy he has to be more selfish. That shows you how sick I am. But I have to agree with you. I like the selfish one. But it was a combination, too. We went to him; the players wanted to go to him. But he wanted the ball, too. So, yeah, I think you're going to see more and more and more of this. And yet the guy that didn't get many shots tonight that I think has played a pretty good game, too, was Cash. I guess he got eight. But maybe the key to this game was we finally got in a fistfight and dealt with that. And number two, 10 turnovers in a game like that was pretty good. And that was probably the difference in the game. Q. There's madness and then there's chaos. I'm thinking back to 2000, Iowa State, and how crazy it got. And where this compares with the technical foul on Thomas, he's gone but then they come back, they get 3s. Take us through what's going through your mind? COACH IZZO: Well, you know, I wasn't -- I'm not setting up a birthday party with those guys, that's for sure. I didn't like the way it went. I really didn't. But they probably didn't like the way I was either. So I understand that. But I thought it got so chippy. And just like you said -- and that technical on Josh Langford, I'll go to my grave saying there's no way. Just because I know the kid. There's times I wish he would get one. But at the same time, they made all the 3s. If they didn't, we would have probably had an incredible defensive night. I think they hit like four at the end and give them credit. But this time of year I thought we played well enough for a large stretch of that game that we can build off that. Q. What was the biggest challenge in defending Zach Thomas tonight? COACH IZZO: There really wasn't much of one. We didn't defend him. So I mean it wasn't -- what we were going to try to do is not let him drive left. He did that. Not let him shoot 3s. He did that. And not let him get to the free-throw line since he gets there nine times a game. And he got there 11. So I'd say that in general the coaches did a poor job on the game plan because we didn't take care of the things that we needed to take care of. I was disappointed. But Jaren did a hell of a job on him. And then -- but I don't know how many minutes he played. Sure didn't seem like many. And that hurt us. It hurt us a lot. And normally I'm talking about Jaren. I said he makes some dumb fouls. I didn't feel that way tonight. Q. I'm wondering if you could walk us through when you see Nick take that fall, it looked really scary when it happened live. And then also when he came back in the game with great defense in the post, and kind of what he brought. COACH IZZO: Nick, at times Nick's an interesting guy to coach. But he's grown up so much. And he's so much better of not letting things get to him as much as he used to. Now, he still has his moments. But I've been really, really pleased with Nick Ward, his play. His practices have been off the charts. And those guys are right. We had a good couple of days. We took a little time to kind of bond, and then we went at it from last Thursday on. And I thought that helped Nick a lot. Xavier and Gavin really beat him up and Nick handled it well. And when he stayed within himself, he was great. And it seemed like he got a little excited and all of a sudden started running plays at a different speed. And when that happened, it wasn't as good. But I wasn't worried about him being hurt. Nick's probably my toughest guy on the team. But when he did lay there a little while longer, I don't know, and he jumped up, I don't know if he was just taking a rest or what, because when he jumped up he looked great to me and he wanted to go right back in. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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