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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DETROITMarch 17, 2018Tom IzzoCassius WinstonLourawls Nairn Jr.Miles BridgesDetroit, Michigan THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Michigan State student-athletes Cassius Winston, Lourawls Nairn and Miles Bridges. Questions? Q. Cassius, how do you try to discipline yourself to go for singles? You talked about last night you like to go for home runs. How do you, as the games get bigger, settle for singles or be okay with singles? CASSIUS WINSTON: You've got to keep it in your mind. You've got to focus on that a lot of times. Sometimes you let the game get to you so you think there's something that you can make a play. So if I keep it on the back of my mind and focus on the simple play, then that problem will be fixed. Q. Wondering how the 16 over the 1 upset last night, how much you guys, how much did that impact you? How much you think about that? How much that confirms what we know about this tournament in your guys' minds? LOURAWLS NAIRN JR.: I think it confirms a lot about what goes on in this tournament, just anybody can get beat. And we've just got to focus in and make sure we do all we can to execute our game plan. MILES BRIDGES: I would say that's why they call it March Madness. Every team here is good. You can't take any plays off. Q. I'm dressed like I am today because I'm proud of who I am and where I'm from. Each one of you, what are you guys proud of for who you are, where you're from and about this team? CASSIUS WINSTON: That's a good question. I believe I'm from the greatest city in the world, Detroit. I'm very proud of it and I wouldn't trade that for anything. It's a tough place and there's a lot of love and support; everybody there wants to see you succeed. So I'm very proud of that. And I think this team's the same way. We're all together. We all want to see each other play their very best and see each other succeed. MILES BRIDGES: I'm very proud of where I'm from. I wouldn't be the man I am today if I wasn't from Flint. They instilled a lot of toughness in me. Made me mentally ready for college. LOURAWLS NAIRN JR.: I'm also proud of where I'm from, just being a kid from Nassau, Bahamas, moving to America when I was 13 years old, 10 years ago. Like Miles said, it made me into who I am today, and I wouldn't be the person I am today if I wasn't had been born in the Bahamas. And I think with this team, you have so many players from different places growing up all across America and coming together for one common cause, to be the best we can be every single day and help each other live out each other's dreams. Q. Guys, with such a quick turnaround, how challenging is this Syracuse defense for you guys? MILES BRIDGES: We struggled with zones in the past. But I feel like we move the ball better now and we're more experienced with it. So if we don't let them speed us up, I think we'll be fine. CASSIUS WINSTON: It's a long, probably the longest zone probably we're going to play. So we gotta do a great job of limiting the turnovers. Can't let them get turnovers -- got to keep the ball moving, make smart plays. Q. Miles, can't let them speed you up. Does that mean you have to be patient, not take quick shots, the first shot you see over the zone? MILES BRIDGES: I wouldn't say that. If we have an open shot we have to take it because we're not guaranteed another open shot, because the zone is so long. So we just have to make -- when I say getting sped up, I mean making bad passes or cross-court passes, any of that type of stuff. Q. What do you know about Frank Howard's game so far, the scouting report? What do you have to respect about him? CASSIUS WINSTON: Like I say, he's a big guard for sure. So he's going to be able to create a couple of shots. He's hard going right and he can shoot the ball pretty well, got pretty good range, a good athlete. So, we've got to do a good job of bottling him up, force him against his tendencies, can't let him get any set-up 3s or anything like that. Make every shot tough. Q. Cassius, what is the unique responsibilities for the point guard going up against a zone like this? What is your main priority? CASSIUS WINSTON: Just to make sure our team doesn't get impatient, make sure we're playing with a lot of confidence. It's going to be times a zone like that can be frustrating. So I've got to do a good job of keeping everybody together, keeping our heads together. And we're going to do a good job moving the ball and getting quality shots. Q. Syracuse defense is tight. Anything you're going to do to get out and start aggressive from the beginning? MILES BRIDGES: Yeah, we're just going to try to move the ball around, find open spots, find open shots. Just don't let them settle in the zone, because that's what really helps them. Q. Only one team is smiling on April 2nd, but what's the lesson with what happened for Isaac Haas yesterday and Virginia last night that you carry forward the rest of the tournament? LOURAWLS NAIRN JR.: Oh man, I think the lesson is you can't take any day for granted, man, just even apart from basketball. You just -- if you live to see another day you've got to attack that day with whatever you've got. And I'm praying for Isaac, because him being a senior, his last ride, his last go-around with that team, being a very senior-oriented team. It sucks to see him go down. If you're in this tournament, you've got to be thankful that you're in it and try to survive and advance. So I think, like I said in the beginning, it just helps you to have an appreciation for life in itself. CASSIUS WINSTON: Definitely. Like I was telling Miles the other day, one of these games is going to be our last game of the season. Whether it's the championship game or anything like that. So every opportunity you get to go out there is -- one of those games could be your last, so you've got to tackle that like it's the last chance you have. Q. The bench has been such a strong point for you guys throughout the season. You go into this game against Syracuse where they have three guys that play at least 38 minutes per game. And the Orange have played three games in the last five days. Is the bench a huge X factor for you guys going into this one? MILES BRIDGES: We would like to get into transition, like I said, don't let them set up in that zone because that consumes some of the tiredness. So we just want to move the ball around, get in transition, kind of get them tired or in foul trouble. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. We're joined by Coach Izzo. Coach, an opening statement. COACH IZZO: Excited is the best statement I can give. Excited to be here. It's good to play against our old foe Jim Boeheim. He's back at it. I mean, just doesn't seem to change. His zone is maybe bigger and taller and better than ever. The size that they present is, I think, difficult for everybody. I don't think many teams have shot it very well against them or scored very well against them. And so one of the good things about our team over the years is we were able to play fast or play slow. And hopefully we can speed up the tempo. But they're definitely going to slow it down. And we've got to figure out a way to win whether it's going in a slow-down game and a smashmouth game or whether it's a race-horse game. So I'm looking forward to the challenge. I think our players are. We'll see what happens? THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. With the zone coming up, I know you've got Ben a little bit of time last night. How much bigger can his role be with the defense you're going to face? COACH IZZO: You're right. That's why we got him a little more time because he's pretty solid in the middle of that zone. He really has a high basketball IQ. Xavier playing a little more has really helped because he has a high basketball IQ. So we feel we have different people that we can put in different positions. But the zone is tough, man. I saw some pretty good teams watching all that tape I watched last night that struggled against it. I mean, it's hard to simulate it if you had a week to do it. It's almost impossible when you have a day to do it. That's why he's been so good in the tournament also. Q. Looking back to your games against Boeheim and Syracuse, do you have a favorite memory in those games or one game that stands out above the rest? COACH IZZO: There's been a bunch of them. I remember early on we played at the Garden and must have had 20 turnovers against that zone. I remember the game at the Palace when we were down big and came back and won big. But probably one of the funnier games is, I think in 2003 or 4, I scheduled the world. I thought I was going to have -- I did have a good team, but I lost a great big guy in Erazem Lorbek. And he said to me on the recruiting trail, are you crazy? Because I scheduled the world. And the last game of that preseason schedule was at Syracuse. And he called me a better choice of words than knuckle head; you can figure out what words he used. And sure enough they beat our brains in. I just love what he's done there. It's amazing to me how year after year after year, even years when you don't think they're going to be as good, that defense has been so hard to deal with for a lot of teams. And like last night, it was just a grind-them-out find a way to win. So we've had some great games over the years. We played a couple times in the NCAA Tournament. And my respect and admiration is very high. And so hope we can find a way to solve it. Q. One of the first people you spoke to after your win last night was Dave Bing. I wonder if you can recount your relationship for us? COACH IZZO: I think Dave Bing is a hero for any of us in this state. He definitely was me. I was growing up, he'll probably get mad at this, but I was a little kid, I was looking at Dave Bing. And then the year that we played in the Final Four here, he was the mayor of Detroit, and I thought did a great job, really kind of got things back on track. And he was very supportive when we were here. And I love the fact -- like our Magic Johnson or Steve Smith and ma Mateen Cleaves, he's still here wearing his Syracuse Orange, and came to the Pistons and had incredible years here and remained here in Michigan. So I have tremendous respect. I saw him, I saw D.C. there, but I did get a chance to talk to Dave for a couple of minutes. Q. Last night, after the Syracuse game, Jim Boeheim was talking about the Virginia/UMBC result, and talked about how this tournament will break your heart. You've been through some of these games before as a high seed. What is it like for players and coaches on that side of an upset? COACH IZZO: You know, I watched Tony Bennett last night, and in fact I told our media during the week that, I said, it's going to happen. And part of me almost said, I hope it happens soon because some day, if I'm a 1 seed again, I think that's going to be unbelievable pressure. And that's what we talked about, right, in that one meeting. And the saddest part is we've had a couple times when we beat Tony, our team did -- and if you know Tony Bennett at all, he's the salt-of-the-earth guy. And I thought the class he handled that with in the interviews I saw were spectacular. But like our team a couple years ago with Denzel and them, when you've got a good bunch of guys -- and the way he talked he's got a good bunch of guys, you've got everything going your way. But I've always said in this tournament, you've got to be good enough to be knocking on the door but you've got to get lucky. And does one injury make them unlucky? I don't know, I didn't get a chance to see them that much. But give UMB -- give them credit, you know, they did an unbelievable job in just the highlights I saw. But, yeah, I feel for Tony, because I think his team has been knocking at that door. We beat them twice, I think, by a point or two when they were a high seed. And one year they were a 1 seed, I think in New York, maybe, or I don't know where. But I just -- my hat's off to him, how classy he was about it. The pain of it, kind of depends on the team you have. It's always going to be painful. But if you got really good guys, like I had, that lived, eat and slept to try to move on in this tournament and get beat in the first game, there was nothing like that locker room. All the joyous ones I've been in or all the sad ones I've been in, that one will live with me for the rest of my life because it was a combination of incredible kids that gave me everything they could give me. We shot 58 percent. We shot 50-some percent from the 3. We just got beat by a team that played better than us that night because I think we shot 54, they shot 58, whatever it was. And Middle Tennessee beat us fair and square. There was no luck. I tried to find an official to blame. Couldn't do that. And we just got beat. So I feel for Tony. Q. I asked the players this question and I wanted to ask you this: On Saint Patrick's Day I'm wearing these clothes because I'm proud of who I am and where I'm from. And I wanted to ask you, what are you proud of where you're from, who you are and your team? COACH IZZO: Wow. Well, I'm an Italian guy, so I can celebrate any holiday. I just go that way and I'm a Yooper; I'm proud to be there. And I'm a Michigan State Spartan, I've been there 33 years and I'm pretty proud of that. The green fits with Saint Patrick's Day, being a Spartan. And as far as my heritage, I love Rocky Balboa. I can keep the Italian way. And I guess being a Yooper means a lot of things. But hopefully some day I can put them all together. How is that? Q. You've talked about not being entitled, but your dream was to build Michigan State to an elite level where other schools are at. And I'm not sure if you're aware but there are tickets for tomorrow night going in the secondary market for as much as two grand. What does that tell you about your fan base and the fact you've arrived among the elite in college basketball? COACH IZZO: Well, I will admit that 21 years, I think we'd have to say that we're one of the teams, but it's measured in so many different ways. And it is measured by your fan base, the interest in your program. I think there's no question that the texts and letters I got when they knew we were going to be in Detroit, so more people -- I think a lot of people bought tickets early hoping we'd be here. Unfortunately, the fans don't necessarily win you the game, but they help you win the game at certain times and they have, they did last night. And I don't apologize for that because I've played in some down at Carolina when Duke and North Carolina were there. So everybody has his day in the sun. Kansas did last year when we had to play them in Tulsa. And this happened one other time 18 years ago. But I appreciate our fans. I appreciate -- I love coming down to Detroit. This facility is phenomenal. And the people here have been great. So all those things are good. But still gotta win the game. And I am proud of where this program is at. I think we've come a long way, and yet I think we've got a long way to go to get where I'd like to get. Q. How do you coach Cassius to go for singles? He talked about last night he likes to go for home runs. And your thoughts on Syracuse point guard that you have to go up against, Frank Howard? COACH IZZO: I think Cassius last night, he threw that one lob. I didn't see what happened with Nick. All I saw is I thought it went off the other guy. I was complaining about that. I knew Nick was tough enough. And I don't know, I think he was taking his time down there and maybe he was a little tired. The way he bounced up, I said, Nick, were you faking that or what? And yet it was a tough hit that he took. I mean, if you look at it on film, I guess we were lucky. But then the other one, when he threw it, we kind of had Nick in and Miles coming in -- hey, Cash is Cash, but he's improved so much, so much that I didn't even get upset with him on the lob to those guys. I just felt like he's had 10 assists and two turnovers and done some great things. He's going to have his work cut out for him tomorrow, though, because Howard is a very good -- he's big. He's athletic. This will be a great test for Cassius. And we're going to have to guard him with multiple guys, and hopefully we can keep him in front of us. I think that will be the big key to the game. Q. I know I read earlier in the year that you wanted your team to be more physical. How would you assess kind of where they're at now, because they certainly look like they found the weight room? COACH IZZO: Last night was a night when I thought that game got a little crazy, a little chippy. And it bothered me for a while. And then I just said in the huddle, maybe we need this. It's about time we -- we're not as physical as most of my teams. We're physically strong. We don't always play as physical. And last night -- and Miles was a big part of that -- I think he did a great job of being more aggressive and assertive. And I think everybody else kind of followed around him. But we'll see, because there's some trees we're going to play against tomorrow. It is the biggest team -- I sat behind the bench for a while, and I sure as hell wouldn't want to coach that team. I'd be looking up all day long. I'd probably have a broken neck by the time the game was over. I've never seen such size. But we're also looking forward to it. Q. What was Josh doing last night that allowed him to have such a big game? And what kind of growth have you seen from him over this season? COACH IZZO: You know, Josh went from a great offensive player to a phenomenal defensive player, and I think last week, that week off we had -- we talked about, he's such a good mid-range shooter, but when he does, he's always kind of kicking his feet and off balance. So we really worked hard on getting him to be straight up and down and get him to look for those 3s a little bit more. He's a good shooter, but if you're not thinking 3s, if you're always thinking driving, you've got to think shot first and drive second, if you ask me. And I think that's what he did a better job; he looked so much more comfortable and yet he did an unbelievable job defensively. I mean, that was the first night when I recruited him I thought he could be the next Gary Harris. And last night was the first night when I saw it on both ends. He was very good defensively, very good offensively. And Josh is going to be a hell of a player. He's coming along great. He's improved a lot since the beginning of the year, more defensively than offensively. And now he's starting to catch up with his offense. And it couldn't come at a better time. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the differences between Syracuse's zone versus Duke's that you faced earlier? And what you saw in the ball movement yesterday that could help or needs to be a little different against the zone? COACH IZZO: Syracuse's zone is different than anybody's in the world. Duke plays a pretty good zone. But I think Mike would be the first to admit that that's not his normal defense. I mean, Jim doesn't come out of a zone no matter what. He's played more zone defense than I've played man. And we play a lot of man. So it's a system. It's a culture there, to be honest with you. I mean, you go there and you just you're going to fit into that culture. He recruits to it. He believes in it. He sells it. And he does a hell of a job coaching it. And so it's something that most people don't see. It's a little wider. I think Mike, because he has some size and because Jim coached with him on the Olympic team -- Jim didn't talk him into doing that with the Olympic team, but maybe he kind of talked him into showing him some of the things, because there's some similarities. Syracuse lives, eats and sleeps it. And that's all they play, and they play it very well. Q. You've signed this sophomore group. Everybody thinks it's the best you've ever had. What went through your head when Josh knocks down 15 in the first half, Bridges gets 19 in the second half, Cassius gets 10 assists? What went through your head? COACH IZZO: In all honesty, Nick doesn't get enough credit but he started it out where he hit, I think, three out of the first four baskets. So every one of those guys came through in some ways. The only guy that maybe didn't that next year was Jaren. We just couldn't keep him on the floor long enough. But, yeah, that's what you hope would come. And yet it's not always easy when you have four or five guys like that. Thank God they're all unselfish and they're all ego-less, but there's still only one ball. So sometimes that's when Miles has a problem. He will defer because he believes in those other guys and that's kind of a neat problem to have. But it was good to see that. I think last time I saw something like that was out at the tournament we were at in Portland, the Nike tournament, where we had three different leading scorers and Miles wasn't one of them. And I think that's the kind of team we have. But I think Miles is starting to realize that he's got to be that go-to guy, and we have to go to him when games are on the line. The one thing that has been pretty good for us is we've played in a lot of close games that upset some people but it probably makes us more tournament-ready, I hope. Q. Last year when the season ended I know you were really excited about having more big bodies coming in -- Kenny Goins is guarding guys last year twice the size. Going against the tallest team in the NCAA, how much do you think that that front line and the depth of that front line can really sway things to help you here? COACH IZZO: Well, I hope I can. Normally you try to get people in foul trouble, but with the zone they play, this team has not been in foul trouble that often. But just having different bodies to throw in there. I mean, last year it was Kenny. Sometimes it was a walk-on, 6'5". And that wouldn't fare too well here, as it didn't against Purdue in our league. So we have the weapons but the ball's still got to go in the basket. That's the way this game was meant to be played. So you still have to be able to make shots. And making shots against that size and making shots against that zone is more difficult than maybe some other ways. You don't just get to attack it inside before it's all over. They make great adjustments. Jim's done a great job. If you try to get it in the middle more, he makes adjustments. If you try to beat it from the outside, he makes adjustments. If you're trying to go inside, they make adjustments. So I think they played it so much and they know it so well that there's a lot of adjustments they make. So we've got to be kind of solid in all areas to beat them. Q. You mentioned Gary Harris. I'm sure Josh has that kind of goal after Michigan State. You mentioned last fall, I remember him dealing with expectations, both that you guys had as a staff and him for himself and maybe some other places. How has he navigated all that this year? COACH IZZO: You know, I think he's done a great job. I mean, once in a while if you watch Josh's facial language, I think it's kind of like Jaren's at times. Josh came in with Miles, and both of them kind of McDonald's All-Americans. And Miles and them, they're best friends. But there's been a little bit of separation between the two. I think he had to learn how to deal with that and realize that there's a process, and the process takes longer for different people. It doesn't mean Josh has started here two years -- and trust me when I say he's made great progress. I mean, he's defending about as well as anybody I've had since Gary. And that's going to benefit us and benefit him. But now he's starting to find his offense. And I think it's difficult when expectations are so high for yourself and your team and that fine line of being selfish enough to be successful and not too selfish so that you become a problem. And he's -- I think he's done a great job. And I think the reason he's done a great job is the chemistry. Everybody knows that Miles and he and Tum are like brothers, sometimes like three stooges, but they're all together and that's important. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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