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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DES MOINES

March 20, 2019

Des Moines, Iowa

THE MODERATOR: We welcome student-athletes from Michigan State, Cassius Winston and Matt McQuaid. Questions for our student-athletes?

Q. Matt, you came here four years ago a skinny kid who can could shoot the ball and basically all we thought you could shoot ball and now you're one of the most feared defenders in the Big Ten. Every time you put on that uniform now it could be your last. What's going through your head? Describe your feelings?
MATT McQUAID: I definitely have more of a sense of urgency, you know? I love playing with this group. I love my teammates. They're like my brothers, you know, close group. I'm going into every day trying to cherish every minute, every second I have with these guys and just taking it one day at a time.

Q. You guys getting Bradley as a 15-seed. What have you seen on film in the last couple of days of the way they play?
MATT McQUAID: They got a lot of really good shooters, and they're solid in the paint. They run their offense really well. They even get out in transition. They've got a lot of tough match-ups and run their offense really well.

CASSIUS WINSTON: Like Matt said, they're a solid team. They don't have a lot of flaws, good guard play, good inside play. So this is a really good team and we've got to play to the best of our abilities to beat 'em.

Q. Bradley is a team that was down 18 in their conference tournament and battled back to win. How do you deal with a team that doesn't go away even if they're down?
MATT McQUAID: They're definitely a relentless team. They finished their conference strong. We just gotta be ready and come out with a sense of urgency, knowing they're not going to quit the whole game and staying on our toes until the end of forty minutes is up.

CASSIUS WINSTON: Definitely. They're going to play their best, you know? They're going to fight the whole time and we gotta be ready, you know? We can't be lackadaisical, anything like that. We've got to come out and play with energy and come out and play with heart.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen.

We would like to welcome Michigan State head Coach, Tom Izzo. Coach, welcome to Des Moines.

TOM IZZO: You made it sound impressive. I wish I felt that way. Thanks for having us. It's been great so far. We got in yesterday and looking forward to the game. Bradley, any team that starts out 0-5 in the league and finds a way to win 10 out of 12, win their tournament, beat a team that was in a Final Four last year and had a lot of players back in Loyola, got guards that can shoot it. Brown and Kennell can shoot it from long range and that's always the worry against a lower seed against a higher seed is a three-point shot. I've seen nights where they've made a ton of them from long, long rage, we're going to have to do a good job of defending that. They want to run. We want to run. We're adjusting without Kyle. He was 18, 20 minutes a game, and he will be not with us. He's with us, but dragging a damn boot around instead of tennis shoes. So just the way it is.

I think, in general, when you get to this time of year, I know from my career every team is here for a reason, because they have had some type of success and the excitement of getting into a NCAA Tournament will make teams better. I know it will do that to our team and I'm sure it will do that to their team.

Q. Tom, in 2007 you brought your team to Peoria to play against Bradley. The all-time attendance record in that game for Carver Arena, which still stands. What do you remember about that night? It was a close ball game. What do you remember about it?
TOM IZZO: I told Jimmy how stupid I was. Why would I come there to do that? You know, and I don't mean that insultingly, I mean I know what kind of team they were. I remember going to a luncheon that day and there were 400 or 500 people at the luncheon, and I was like, God, what did I get my hands into. It was a great atmosphere. Peoria has had great basketball for 100 years it seems like. I remember when it was stocked with high school players, kind of like our Flint. There has been some fall off maybe because of companies leaving and going and staying, but it's always been great.

My college coach and Stan Albeck who was at Northern Michigan I used to hear about Bradley forever back in those days. Rabid fans, great city, and Brian has done a very good job with this team. You know, I think they're building it back to where it needs to be.

Q. This is a little bit of a homecoming for Jack Hoiberg, and I know he's in the locker room. What has he been like for the guys in the locker room even though he's only been there a couple of years now?
TOM IZZO: I love Jack Hoiberg. I was a walk-on in college and things turned out for me okay at a Division II school. Different level, but it looked like Jack was going to go play golf. But I don't know what made Fred, his mom Carol, come over and I think there were a couple of guys on his staff at Michigan State and he came over and wanted to be a walk-on. I hope it was a great thing for him, but if you know Jack Hoiberg at all, as a worker, as a student, he's making himself as a player. Like a lot of guys, he is too small for this, too slow for that. He has been one of the best scout team players we've had. We talked about it and redshirted him for the first year and I think he's a kid I questioned whether he could play at this level early on. I told his dad a couple of years ago I think he can play at this level. And what's he like in the locker room? Last year he got along with everybody and those were the super stars. This year I don't have as many super stars, but he gets along with everybody again. I think it's his background, his mom, his dad, and his homecoming. He said he has a bunch of people coming. I couldn't be more honored to coach a kid that does it in the classroom, on the court and off court and with the work ethic he's done it with. Jack is a special player. I bet you if you asked our players they wouldn't say we don't like Jack Hoiberg, we love Jack Hoiberg.

Q. Coach, when you started this annual March habit in this event, I think it's '98 at Eastern Michigan and Princeton?
TOM IZZO: Good memory!

Q. I looked it up.
TOM IZZO: Good honesty! With a bad memory! (Laughter.)

Q. I have a really good memory, but I looked it up. I want to know what you remember from just this point, the day before, maybe, or the week before that and maybe how you might critique that coach?
TOM IZZO: That was a weird year, you know? The year started 5-4. We had gotten beat by I think Central Michigan and U of D, and I think they were talking about firing me seriously and then we went on a run and won the next 18 of 22 and it was my first NCAA Tournament as a head coach and we played Eastern Michigan and they were really good. We won that and had to play Princeton and we started kind of what I do now, 20-minute segments, get up, 20 minute segments on Princeton, have breakfast, another 20 minutes on Princeton. I understood the attention span, and that was pre-Twitter. Now we have four-minute meetings, and it's changed a little bit since Twitter has evolved.

But we found a way to beat them and that first memory I have about that weekend is right before the end of the half. Princeton was notorious for backdoor plays and we ran one on them and found a way to beat them and then went down and North Carolina took care of us. It was great start and I think anytime your first game in this tournament, although sometimes it still feels like my first game in the tournament, I just have a better idea of how to get the hotel and the tickets and everything. But the excitement of the tournament, I don't think it's ever changed for me. I love March. I love the tournament. I love the way it goes. I love playing in games and I love watching other games. I don't know what the second half of that was, but the first half was I got a lot of memories of that and I don't have to look 'em up. But I appreciate them still to this day, 22 years later.

Q. Kind of following up on that a little bit, to what extent do you do the job of telling some of your kids in the program who are about to experience this one and done atmosphere for the first time. What part do you play in helping to explain to them what it's like versus how much you rely on veteran players to tell their teammates that from a player perspective?
TOM IZZO: I'm starting to realize more and more, you know, as we all get older, we're in this weird profession where our clientele are always 17 to 22. So I think it helps to have other people telling them, you know? I've been blessed at our place. We've been at one and done mode for about three weeks now, when you think about it. We had to win so many games to win the Big Ten Can championship, and then Magic coming back to Steve Smith, and I would always ask them to talk to our guys. Then I would ask the Tum Tums, Jaren Jacksons, and Myles did a good job calling guys and telling them how to deal with those pressures. Then you get in the Big Ten tournament and you've got to win 3 and I think we have more practice now of being one and done and we haven't experienced what it means to lose and that's a good thing. But I try to tell my freshmen there are different pressures, the "my bads" go out the door because one "my bad" and we're going home.

So I try to explain it, but that's where Matt McQuaid and Kenny Goines are really helpful because he's been in the Final Four, and I think our guys know what's at stake.

Q. Tom, I wanted to ask you about the merits and the pitfalls of winning the conference tournament going into this because your teams have done it both ways. I'm wondering if winning the conference tournament can make guys maybe a little complacent or overconfident going into the first couple of rounds or whether maybe losing in a conference tournament can scare your team in a productive way?
TOM IZZO: Coaches are great creatures of habit and if we lose I'm going to say that damn conference tournament and if we win I'm going to say that real good conference tournament gave us a boost. You've got to have an excuse if you're a head coach, so I play it both ways. But what I really believe, this is new territory for me. Ninety percent of the tournament games I think we played on Friday, 90% of the 22 games, I believe we have. I'm not proactive. We picked a year where we're on a Thursday and we won the conference tournament. Is that harder? Of course it's harder, but it also, there is momentum that you gain from that, you know? The one thing I don't have, and I really don't worry about it much in my program. We play such a good schedule every year I've been there and usually we get the brains beat out of us by a couple of people. So that big ego, thinking we're better than we are, you know, Indiana who didn't make the tournament beat us twice. So we're not very cocky in that respect, but I think when you do win you do get a little confidence. I think because of the players that come back and explain to the guys what it is like. A lot of writers three years ago who got beat by Middle Tennessee thought we looked past them. We shot 50% from the field and 50% from the three. They just shot above us. They just played better than us. We got in foul trouble. We had an injury in that game to Kenny Goines, the match-up. They just beat us, and there wasn't been many times I've worried about us looking past the team or thinking we are better than somebody because that's something I try to do every single day of my life. Never forget where I came from and never forget those tragic losses, but never forget those exhilarating wins either. It's just all part of the deal. I don't believe we are going to be looking past anybody. I worry about fatigue because of the injuries and playing Sunday night and getting home at 11:30 and all the things we went through. But cocky or too confident, or go the other way, as you say, man, they came to this program to try to win a championship. They signed up for that the day they signed up and the goals and the rules have never changed. When we're down and out they don't change, and when we are really good they don't change. When we are not so good they don't change. This year's team has been consistent, if you look at our offense and defense, and hopefully that will carry us through here and win a game tomorrow.

Q. Off track here, but Iowa State is just down the road, and they're going to play an Ohio State team you're familiar with. What should people around here expect from that team?
TOM IZZO: Ohio State is a very good team. They had Wesson out for a while and early injuries, but Wesson is a monster. He got in foul trouble, he's 6'10", two whatever, but their guards are starting to play a little bit better. They had a fifth year kid in there. They're athletic. They guard pretty well. Chris is a very, very good coach. So I think it will be an hell of a match-up because I've got a chance to see Iowa State on TV and Shayok was hurt for a little while and he came back and he made a difference. So they both lost guys and got 'em back. So it should be a heck of a game. Where is that game played at?

Q. Tulsa?
TOM IZZO: Tulsa? It will be a good game.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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