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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: WASHINGTON D.C.

March 31, 2019

Washington D.C.

Michigan State - 68, Duke - 67

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo and student-athletes Cassius Winston, Kenny Goins, Matt McQuaid and Xavier Tillman. Coach, an opening statement?

COACH IZZO: I can't tell you how proud I am of these guys for what they've gone through and how they've handled it. And even the prep yesterday, this morning.

It doesn't hurt when the Magic man came in and gave them a little pointers, and I just stayed on the side.

But I also want to say that had to be a crushing loss for Duke. They had such an incredible year with the injuries, at the end it's tough. But I told my team, the way that Mike Krzyzewski and his players handled it was so classy, I was almost -- not embarrassed, but I said I had to really look at how I make sure my team handles losses. I think we do a decent job, but that was off-the-charts classy.

So big win for us. I can't tell you how many times in those huddles they didn't quit. They didn't give in. And I say we might not be as physically as tough as some teams I've had, but I think mentally we might be tougher than any team I've had. And that's a big credit to the guys next to me and the guys in the locker room.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Cassius, could you just describe what the emotion was like for you as you were dribbling away from Barrett and Zion and you kind of know you were going to end the game that way?
CASSIUS WINSTON: It was shocking. I knew I was going to get fouled. I was preparing my mind to knock down some free throws and stuff. But I got the ball and got away. And I was, like, I'm like about to dribble it out, and this is really happening. It was crazy. It was a crazy moment.

Q. Kenny, on that 3-pointer you hit late, Duke had done a great job tightening the window on you all day. When that one came open, how did you get open so clearly? And tell me about how it got drawn up and as you saw it go through the rim. Take me through the whole process.
KENNY GOINS: Coach did a great job. We ran it earlier didn't work. Went back to it. Coach was like, it's going to be open. This guy next to me has been making my job easy all year, finding me when I was open.

As soon as it left my hand I knew it was good. I was kind of planning my celebration already, but I knew I had to get back on defense.

Q. Kenny or Xavier, what was the game plan to stop the entry passes to Zion on the block?
XAVIER TILLMAN: To try not to let them get it. You could say --

Q. Was there, like --
COACH IZZO: That sounds complicated.

Q. Just what was the strategy for defending Zion down in the paint?
XAVIER TILLMAN: Just not to let him do his tendency. He's a heavy right-shoulder guy. So just try to limit him from going right shoulder as much as we could, to make his touches tough, and not to give up any lobs either.

Q. Matt, your first take, you looked like you could have banged it. Second one, you definitely did. Third one got the crazy circus shot. Just tell me what those three plays were like for you?
MATT MCQUAID: It was the basketball gods, I guess. I don't know what got into me. Yeah, I just, the first time I went up it was kind of soft. Second time I was like, I have to go up strong. I decided to cock it back and dunk it and executed it.

And the second one, I just drove baseline and then I just adjusted my body to avoid getting my shot block and threw it up. And basketball gods did me good.

Q. Cassius, before the game, talking with Coach K, he said that you were not only the best guard in the Big Ten but the best guard in America. I'm curious about that. And then tonight after the game, he talked about with this team, the way they're playing, with you leading them, certainly with a great chance in Minneapolis. For you, it's been a road that you've been given nothing; you've earned everything. What does it mean to not only get the praise from your fans and Coach Izzo but from a fellow hall of famer in Mike Krzyzewski?
CASSIUS WINSTON: It's just an honor. Like you said, nothing was given; everything was earned. Just working hard, constantly getting better and better. This guy right here trusting me. These guys right here trusting me to do what I do for the team.

I think I took 20-some shots today; they didn't say a word. They encouraged me just to keep going, keep doing what I do best for this team. It's just an amazing environment for me.

Q. Cassius, I was wondering what Magic's message was, or at least what your takeaways were from Magic's message prior to the game?
CASSIUS WINSTON: He was big. He just talked about the things we had to do, get out in transition, boxing out early, all type of things that help us win these games. He talked about their run and some similarities they had in the same situation.

We were a faster team. We maybe were a smarter team tonight. We executed our game plan in the best way. Like I said, they were a good team too. It was a battle the whole night. And at the end we made some winning plays. That's what it's all about at this point of the year.

Q. Kenny, you struggled from distance in DC this weekend. So coming out of that timeout, you know the ball's going to be in your hands, and the way it played out Zion, who can jump out of the gym, was bearing down on you. Where are you at mentally before that shot? And can you just describe the elation?
KENNY GOINS: Yeah, just all weekend, all last weekend, just all season, really, my teammates, my coaches have been doing a great job of keeping me confident, telling me to keep shooting, next one is going down, stuff like that. When Cassius has got the ball, you always have to be ready to shoot. I was sitting there ready. I was kind of measuring up how high Zion could jump since he got the last one.

Q. Kenny and Matt, you've been through a lot of these battles. How do you draw on your experience against a team that's young, very talented obviously but young, in a crucial situation like that?
KENNY GOINS: I think it goes to the testament to our entire team, our maturity and our experience because we've been through battles like this before and we've lost a couple like this too. Just learning through experiences like that. And even past years to take it into this game and make the winning plays like Cassius said at the end.

MATT MCQUAID: They're a great team, great players and they're well-coached. That was a tough team to play. Like Kenny said, we do have a lot of experience and we've been through a lot of adversity also. I feel it's helped us on and off the court. We're a close group and well-connected. Knowing we'll have each other's backs out there helps.

Q. Coach as a tough coach you stay on your guys, but you clap them up a lot too. Talk about mixing criticism with support and could the players follow that up too?
COACH IZZO: That's what we do. They say we're a family. And you're family, you've got to push people and you've got to compliment people. It's kind of sad that certain things happen and nobody sees 95% of what goes on. And in that 95% of what goes on, there's a lot more pulling and hugging than pushing. And I really believe that. And I have for years.

And these guys have been awesome. I guess they take what I give them, but I take what they give me, too. Once in a while I said you guys have meetings and say "those damn coaches." Well, we have meetings every day and say "those damn players." It's a mutual love affair here.

But I'm so proud of them. And I'm so proud that they persevered. I heard Rudy Tomjanovich -- I went down, one of my former assistants was at Houston when they won two, and he talked about having the heart of a lion. And the heart of a lion is what they have.

I'm telling you, the mental toughness, even when we were down 30-21, there was no panic in the huddle. We just said, we didn't do some things right. We quit rebounding and getting the ball inside. We turned it around.

And Cash has a lot to do with it. He stirs the drink in a lot of different ways. But tonight he had a couple steals. If he starts playing defense I'm going to start to get scared. He did a great job in a lot of ways.

You asked the question about Kenny and Xavier and Nick, they did a good job battling Zion down there. I mean, that kid is worth everything they say about him and then more.

CASSIUS WINSTON: You know, like Coach said, people just, sometimes they only see the yelling, they see the screaming, you know what I'm saying? They don't see how much he cares for us, how much he's there for us, how much he's pulling for us, rooting for us, on the same guy, giving that emotion when it's time to win games. It's all out of emotion and out of love and all out of care. And that's all it is. That's our relationship.

When you care for somebody so much and they mess up, of course you're going to get mad at them and yell at them. But we do a good job of responding, you know what I'm saying? He got after Kenny a lot this game; tell him, when are you going to hit a shot? When you are you going to hit a shot?

Kenny said I'm going to hit the next one, I'm going to hit a next one. And that's what he did.

It's all love and caring and he pushes us to be the best we can be.

Q. When somebody like Magic comes to talk to you, I'm sure the obvious thing that you take from that is the legacy of somebody like that and what he's accomplished at Michigan State coming to help you guys. Have you thought about the legacy that you're creating at this point and what it would mean to your guys' legacy to finish this job off in Minneapolis?
CASSIUS WINSTON: Yeah, it's not just Magic. There's a lot of guys that came back. Mateen was here, Charlie Bell was here. Like I said, that Spartan legacy and family, it goes back years and years and years. And they're still pushing for us, still supporting us.

And we hope to do the same thing, you know what I'm saying? We hope to leave our mark. And one day we're going to come back and tell the young guys, this is what it takes to get to this point now that we've got there. But we can come back and give these guys and give them advice and all types of things like that.

It's a big deal seeing just those guys and seeing what the program means to them and have that same feeling that years and years from now, we'll come back and maybe do that same thing.

Q. Matt, I think there are just two players that have played under Tom Izzo, stayed all four years who haven't made it to the Final Four. You were in jeopardy of being the third. What are the emotion and what does it mean to cap your senior season with a trip to the Final Four?
MATT MCQUAID: All my focus was on doing the best job I could to help this team win. I wasn't thinking of that. I love this team. This is a special team. We've got a special group. We've got a great coach.

And making a lot of memories this year. And hopefully we can make some more. We've got a great opportunity.

Q. Cassius, you had four steals tonight. You guys turned them over 17 times. What was the approach defensively this evening? What keyed it, and you guys were able to score out of those turnovers -- 24 points off turnovers?
CASSIUS WINSTON: Wow. It was big, just me being in those gaps, taking away driving angles. That's a big team; they do a good job getting to the basket, especially -- they've got their tendencies; they go strong left or strong right.

I was roaming a little bit. Tre Jones didn't really take any 3-pointers or anything like that. So it was a little bit easier to roam in there and stay in those gaps, be on the help side off the lob and things. I was just in the right moments, quick hands, making plays that way.

Q. Xavier, it looked like on video on that pass to Cassius at the last play of the game that you gave him a wink and a nod. Could you take us through that?
XAVIER TILLMAN: I kind of told him I saw the way Tre was guarding him and I was, like, I'm just going to throw it up court because nobody's expecting us to go up court. So, I was like, okay, you go that way. I told Kenny, you go that way, Cash go that way. And then I smacked the ball. I tried to fake it and Cash got open.

I thought he was going to get fouled. When he didn't get fouled I was ecstatic.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.

Q. College basketball is a cutthroat world and Mike Krzyzewski sitting in your seat said although he's disappointed for his team he's happy for you. And a lot of times in the game of college basketball the camaraderie of the friendships, because it's such a small group at you and his level, doesn't get discussed, can you talk about that?
COACH IZZO: First of all, I'm not at his level yet. When you look at the championships he's won, the number of games he's won. But I am in his arena sort of. And I'm telling you, I was moved by how -- I think I would have been crushed, I think I would have given him credit, I think I would have gave him a hug and wished him luck. But the way he was and the way his players were, it made me feel good about my profession again because I've had some question marks in the last couple of years.

But, listen, nobody does it better. And the reason they don't do it better is because if you look at it athletically, academically, socially, if you look at consistency, it's just year after year. And yet I say it's what keeps me driving.

I've always got some goal that I haven't reached yet. And probably never going to reach some of them. They always say that everybody's looking for perfection and you're never going to get it. I'm never going to get some of those goals but it's fun to see someone who has done it with the class he's done it in, and then to try to achieve some similar things.

Q. From the outside looking in, this might look like a 32-6 Michigan State team, a No. 2 seed, and eighth Final Four. But on the inside, I think you might agree, there were more obstacles for this run than any of your other Final Fours. Would you agree with that? Can you elaborate on that? And for that reason where does this rank in terms of the satisfaction level?
COACH IZZO: I said, you know, my only other time -- let's get something else straight, as long as we're starting to put me on somewhat of the same planet. We're 2-11 now. We just doubled our win total against Duke. We're 2-11. But I'd say the last time, when it was Kentucky and Duke, when we had a pretty good team, but we were a 5 seed, it was pretty good in Austin.

But this one, when you look at what the players have been through, when you look at how good Duke is -- and yet, I can understand what it's like to get Zion back and an injury, and then they also, you know, it was hard because you get an injury to Reddish. He doesn't play a game. If you remember, I think it was '13 or '14, we had Gary Harris and that group; we had a bunch of players, Adreian Payne and Branden Dawson get hurt.

We were really good at the end of the year. We played really good, yet we are weren't on the same page on everything and got beat by UConn. And I thought that was one of my best teams.

So I can't tell you how enjoyable it is, because I know what these guys have been through. A lot of people think they know what they've been through. But there is something about being in those meetings. And I think the greatest meeting I had in 10 years was when Nick went down, and I called everybody in at 7:30 the next morning. And I just said, we've got to meet and go over the situation and we're not going to change our goals.

I mean, they really bought in. I told our own media that it was a meeting that I don't know if I was trying to pump them up or myself up because I was down about it. But it was one that they adhered to. And they wanted to be coached. They wanted to be pushed. And they were and they are and my staff did a great job and so did the guys.

Q. I wanted to get back to this game specifically. You won this game shooting six free throws. Xavier Tillman made two. Could you talk about the flow of this game when in terms of what you thought you were going to do to win it versus what you did?
COACH IZZO: Great question. Number one, I said let's get to the free throw line first. I think we got there first, and my second best shooter missed two. And then Cash missed one. That's kind of un-American. He's a great free throw shooter. So we didn't do a very good job there.

I said, we've got to outrebound them. The first 10 minutes I thought we did a phenomenal job on the boards, very good job on the offensive boards. But then they took over.

But then the third one was maybe as big as any of them. We said, we can't turn the ball over. You turn the ball over. You turn the ball over and you get an open court, and Zion is just flying and they've got shooters and Tre is such a good distributor.

To have seven turnovers against a team like that and turn them over 17 times, I thought was the difference in the game. We didn't shoot it great. We didn't rebound great. But, boy, we did do a good job with the turnovers. And we did a decent job keeping Zion off the boards.

When they put them in the post, that was tough sledding. We had to make a couple of adjustments on some switching we did. Players made good adjustments on the run, too, and that was big.

Q. Yesterday you said to be the best you have to beat the best. Now that it has happened, you're beating the number one overall seed, this talented team, does it make any sweeter based on this exact team that you played?
COACH IZZO: Well, I mean, listen, when you're Duke, everybody that beats Duke is, you know, ready to put that on the wall because that's the program he's built. And that's what I'm hoping to still build. I mean, the respect everybody has for Duke is why it's a big game.

But I do think we beat arguably the best team in the country. But there's another game coming up. There were a lot of teams and some pretty good upsets in this tournament, not early, but later on.

And you know now what I've got to do is refocus. We've been there. It's the eighth Final Four. But we've only won one. I have to reassess how I handle it, what I do. And that's what I told my players; we're going to look at this -- my dream came true tonight on the floor, because Cassius' mother said -- I said, how about that -- and she said, that's not good enough. We've got two more.

I looked at her and I said, a woman of my heart. I just absolutely loved it. I said thank you. Thank you. I'm going to make sure I let your son and all the other players know exactly what you said.

So it's going to be grind city again. And we've got to figure out how we do things a little different because there's some good teams up there, and not get enamored with this win even though this is a big win for us and our program.

Q. You mentioned, maybe a little gallows humor the last couple days, about your record against Mike Krzyzewski. How much does the win to you today? And over the years have you been able to distance yourself from what that record is and put a little more focus on the players and not so much about you?
COACH IZZO: I put a lot of focus on the players, not about me, but the record is the players and me. Listen, there's a lot of teams that I've had a lot of success against, our program, our teams, and there's some that I haven't. And there's a reason. They've been good.

And so 2-11 doesn't make me sleep any better. Probably at the end of the year, but I'm going to sleep better tonight because that second win, that 50 percent of the wins I had sends us to the Final Four. And I guess in my own way that first one I had sent us to a Final Four, too.

What Cassius was alluding to is we had a lot of players from that team. Our video people made a highlight film. And they all sent -- I guess the only good thing about Twitter -- they all sent in some things through the social media. And they put a nice tape together. And it was all talking about those games back in Austin and how they led us to a Final Four. And now I guess I gotta get my only championship team and Magic's team to figure out how you win one again. And that's what we're going to try to do.

Q. Final Four being played in the U.S. Bank Minneapolis Stadium. Tonight it was 20,000 fans. Next week it's going to be a lot more. How do you prepare your team for that insane environment?
COACH IZZO: I thank my former athletic director, Mark Hollis, because he had us playing everywhere from on ships to in Germany, playing in Ford Field in front of the biggest crowd against Kentucky that ever witnessed a game at that point in time.

So I've been in some of these in those big arenas. And they're eerie when you're practicing in them. There's nobody in there but you. Felt like a guy that was walking down in the basement when I was a kid, there were like ghosts around there in this empty place. But when it's filled, there's nothing better. And for me, Detroit was unbelievable. We had 30, 40,000 at the practice. And that was special. And I'm a cold-weather guy. I don't really care about golfing this year time of year, so I'm going to enjoy Minneapolis, too.

Q. The Final Four is kind of the continuation of what we've seen the last few years where you have veteran teams and not the one-and-done-type teams -- Kentucky and Duke both lost today. What does it say about the value of experience maybe over pure talent and potential?
COACH IZZO: Well, I think Jay Wright at Villanova set the standard for that. If you really look back from when we won it 20 years ago, and Gary Williams, there were a lot of veteran teams.

Mike, when he had Battier and all those guys, I think there's a lot of veteran teams that have -- Mike did it in '10. Some guys have done it with less. I think Cal did it in whatever year that was. And I think Mike did it in '15.

But experience matters. It really does. And it's amazing what all his freshmen did. My freshmen tonight played so well the other night -- they were deer in the headlights.

We were coming out of huddles, and one was supposed to zig right and go left and he zigged left and went right. He said, My bad. I said, no, I don't like that my bad stuff.

Guys, freshmen, it's hard to be in these environments. No matter who you play during the year, there's something about experience. That's what I noticed in my huddles. The Kennys, the Quaidos and the Cassiuses, they were pretty calm, they were a little better at that than I am.

Q. How do you feel about -- you've seen a lot of changes in the game over the years. How do you feel about the newest one, the NBA-tization of the game, five out, playing four littles, one big now, a lot of spacing, predicated on 3-point shooting, hard ball screens, all that kind of stuff, how do you feel about the college game trending in that direction?
COACH IZZO: We all copy -- we do copy. Ball screens have been something that goes to the NBA icing down things. Whatever the NBA does we copy.

I still think there's room for big men. I talked to some guys in the NBA. And I've talked to some friends of mine that are coaching, and I don't think we're ready to give up on them.

Nick Ward was a very valuable part of today's thing even though he wore down and some things because of the hand. But he made some big plays. And we could get it in there. He could score it, where our other guys didn't do as good a job of that. I think we should be able to do a better job of being able to do both. But I'll play it whatever way the rules go and I'll adjust. That's kind of what we've got to do. I hope we don't forget about the big men. Sometimes, those guys protect me once in a while.

Q. Someone had the stat a few moments ago that almost all your seniors went to at least one Final Four. What does that mean to you as you hear that number as you hear that in your head, what it speaks to the consistency of your program over the years?
COACH IZZO: That probably is what I'm proudest of is the consistency. I told Mike that about his. But it was Gary Harrison and Adreian Payne, two guys I love to death. And we had a really good team. We had a bunch of injuries during the year, and we were up nine on UConn and lost and that was -- they went on to win it. But that broke the streak. And Jim Nantz said to me last night, yeah, but every senior that has stayed there has at least been in an Elite Eight. And I don't know, just didn't sound as sexy to me. It was great. But it just didn't sound as thrilling to me.

And yet when I look back on it I'm proud of that, too. I've had so many good assistants and so many good players that grind it. We usually don't get the top of the top. And we had a couple. And I love that, too. But these guys have just kind of earned their way. They weren't given anything. They earned their way, and that's what I think veterans do. I talked to Jay Wright a lot about it a couple of years ago. And that theory about getting old -- I don't want to get old but it's nice when my players do.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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