	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL FOUR

April 4, 2019

Tom Izzo

Minneapolis, Minnesota

THE MODERATOR: I'm joined by the head coach of Michigan State, Coach Tom Izzo.

TOM IZZO: Wow, what a beautiful facility. I think we're as excited as anybody to be here. Facility is great. Minneapolis is great. I like a little bit of cold weather, and yet I heard it's supposed to be real nice over the weekend.

We feel fortunate to be here, and yet we think we've earned our way to be here.

Texas Tech is a -- we kind of clone each other in some ways, and yet I think Chris has done a great job with his team. We're both disciples with Bob Knight and Jud Heathcote. Those two guys were best friends. Chris and I are getting to know each other. But great respect for what he's done and how he's done it and, of course, for a couple of his players that are of the elite nature.

Yet I'm really proud of what my team has accomplished, meaning the way we've reinvented ourselves a few times and kind of stuck to the task and found a way to get to a Final Four. No better thrill than this.

Q. Coach, Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins is going to be here this weekend cheering you guys on. Wondering what your relationship was with Kirk when he was at Michigan State. What's your relationship with him now? Has he ever addressed the team? How big of a Spartan fan is he?
TOM IZZO: Oh, he's a big Spartan fan, you know. I actually did talk to him two days ago. Hopefully, he's going to come by tomorrow and talk to the team a little bit. I had the privilege of going and playing Augusta with Kirk a couple years ago.

There's a great relationship of Michigan State football and basketball. To the day I die, I think his speech at the opening of college football for the Big Ten at the Big Ten Media Day is one of the great all-time speeches I've heard. I've got it on tape.

So I know Kirk pretty well, and yet I believe in him even more than I know of him. He's an unbelievable guy. Yeah, I'm excited he's going to be here this week. He was actually at one of our games in Washington last week. I'm sure he is -- I know he's a big Michigan State fan, and I know he's a big supporter of basketball, and I appreciate that.

Q. Jarrett Culver, what have you seen from him? Does he remind you of anybody? Does he compare to any college or NBA guys you've seen?
TOM IZZO: You know, I've been really impressed with him. I love guys -- I had a kid named Gary Harris a couple of years ago who I thought was one of the best two-way players I've ever had. He could do it on the offensive end. He could do it on the defensive end. He could impact the game in both.

I think Culver does that. I don't know if he's Scottie Pippen-ish like. I know there's guys of that era I watched even more. I think he's got versatility, and he's a scorer that plays defense. Sometimes those are harder to come by, and I think that's what makes him so special.

Q. Tom, 20 years ago in 1999 you took your first team to the Final Four. I'm curious, if you can look back, what stands out about that team and that season, and in what ways have they helped set the stage for what you guys have accomplished since then?
TOM IZZO: Well, they set the stage because everyone thinks we're the toughest team. Back then we could put shoulder pads and helmets on and nobody complained. We don't get to do that anymore.

But that was maybe one of the tougher teams I've ever had. This team isn't as physically tough, but they might be as mentally tough as any team I've ever had. So the word "toughness" is still there. With those guys, it was physical. With these guys it's a little more mental.

The memories are still as good. I loved that team and appreciated that team. I had guys that would go through a wall for us, and these guys have done the same thing. I guess, to be in a championship -- you know, we won the Big Ten, won the Big Ten Tournament -- to be anywhere in that kind of mode or be a Final Four team, you usually have to have those kinds of qualities of togetherness and toughness, both mental and physical.

As I use with this team a lot, this team is very connected. It's like, when they move, they all move together, and that's why we've been pretty good defensively ourselves.

Q. This would not be your main motivation this week, but you're a Big Ten guy. How good would it be to be the guy to end the Big Ten drought?
TOM IZZO: It would be good, you know. I am a Big Ten guy. I love Tony Bennett, but of course I was pulling for Purdue. Tony I've known for a long, long time, and his dad.

I do have great feelings for the Big Ten. Ironically, as I said, Bob Knight has kind of helped mold Chris and Jud with me, and those two guys were good friends. So there's a little flavor in a lot of ways, but I've been in the Big Ten for 35 years as an assistant, grad assistant, and coach, and I think our conference this year was as good as any in the country and sometimes didn't get maybe as much credit as I think they deserved top to bottom.

But if we could carry the mantle for our league and end that drought, I'd be double excited, one for Michigan State and one for the Big Ten.

Q. Coach, first of all, congratulations.
TOM IZZO: Thank you.

Q. Secondly, the most common word used in the locker room just a few moments ago was brothers, and you touched on it a little bit a few seconds ago. But as the coach, how does that manifest for you so that you take that brotherhood they have, because they've battled through injuries and everything else, as you said, reinvented themselves a few times, how do you take that and nurture that and create the kind of team that you have now with that intensity of brotherhood?
TOM IZZO: I think it's the culture we've created there, you know, and when Magic and Mateen fly in for a game in Washington and talk to your team before and, you know, Steve Smith and Gary Harris -- there's been so many guys that have been involved over the years. When you work in a program, there was 19 years of Jud and now 24 years of myself and 7 years with Gus Ganakas, and we all worked together at one time. Gus worked for me, I worked for Jud. So it's like 50-something years.

So we've created a culture, I think, that those former guys help the current guys know what a family is really about, what a brotherhood is really about. Then injuries and things that happen throughout a season, either make you or break you. They either bring you closer together, or you succumb to them and dissolve.

For some reason, this team -- and I think a lot of it is Cassius, that he just was able to play with a lot of different people around him, and he truly made each one better, and that's what elite players do. They make other players better.

So I think a combination of the culture, the character of the guys I got, and the quarterback that I got, and you put those three things together, you know, I think they do believe in each other, they trust each other, they want to win for each other. It's not I want to win to get to the NBA. It's not I want to win for this or that or personal reasons. I don't need to score as many points. They are honestly happy no matter who's the star. You can't say that about all teams.

Q. Remember those scores at Augusta, what you shot and what Kirk shot?
TOM IZZO: Yeah, whenever I get over triple digits, I just kind of throw the card away. I don't remember, but it was a fun time. My AD, Mark Hollis, took us, and Kirk Herbstreit went. We had a little football-basketball, and we had a good time. Kirk Cousins is a pretty good golfer too. Me, I'm just a ham and egg guy, kind of slap it around a little bit and hopefully stay out of trouble. You know, when you don't hit it that far, you're never in the woods, so I was never in trouble anyway.

Q. When you come here, how much does it make you think of Flip Saunders? We were talking to Ryan Saunders the other day, talked about having those middle of the night phone conversations with you. How much did it mean to you the first time you got one from Ryan?
TOM IZZO: Wow, you know, I talked to Ryan the night we won it because, let's face it, I got to know Flip. He asked me to be an assistant with him on the Goodwill Games. I'd known him a little bit at Tulsa. I tried to get him hired there. Did get him hired. I left the next day. He forgave me for that. So that was a nice thing.

When Flip was at Detroit and Washington a couple times, I guess he lost his job, and he used to come hang out at our place. I just love Flip Saunders. He was such a fun guy to be around. I do miss him. I do miss the late night calls. You know, he's the guy that watched that -- ordered everything off the QVC or VCQ, or whatever the hell it is. But he stayed up all night. That's how he bought his watches and his coats, I think. I'd ask him where he got it, and he'd tell me, and I'd tell him he's crazy.

He would call in the late night, and coaches stay up late, and I miss those phone calls. The other night Ryan called late, and he said my dad would be excited. Ryan's going to be in town. They play a couple games. I'm going to try to get over and see him, and hopefully I can see Debbie while I'm here and the girls. But I miss Flip. He was great for basketball, pro and college, and I hope he's enjoying a beer up there with Jud and my father and Gus and all the other guys that are looking down upon us.

Q. When you have a player like Joshua who gets injured, how do you make sure he still feels like he is part of the team, and how he can still contribute despite the fact that he can't play?
TOM IZZO: I coined a phrase for Joshua. I did two things. I said some guys like the game, some guys love the game, and some guys live the game. Joshua is a guy that lives the game. And so I did have to keep him involved, so I put him in charge of getting our guys ready on out of bounds plays. We screwed up a game early, and I said, Josh, it's time for you to take over. So if you watch him on the bench, whenever there's an out of bounds play, he's getting the guys ready. He does some of that.

He's become a quiet kid that became a great leader last summer, and he still leads. That kid has not missed one second of one practice the entire time he's injured. Even when he rehabs, he either does it right there in front of him or he comes in. He's a special person, both as a student, spiritually and athletically. We miss him, but we have kept him involved.

A lot of times, I'll text him at night and say, you know, guys are going to get a little big headed now. Make sure you do this. Or guys are going to do this, make sure you do that. He's already on top of it, you know. If you talk to Josh at all, he's going to be one of those guys that, when he leaves, I'm going to be sorry that he left.

Q. You're playing in Minnesota, and Clem Haskins coached here. In fact, he coached the last team that won the Big Ten before the tournament came in. Can you just talk about his legacy in the Big Ten while he was here.
TOM IZZO: I saw Clem. He was at our place because his son kind of works with the Pistons, and we had an exhibition game, and I walked out, and there was Clem. Clem and Jud and Gene, you know, I think Clem had two ostriches on his farm, and he named one Jud and one Gene. I'm surprised he didn't have two jackasses and named one Jud and one Gene.

He too kind of taught me a lot. You know, I learned -- those three guys, my first Big Ten meeting, it was unbelievable because those three guys kind of, they ruled the roost for the coaches. I was the new guy and sitting in the back of the room, almost like this, hiding. And Clem, for some reason, they were all good friends with Jud, and they all kind of took me under their wing. And what I learned, they were all tough guys, but I swear to you none tougher than Clem Haskins. His teams, those were fist fights. Not that Keady's weren't, but back then I just learned about how hard a team played.

When I got the job, he called me. He stayed in touch. Still once in a while I talk to him. That was a vintage era that I have tremendous respect for those guys. They were great coaches. They were great guys. I miss all three of them in a way in the league. I really do.

Q. Tom, when the year began, I mean, you knew you had a really solid situation at point guard. Did you ever imagine Cassius, Big Ten Player of the Year, First Team All-American? Is that something you had in your plans when you began recruiting him and then when he joined your program?
TOM IZZO: Well, I had those in my plans when I recruited him, but, no, I can't sit there and say at the beginning of the year I thought he would have the year that he's had. He really improved defensively early in the year, but the way he scores the ball and the way he -- he's efficient, you know. It's been a little harder too. His percentages have gone down a little bit, but they should, you know. People can load up on him a little differently. He had to make adjustments to that.

You take a guy like Josh away -- he was our leading three-point shooter. Then you take Nick away when every time Cash threw it in there, he was getting an assist on a 65 percent basis. You took those two things away, and he still led the Big Ten in assists is just remarkable.

But his demeanor is more like this, and mine's more like this. I say that we're a good Frick and Frack group, you know. We kind of balance each other out. And we wouldn't be here without Cassius Winston. There's no question about it. I'd like to take credit that I knew that was going to happen. When I did recruit him as a freshman and sophomore in high school, I said I thought he could be the best passer, the best basketball IQ guy since Magic Johnson. I really did believe that, told my staff that, but I didn't think he could shoot it and do those things like he did.

So he's impressed me in a lot of ways, but I know he's going to get challenged on Saturday night. Once in a while, when I go to bed, I think, well, yeah, they're going to do this and this and this to him, and I said, I've said that a lot of times about a lot of teams, and they did, and yet he still found a way, you know. So he's going to have to find a way again to make five or six other guys better and still find a way to score some and do some things himself if we plan on moving on.

Q. Tom, I feel like I need to ask you about your relationship with both Tubby Smith and Ron Gardenhire, but I'm going to hold off on that and ask you about Aaron Henry and kind of his ascent as a defender, first and foremost. At what point in the season did you feel like everything started to click on that point where you could put him on opposing best players?
TOM IZZO: You know, Aaron is a very good athlete. He comes from a program that is one of the best in Indiana. They won the state. He has a high basketball IQ. And once -- I think, you know, his motor had to keep going, and once he got his motor going and maybe got his chance a little more under fire once Josh went down and then Aaron got hurt too, I think he realized that he had to speed things up at a different level.

He too has a very high basketball IQ, so he understands it. I think a couple times we put him on a guy like Brazdeikis, who's a really good player. He had some success and started getting confidence. I'm amazed that usually a freshman struggles defensively, and he has actually excelled defensively, but he too is going to have his work cut out the next couple of days, that's for sure.

Q. Tom, you've had coaches' sons on your team before, Jack Hoiberg one of them. Did you ever think you'd be coaching against his father?
TOM IZZO: No, especially when he was sitting in my office a couple weeks ago, and we were talking Xs and Os. I'm going to take back everything I told him, but I love Fred. Not as much as I love Jack. Jack is just a -- he's a walk-on that he is getting better and better. I love the competitiveness and who he is and his intelligence.

But Fred's a great guy too. I think Fred, sitting down, one of those guys, kind of like Flip was, where he gets on the chalk board -- grease board, I should say -- I'm dating myself -- and he's just got options after options. I think he'll be a hell of a coach at Nebraska, I really do. His family history is great. His grandfather was a coach there, and his parents went to school there. He was born there. I mean, hell, you write stories about stuff like that.

He did such a great job at Iowa State and under a tough situation at Chicago, hung in there. But he's been a GM or assistant GM, I think up here at Minnesota, right? So he's kind of had all sides of basketball, and I think he's going to be a great addition. I was a big Tim Miles fan too. I don't mind saying that. Love Tim, but I think Fred will be a great addition and bring a lot to the table. I don't know. It's going to be a little harder on Jack than it is on me, but I think Fred will do well. Yet I think Jack will do well too.

THE MODERATOR: We want to thank Coach Izzo for joining us here in the main interview room. Thanks Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297