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BIG TEN CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA DAYS

October 2, 2019

Tom Izzo

Hilton Rosemont - Rosemont, Ill.

TOM IZZO: Like all of us, we're excited. It's a little early to start. I can't believe with 24th. We have the Pistons in working out at our place right now, they have their training camp, and to think we started a week earlier than the NBA is hard for me to believe after all those years of going October 15th, and it's now starting to creep in September.

I've got a good team that I like with still a lot of question marks. Josh Langford, health, question mark. What we do at the 4, question mark. And probably the other one is we did lose 30 points and 15 rebounds and trying to figure out how we get those. And yet with Winston, Henry, and Xavier Tillman, we have three guys that played awfully well at the end of the year, and hopefully they've grown some now.

Excited to be back and excited to get started.

Q. Tom, obviously we've been asking coaches the same question, but the California bill that would allow players to capitalize on their images and likenesses, where do you stand on that?
TOM IZZO: You know, I'm embarrassed to say this, but I had my SID get all you writers, get your articles on it, and I tried to read up on it and figured that you guys are the experts and you would know. So I had nine articles, and there were nine different opinions. Mine is probably the tenth.

The only thing that I would say on it, I sure as hell don't think it's a politician's job to get involved in this. I'm baffled by that a little bit.

But you know, I heard Mark say, I'm in for players getting whatever they can get. I just don't know what the effects are going to be. And so I'm wide open on it, like I've been other things. I don't think I'm giving a politician's answer. I've learned over the last few years that it's hard to comment on things that you don't know a lot about, and I don't know. All this stuff gets thrown at you. I don't know what it'll be like to be on a team if some guy is doing this and some guy is getting nothing. I don't know what that does to the chemistry. I don't know how many people it's really going to benefit or to what level it's going to benefit anybody.

So I wish I could get more information, but if I said one thing that I think we should do, I think we've got to get in front of this a little bit more. I think sometimes we're a little bit reactive -- meaning schools, NCAA, whatever -- and I think sooner or later, we've got to get a little more proactive.

But I'm big on helping people with cancer, I'm big on the Coaches vs. Cancer, and every time I go to an event, we're always trying to do more and raise more and this and that. And every once in a while I tell people, don't forget what we've accomplished. I mean, we've made great strides in that area.

You know, I think the cost of attendance, the meals, the different things, and having the Pistons there and learning about the G-League and their travels, there's a lot of things that we've done that are really good. I hope we can keep progressing in that manner. And if more money and there's better options, I'd be all for it. But I just -- I'm a little afraid to comment on something that I don't know what the residual effects will be on a team, a program or anything else. So I'm for players getting as much as they can get that keeps the playing field even and keeps everybody happy, and that's hard to do now.

If you guys have got any good answers, because those of you that I read, you guys were all over the map just like I am all over the map. So I think we're all kind of questioning each other right now, and hopefully we'll all work together to come up with a solution.

Q. Fred Hoiberg was up here talking about you guys' relationship, specifically this winter when he came up to East Lansing and spent a lot of time with you. Can you reflect on that time and the bonding you guys had and also what his addition to the league means?
TOM IZZO: Well, his -- you know, his son is on my team, so that makes a bond in itself, and I asked him when he got the Nebraska job, does he want to take him with. I think he felt the pressure of his wife and said, hell, no.

But I'm glad his son is with me, but I've followed Fred -- I heard he made some comments on his name and likeness. When you're called "the mayor," that means you're probably bigger than anybody in that state. They might as well have called him the governor when he played, so he probably could have made a fortune in this.

But I've enjoyed the chalk talks with Fred. Now he probably won't share those same things with me, and I enjoyed watching what he did at Iowa State. I thought he did an incredible job there, taking that program to what was starting to become an elite level.

You know, his opportunity at Nebraska, I think his grandfather was a coach there, he was born or raised there, his parents are from there, his wife is not that far away. Pretty unique situation. And the fans at Nebraska to me are some of the best. You know, when they weren't even great they've packed that place, and I've enjoyed Nebraska people. It'll be fun to see Fred there. We just probably won't share chalk talks anymore.

Q. You mentioned Joshua Langford's health still be a question mark. Can you update us on where he stands at this point?
TOM IZZO: Yeah, and what I mean by question mark is he was out seven to seven and a half months with the little bone in his foot, and just because it doesn't get as much blood. And we were a little extra cautious on him because we think he's very valuable. He was playing so good for us until he got hurt. And if you look at NBA people or even college people and talk about how long is the actual recovery once you start playing, sometimes it's half the time. Well, half the time with our schedule early, there's going to be some question marks.

But he has been practicing just about every day. Now he's in live stuff for the last two and a half weeks, three weeks, and making great progress. It's just the unknown of how long it'll take to get him back to where he was playing last November, December, and part of January before he got hurt. And I think he's a key guy for us because at 6'5" he can really shoot it. But he's kind of like a Gary Harris, he's a two-way player. He's one of our best defenders, and losing McQuaid, we're going to need a perimeter guard that can defend, although Aaron Henry has done a very good job of that, too.

No lightning rods that are against them, it's just the time it's going to take to get him back.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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