BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 12, 2022

Tom Izzo

A.J. Hoggard

Gabe Brown

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Michigan State Spartans

Postgame Press Conference

Purdue - 75, Michigan State - 70

MODERATOR: We are joined by Michigan State University Head Coach Tom Izzo, Gabe Brown and A.J. Hoggard. We'll start with an opening statement by Coach Izzo, followed by questions for the students, and then we'll go back to questions for Coach.

Coach, you're up.

COACH TOM IZZO: I'm both disappointed and proud. To have two ankle injuries in 20 seconds to my two point guards was a tough situation. Tyson couldn't go, and give A.J. credit, he went back and got heavily taped and just did what he had to do.

I thought we made some plays, but we got beat by a really good team. They made -- I don't know if Hunter made one of those threes. I was going to follow them and we were one down and I didn't do a very good job because I was relaying that to my team and we give up those two threes.

A big worry amongst everybody -- media, fans, coaches -- was the turnovers. They had four turnovers and one in the second half, unbelievable job. We just didn't do a very good job on the boards. Second chance points we got killed on and the free throws were not good at all.

I voice my opinion a lot of times when I'm disappointed in my team. I'm going to tell you I'm as proud of this team, what they did and I'm chomping at the bit to get to the NCAA Tournament.

We are getting better. As I told Gabe, got to just get rid of the "my bads." Can't have mistakes on the coverage or can't have mistakes on some things. I thought we had some good shots and whether it be Gabe, Joey, Maliq, all those threes were just a hair short, probably some of that is playing their third game.

Matt's got a hell of a team. they can beat you so many different ways. It's a load inside that we -- we were okay at. We kind of changed that out. Sometimes we doubled, sometimes we didn't. And right now the better team won, but this team's going to get better in a week and we're going to see if we can do some damage.

Q. Tom kind of referenced a little bit of what you guys were able to accomplish this weekend. I know you want to win every game you play, but considering how the three days went, where do guys feel like you're at? Do you feel like you've kind of regained a little something here over this time?

A.J. HOGGARD: Yeah, I think we learned a lot about ourselves up here fighting, proving people a little bit. I think we learned a lot. We've got to get back to the drawing board when we get back, see where we land on Sunday and just try to get better so we can prepare for March Madness, as Coach said, and just continue to get better and rally each other, don't get too down. I wanted this so bad for our seniors but we didn't get it done tonight, so we've just kind of got to get back and get another shot at March.

Q. This question's for both you guys. What are your mindsets going into that tournament?

GABE BROWN: Just ready to lock in. Like I said, I went home early last year and I'm not trying to go home early this year. So once we get back, like A.J. said, we've got to get back to the drawing board. We've got to get back to Michigan State basketball like we've been playing this weekend.

A.J. HOGGARD: I just wanted this so bad for our seniors. They put a lot of work in this summer, kind of fell short, shot ourselves in the foot when the regular season come out with a Big Ten title that way, dropped one to get to the championships. So I just feel like putting all my energy towards March and doing the best I can do for my team and leading and just finishing our seniors off strong and sending them off the right way.

Q. A.J., when you guys get it cut down to one there and I think they went on a 9-0 run, but from your end and your perspective, what cut it from 13 to one? What was going right in that stretch in the second half?

A.J. HOGGARD: I think everybody was just doing their job. Coach put us in position to do certain things. Everyone did their job to a T and helped us with that run. I just think when it got down to one, I've got to do a better job of being a point guard, an extension of Coach on the floor and controlling the pace and the tempo at that time.

Q. Gabe, you just talked about getting back to Michigan State basketball. What do you think allowed you guys to get back this weekend?

GABE BROWN: Like Coach focused on rebound, rebound, defend and run. Those are our main staples here and that's what we focused on, and I felt we did a great job of just doing that. And right now we've just got to keep on doing that and keep on getting better each and every day.

Q. A.J., you played that whole second half. Just wondering how you're feeling now and how you were able to sort of push through there. I know you were kind of the only option, but what was that like being the guy?

A.J. HOGGARD: It just kind of was normal for me. I just want to be the best for my team. I knew Tyson was injured, I'm still a little hurt, but one of us had to play and I wasn't going to let my seniors down like that, so I kind of put my mind to it and forgot that I was hurt until you just said something about it. But I just wanted to play hard for my guys and just give my all for it. Tyson couldn't go, so I just had to do what I had to do.

Q. Twenty-five free throws for Purdue, you guys shot six. How tough is it to keep them off the line and when you're down 13 and you know you don't have Tyson, how did you pull it together and come back?

A.J. HOGGARD: Just followed the game plan down the stretch. At the halftime, Coach talked us to about things we needed to do. We fixed it, went out there and made a run. Just tough helping our bigs. We had to call out different coverage on the bigs. We fouled them a lot, put them on line. Something we've got to adjust, kind of do a better job of defending when I foul them. But kind of think we did everything we needed to do to get that run down. We just kind of continued to sustain that to finish off the game.

Q. Guys, a week ago you came off back-to-back road losses and kind of hit a low point. Despite the loss today, how much kind of better is the feeling and the confidence about this team going into the NCAA Tournament?

GABE BROWN: I feel like it's through the roof. I feel like our guys is confident. I feel like all our coaches is confident in us. We've just got to keep on working and keep on pushing every day and it starts in practice. So this week we going to really grind, we're going to really grind things out, look at film, just get down to the nitty-gritty and get a win.

Q. Gabe, I wanted to ask you about what you saw from A.J. today and maybe his leadership qualities, whether it's displaying that sort of nonvocally, vocally as well. Is he starting to show you some of those things, that he could be a leader for this program down the line?

GABE BROWN: For sure. He stepped up in so many ways, distributing the ball, scoring the ball, talking to guys, defending. He did it all tonight and I'm just proud of him. I'm proud of him.

Q. You've talked about before this season that you coached the whole season, don't just coach in February and March, but you do have the legacy of kind of peaking at the right time kind of going to the NCAA Tournament. Does this feel like that kind of peak or is it a little more nuanced to what's been going on?

COACH TOM IZZO: You know, I'm not sure. I was trying to figure out if I was disappointed at halftime the way we started, but I mean, the doctor just told me we lost two point guards in 23 seconds or something like that and we weren't ready for that. We had some coverages in on doubling because we didn't double much the last time, what we wanted to do and that got changed because of personnel.

I thought all in all, you know, I thought we really did do some good things. I thought we got -- some guys some good shots, Max, Joey and Maliq both had wide open threes, and considering we were hoping Tyson, the one thing he would have gave us is the way they play ball screens, we thought we could get him some shots there because they drop and just wasn't the case. He couldn't go. It's -- I don't know how bad it is. It's not broke or anything, but it's bad enough where it will be some time here and that's just disappointing.

Q. Tom, for a couple months you've been kind of questioning this team's toughness and resilience and grit. Seemed like tonight and really over the last two days, how pleased are you seeing that now going into the tournament?

COACH TOM IZZO: Well, I'm pleased, you know, but with pleased goes the question why did it take so long, you know. But I think part of that is the inexperience. Like I said, not age, just inexperience. I am more disappointed, you know, than I am bummed out for them because yet hope they get something for that. But I don't want to take anything away. I think Matt's team, I picked them as the best team in the conference when the year started. I still think with their personnel and Noah's Ark kind of deal where they got two of everything and very well-coached, I think they have a chance to be -- make a serious run.

So that means that Wisconsin, who won our league, Illinois we played to the wire, Purdue we beat and played to the wire, enough to make a little run, and who knows where we'll be seeded, who cares where we'll be seeded, you know. I've lost as a 2 seed and, you know, went to the Final Four as a 7 or 8 seed. So I guess nothing matters except us getting a little better.

And we still did make some mistakes that are in excusable. We got a couple of rolls for lobs and we quit rolling. But we were real discombobulated with Tyson's deal and trust me, he was hurt. He's just -- he's -- you know, he's from the streets of Philly and he just played, but he was hurt, too. So kind of gave us an unsure thing. We tried to put Max there some, put a lot of pressure on him guarding, you know, Ivey and having to do that.

It was an interesting day, but I think one that we're going to learn and grow from and hopefully see what we can do. We feel we can play with anybody, but we still got some things to correct.

Q. Tom, did you see -- and not acting like there's some big revelation here, but your team clearly played better this week defensively. Did you see some of this forming at any point late in the season and is it simply tournament time that clicks in some kids sometimes?

COACH TOM IZZO: Yeah, I sure hope not. You know, I think what we did is we don't have great leadership. And that's not an insult, it's just some people are born to be leaders and some aren't. I think once things started going south -- and our schedule was really brutal. It was brutal that we played all those road games and we played the best teams late. Once it started rolling of not playing well, then it got worse. I think all that played into it.

You know, we did have some meetings after we went to Ohio State, just tried to correct some things, but they always do listen more when they lose. That's pretty normal, that's pretty human. When you get embarrassed when you lose like we did a couple times, I think they listen more. I think we did a little better job of coaching them and not worrying about their feelings and I think they responded, so that was all good.

Q. Tom, you've mentioned about your team's inexperience, but in this elimination game, four turnovers only. How much can that be a teaching moment going into the NCAA Tournament about taking care of the ball? Because those mistakes, as you mentioned, can cost you a game.

COACH TOM IZZO: Yeah, you know, I've never been -- I've never liked turnovers, but I've never been as sold on, you know, how does Wisconsin do it. I look at the stats and I'm not a big statistics guy, but the basic stats of field goal percentage, three points, defense, free-throw shooting, and I said, God, we're way up here and they're way down here and yet look at turnovers and we're way, way up here and they're way, way down here. So we got 60 -- what did we get, 69 shots? I mean, we had hoped to get in the 60s, so we did all those things right, but I thought some of those shots were short because I think we were a little fatigued. And they did a hell of a job. We changed up, we went back to old school where we just did everything in the hotel. They had these little 20, 30-minute sessions. They did a great job. Staff did a great job. We just fell a little short to a team that's probably better than us and we just couldn't get it done.

Q. Tom, it felt like the connection between Trevion Williams and Eric Hunter at the end was the reason why to kind of pull it away. Talk to me how difficult it is to defend a 5 where the big man is probably the best passer on the floor at times.

COACH TOM IZZO: Yeah, I would agree with you, he might be the best passer in the state. And I know Indiana's got some pro players here, but that kid is, you know, right from down the road from us. And I love Trevion, he's a very good player. He's a very good passer. Matt's done a hell of a job with him, with the body and the post moves, but the passing, I'm not sure -- that's like Magic passes. He just has -- we made a highlight of just his passes. it's pretty impressive, I might send it to him when I'm done. He really did a hell of a job and they cut off him nice, you know. We've still got to make those shots. Was it Hunter that -- who made the threes late? Hunter made one, right? Two. And he had really only taken one I think the whole day. So give him credit, too. A guy that kind of goes under the radar and he stepped up and made some big, big shots.

Q. Tom, in the second half, did you see a new side from A.J. in terms of leadership and resilience?

COACH TOM IZZO: Well, you know, I mean, you guys remind me of the modern day kid, you know. One event and all of a sudden we canonize. I was very pleased with A.J., but I didn't notice -- you don't just shazam, you go from here to here. He's making progress. I think he learned something. I thought Marcus learned something last night. Not sure that transpired, you know. What did they say in all those important books? It's 21 days, straight days to change behavior, so one day doesn't change it. It gives me a point of reference now to say this is where you were, this is how you got there, this is what we've got to do.

So I was very pleased with A.J. I was disappointed with a few things we did, but in general I thought we competed the whole time under circumstances that were a little tough with the point guard situation, especially in that first half. So I'm encouraged that we can move forward and hopefully use what we've done there, even at the end of the year, to see where we can go.

MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. Good luck next week.

COACH TOM IZZO: I think the only guy happy is Gene Keady.