NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - MICHIGAN STATE VS DUKE

March 20, 2022

Marcus Bingham Jr.

Gabe Brown

Tyson Walker

Tom Izzo

Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Michigan St. Spartans

Media Conference

TOM IZZO: First thing I'd like to say is how proud I am of my team. We've been through a lot. I thought, if we could get it within two points, ten-minute mark, pressure goes on them, and now we're five up with four or five minutes left. Like a championship team, they dug down and made some plays.

We had a stretch there where we were one-up, and we had two blocks and two turnovers. Then the last five minutes, I think they made every shot.

We didn't maybe follow the game plan totally, and some of it is because sometimes some guys are bigger, stronger, and quicker. And yet the job Marcus did and starting us off with those blocked shots. Gabe had an unbelievable day, hit some big, big, big shots. And Tyson coming off that ankle, him and A.J. did a pretty good job. We just didn't have enough.

Last year I was mad at my team at the end. This year I'm proud of my team at the end. We'll learn from this and hopefully get better.

I'd be remiss if I didn't say Duke deserves all the credit they got. They played well. Instead of cracking, like I think some teams would under that pressure, their little home court got them going a little bit. The crowd, I thought, was great although our people were good too, and they made all those shots at the end. That's impressive, and they deserve to be moving on.

THE MODERATOR: We've got Tyson Walker, Marcus Bingham Jr., and Gabe Brown.

Q. This is for Gabe and Marcus. Obviously being seniors, you guys have big nights for your team. Can you explain the emotion you're going through right now of playing well, doing everything you can, but still kind of coming out on the short end of this?

MARCUS BINGHAM JR.: A lot of mixed emotions. I want to be proud, but at the same time, mad that we're not playing another night. I think the guys went out there and played hard from the first half into the second half. We fought. Just some situations, we just didn't pull through.

It's something for the team next year to learn from. Coach has been here before. This gives them motivation going into the off-season to work hard and get stronger and just remember this moment so when they come back, they'll be prepared.

Q. Gabe, you want to answer that one as well?

GABE BROWN: Yeah, like Marcus said, it's a lot of mixed emotions. I put everything I had into being here, playing at Michigan State, everything I put into it for Coach Izzo, my teammates, for the staff, for everybody.

I'm sad that I can't play another night, but it's motivation. It's motivation for sure for next year.

Q. For Marcus and Tyson, you guys -- Tyson, you get that stepback three, and Marcus you hit the free throws that put you guys up five. What's going on in those moments when you guys go up with about five minutes left? What are you talking about at that point?

MARCUS BINGHAM JR.: Just trying to sustain the lead, just trying to keep it going and keep our foot on the gas as a team. We kept huddling up, trying to talk to each other, telling each other to keep going, just keep playing, keep playing hard.

I'm proud of the guys. We all played hard tonight, I think.

TYSON WALKER: After that happened, it was just let's get a stop, let's score again. Just wanted to build on the lead, but we couldn't. They made some tough plays. They played well. They ran their stuff well. We let them get to their spots, and that's what hurt us the last four minutes.

Q. Marcus, can you just talk about the challenges of trying to guard Paolo Banchero and Mark Williams and what they were able to do down the stretch to kind of help Duke?

MARCUS BINGHAM JR.: Both of them are really good players. Just trying to do my best to try to help my team win. I wasn't really thinking about it too much, but just to help my team win really.

Q. For Gabe, there was a point in the first half where you guys had missed 11 straight shots had gone down. You answered that with five threes in a row. What do you think that point said about your team and how much confidence did it give you that you could play with those guys?

GABE BROWN: It says a lot. We just kept chipping away. My teammates happened to find me, and I happened to knock down shots. Yeah, I mean, it was tough because that little span was we needed those shots to go in, but some of them were bad shots. We had to realize that because it can affect us later on.

Q. Tyson, if this is your last game with those two guys, what did you learn from them this year? What are you going to remember about being teammates with them and sort of bringing you into this program?

TYSON WALKER: From day one, they took me in as like they knew me all my life. They helped me and everything. When it was tough for me in the beginning, they helped me out every day, keep talking to me, became my best friends. I learned a lot, just how it is to play every day here. It's not easy. And they showed me what it takes. Basically, what it takes to win. I appreciate them for that.

Q. Tyson, for you, obviously you guys want to move on to the Sweet 16, but how did your first March Madness, how was that experience for you?

TYSON WALKER: I've never played this long of a season, making it this far, but to them it's -- you know, it's not far enough. For me it felt good just to be here. I wanted to win. I wanted to make it to next weekend.

Like people in my town, like I'm the only one to make it this far in the tournament. So it felt good.

Q. You said you expected it would be weird emotions. That's the phrase you used about seeing Mike at the other end and everything going on around this. What was it like today? You're trying to win but also cognizant of the significance of this matchup going on today?

TOM IZZO: Once the game started, once we talked before, it was strictly -- there's some things we wanted to do that we did an unbelievable job of, and I was just proud the way we worked. I knew his guys weren't quitting.

I did think, if we could get it close in those last five minutes, I thought maybe some of those shots would be a little tougher, but it just goes to show maybe how good he is and how good they are, that that's when they made them all. You know, they made them all. They made some tough shots. Williams, he made two at the buzzer in the first half. I swear he threw two of them up, but you've got to give him credit. They made some tough shots. Those guards made tough shots over people.

So I don't know. I'll always pull for Mike. I think he's done some things that will go down in the lores of basketball, but I'll also -- you can remember this game in a lot of ways. My way of remembering it won't be quite as enjoyable, but it will be respectful.

Q. You've talked more than once this year, times where you didn't love the effort or the toughness from your team. The last few games especially, but then again tonight to see the way they played with that energy and toughness that was lacking at times, what did that mean to you? I know you didn't win, but you get that --

TOM IZZO: There's no moral wins. We're five up -- five up with five minutes left. Is that what it was? Does anybody know what the time was? I thought we took two bad shots, got them blocked.

We made our mistakes. I guess I told you guys the day before, I told CBS today, the big key is keeping them out of the paint. They lived in the paint. I was really disappointed how we thought we had them down and which way they'd drive. They were going right time after time.

Now, part of it is those bigger, stronger, better athletes taught us a lesson on strength. It's not a typical Mike team, if you ask me. That is as physical of a perimeter team as I think I've ever played against him, and they just drove it, drove it, and drove it.

But once we settled down, we just kept battling back, you're right. I mean, the huddles were great. The guys believed we could win. We just didn't. Our young guys struggled a little bit, and that was one thing. We just didn't cover those drives. As the day went on, we went from shrinking the court to kind of hanging with our guy and those gaps got bigger. And when those gaps got bigger, they really took advantage of it, give them credit for that.

When I look at it, we've been so bad in turnovers, right? You all wrote it, and most of the time you wrote it because I said it. I was right with you. The last couple weeks it's been seven, four, seven, eight, seven, and seven today. I think it's phenomenal we did that. We didn't outrebound them. We shoot 50 percent from the three. We shoot 90 from the free-throw line. We got beat on dribble drives. They have 44 points in the paint, we have 28.

Marcus did some good things. It wasn't his fault on Williams. The guards were -- you know, two of them, I thought, were well contested he made. The other ones, I mean, the guards just drove by us, and then Mark has to help, and they dish it off, and he dunked it. Good plays on their part. That was the only thing I was really disappointed in.

Q. Tom, I'm wondering the benefit of your young guys for this last couple weeks in this run for Max Christie, sort of the response in this game for Jaden, for A.J., and even Tyson, talking about his development. Having a bit of a run here and them getting the sort of experience of that intensity and that quality, how important it is.

TOM IZZO: Well, I think it's really important, but we live in a society it's what you do for me today. That was part of my speech. You've got to realize, in the first half we talked about them getting in the paint, and we didn't change it a lot the second half. If they're just better, I'm a big boy, I can accept that. I didn't think we locked in -- I think maybe we wore down a little bit.

I think it can help us a lot. I think it proves that on any given night we've been pretty consistent the last two, three weeks. We really have. We've done some good things. Some guys that made some shots today -- we had a couple guys, Malik had a tough night. We needed to get probably Max going a little bit more even though his stats look pretty good.

We just didn't do the things that we needed to do to win these kinds of games. If we can learn from it, only time will tell on it. I'll find out when we get back and look at the film, just how many things we didn't do, and then we'll try to correct them.

Q. Tom, you talked about some of the things that you did good. What gets you that five-point lead? And with the guys that it seemed like each one had their own little burst where really good things happened for all of them.

TOM IZZO: I thought we were moving the ball good. We were getting in the paint and kicking it out. We got them to switch a couple times on Tyson, and he was able to hit some shots. But the discipline that you need when you get up, I think our inexperience showed. And theirs should have, but you've got to give -- you talk about their guys. I really thought -- it will sound a little crazy to you, but their two best players, in my mind, were Roach and Moore. I love Banchero, and Williams is hard to cover, but it was Roach and Moore that really took over in that time. They drove it and drove it and drove it, and those are the juniors.

That's the sadness about what's going on. Those are the guys that have been in the program three years, and I thought their experience really helped them. I think they've gotten bigger and stronger, a good lesson for us.

The sad part is it wasn't a nine-point game. It was a game that went exactly like I hoped it would go. I just wanted to be there at the ten-minute mark. I think we were six down. At the eight-minute mark, I think we were four down. Every huddle that's all we talked about is we're right where we need to be, and then we went up. Like I said a couple of bad shots, a couple of great plays. By then, they blocked two shots, but there were bad plays by us too. They didn't miss any shots.

A couple of those ones at the basket were tough shots. Give those two guys a lot of credit because they made some of them. So Duke is the better team, and they proved it. When you're five down, pressure's on you, and you answer the bell, that says a lot about your team. If I can take that and bottle it and make my guys realize that these little mistakes, trying to go for a steal and then they get a three and try to go for a steal, and then they drive it and dunk it.

You know, we made some mistakes, but seven turnovers, the efficiency we played with other than shooting it a little better from the field against a very, very, very good team, it was no stay close so you feel good. But it told me a lot about our team and our program, our program.

Our program is right where it needs to be. We just -- now we've got to take another step. So appreciate it.

Q. Tom, you talked about meeting with Mike earlier, beforehand. Was the conversation typical for you guys, or was there more reminiscing involved because of everything with today? What was just that like?

TOM IZZO: No, we reminisced in the hall just now. Before the game, there wasn't a lot of reminiscing. It was just, I think, a mutual appreciation. It was short and sweet, and that's the way it should be. But it wasn't -- we didn't talk about wife and kids or his grandkids or where he's going to start vacationing or anything. He's got another game to play, and I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. Probably be beating myself up for a week because not many times do you get an opportunity to be right there in the threshold of something special, and it slipped away.

I guess I've been on the other end enough times. I think back of the Gene Keadys or the John Chaneys when we beat them. I guess I'm being a little unrealistic. We were five up. I wasn't confident, but I felt like we were doing the things we needed to do, we were playing at a place we needed to play. I felt like we didn't get back very well defensively, and they just pushed it.

A lot of it was Roach. I don't know what Mike thought, but I thought Roach and Moore were really, really good. Really good.

Q. Coach, you were mentioning how last year you were not proud of the team, but this year --

TOM IZZO: No, I wasn't.

Q. But this year you were. What was that conversation like to the team in the locker room after this loss?

TOM IZZO: Tear jerking. It was a tear jerking conversation. I felt like they gave me just about everything they could. We made some mistakes. Basketball is a game of mistakes. But I never thought they gave up, gave in, or didn't believe we could win, and that was a good sign.

So it was a tough locker room. Last year it was different. That doesn't mean anything bad. It just this year we did everything we could do except maybe guard a little better at the end. Take a little better shots a couple times. But we'll learn from it, we'll get better from it, and hopefully as I said, great for Mike. I don't want to take anything away from Duke because I think they showed their truest colors.

They lost at home to North Carolina. They lost to Virginia Tech. Same kind of games. We came back and went up. An average team with a lot of heart, and they just drifted into the Sunset. And I thought they reached down in Mike Krzyzewski fashion and did an unbelievable job of kind of taking it at us. We just didn't have enough left.

That doesn't change how I feel about my team. We'll grow from this. We'll get better. I hope the people realize this program is here to stay because today was probably a helluva game for TV. A helluva game.