NIT SEASON TIP-OFF

November 23, 2001

Tom Izzo

COACH IZZO: We're hitting a few problems, I guess understandable. Seems we plug one hole in the dam, we got another one that pops up, a couple of guys that played a little better tonight. Torbet did, even though he didn't shoot as well. I thought he played with more energy and rebound. Anderson, Hill kind of fall off the map. We're going to struggle to get a little consistency. I thought we did a pretty good job a lot of ways. I thought a very talented basketball team we played. We're falling into some traps I think we're going to have to deal with. And those are -- our guard plays very, very average. We're going to have to improve. We didn't -- be going 3 for 13. I think a number of three-point shots were taken for the way we shoot, you know, somebody ought to question the coach for that. And I was really disappointed, free-throw shooting, since it's been good and we shot well. Missing three front ends, one on one, especially a critical time. We didn't give ourselves a chance to win. Maybe we would have been lucky to win. I still thought we had a chance. We came down and made plays that weren't there. Positive side, rebounding, bounced back a little bit. I thought we played harder. Turnover 16, I guess after you've had 100, 16 is pretty good. I'm a little disappointed in the consistency of some of our key guys, but it was a great tournament for us. It was a learning experience. I thought they did a great job here. I thought they were four very good teams. And the road gets no easier for us. We go to Virginia on Wednesday. And we got our work cut out. And I guess that's the only way young guys are going to learn to play. I keep saying it, the inexperience in critical points of games really rears its ugly head and we're going to have to find a way to get through that, keep working, build on the pluses we had tonight, but really start addressing the minuses. Something is going to have to change, whether I change the lineup again, whether I do some things to get people shots off the set instead of off the dribble, we're going to have to make some adjustments as a staff.

COACH IZZO: Yeah, I'm going to consider that, definitely. You know, maybe for his sake and mine. Your best players have to play well if you're going to win games. And Marcus has been struggling a little bit, and we need him to play better. So we're going the look at some things. I didn't feel either point guard, you know, in clutch times, Chris made a couple of bad decisions, to be polite about it. And in critical times of the game, too. The turnovers we made weren't as many, but they were still in critical times. I don't think this team understands yet they're not playing high school guys anymore. They're playing good players. I think we must have told both freshman, Torbet, Anderson and Adam Wolfe 100 times, take one dribble, pull up and shoot it, because if you bring it in there, it's going to get blocked. Just like when I was a kid, you have to live and learn. They learned. Guys with ice on their head right now because they got a ball stamped on them. They're going to keep learning, but we're going to make some adjustments.

COACH IZZO: I think he's not shooting very well off the dribble, but I need him to score. I still think he's our best player, and I think he's capable of playing a lot better than he is. So we're going to really experiment with some things to help him so he can help us, because I think that's critical. And I need him, you know, playing well. And the same time, you know, I think Chris has fallen into the trap now. He grabbed a couple of threes we had no business taking. We're taking too many three-point shots. This team is not a good enough shooting team to take as many as were taking.

COACH IZZO: God, I got so many things I think about the NCAA, I don't know. I get confused on which one I don't like. In other words, I'm on some committees and I think we're -- I don't know if anybody knows what basket to put our eggs in. We're complaining about so many different things. There's a rule: You can only get one thing changed in a decade. We've got to be careful which one we want changed. I don't think I like some of these tournaments. I think we're getting a lot of them. I don't know what's better, I really don't know. I don't know if it's better to play more games, make more money for the universities. I don't know. I enjoyed this tournament. It was very good for us and I say that going two and two, which isn't the greatest, but I think the number of games we got -- the extra games we got were very valuable to us.

COACH IZZO: I thought my guy got fouled underneath, so I told them that I probably going to deserve the technical in the next 20 seconds. I told him what I thought about it. He gave me one. I respect him for that. It was mutually agreed before that. I deserved the technical. I thought we -- I thought, you know, I didn't agree with the call.

COACH IZZO: I don't know if you call an end zone, that's a good defense they play, give Jerry a of credit. That's his old -- used to read about that thing when I was younger. Probably should have read it about it now that I'm older. I think we had some decent hooks tonight with some right guys. Ballinger had some decent hooks, and I thought Marcus and even Chris Hill had some decent hooks. When Alan Anderson isn't even looking at the basket, it makes it a little difficult to run his own offense with other guys. We're going to have to battle against that. Everybody thinks we struggled against Syracuse zone, which we did, we shot 49. As you know, we're not getting many fast-break layups. I thought we did a better job than it looked in this game. Their size and our inability to listen to instructions don't drive it in and take it to the hole. People are going to block the shots. It's double damage.

COACH IZZO: No insult here, but don't beat that to death. I got two guards. I'm not real pleased. I'm not pleased the way Marcus is playing. Don't beat a dead horse. I think he's the best player on our team. I think if I play him at the point or at the two, it's not going to change his minutes, not going to change anything. I'm not going to play him at the two the whole time. Not going to play him at the point the whole time. I am going to make adjustments and look at him in a couple of different positions. It's like a quarterback controversies, you know, if you're looking to find something in there. Look at the stat sheet, don't ask me questions on it.

COACH IZZO: I thought he played harder. He did a pretty good job. Hey, Jeffries is a great player man. I like that kid. He's a good player. He makes things happen, makes it difficult to guard. I thought Torbet did a good job on him, got five rebounds. He missed some shots. He doesn't understand in high school he could dribble and dunk on people and here he can't do that. That's going to come. That's going to take some time, but he was more aggressive tonight. I thought he played a little harder. Nowhere near where you and I want to play, probably where he wants to play. I at least thought we made some progress with his effort. And that was important to me. Like I said, when one did, the dam came out on the other two. We're going to keep battling here. We're going to have to get better. Probably was an ugly game to watch. That happens when early in the game I thought Chris Hill had some great shots, has been shooting well, he missed them. Marcus, we had a shot set up for him, he didn't take it. I think our guys are gunshy. Confidence factor. I think that's going to happen when we on the road some because of our youth. We don't know how to play on the road, who to take over. We're going to have to improve in that area. We will get better.