NCAA MEN'S 3RD & 4TH ROUND REGIONALS: AUSTIN

March 25, 2005

Alan Anderson

Paul Davis

Tom Izzo

COACH IZZO: A lot of ways I thought we played the game just the way we wanted to play it. We felt we had to keep pressure on them. We had got some turnovers the first half. I don't think we wore them down. I do think we kept the pressure on. We didn't shoot the ball very good. We did offensive rebound pretty well. I thought we did a pretty good job on Redick. He is a great player. Between he and Ewing, I don't know what the stats ended up. We didn't get a lot of runs. That is one thing we felt we had to do is stop the six and eight point runs. These guys just did a whale of a job. We beat a very, very, very, good team and the well-coached team. I am tickled with the win.

ALAN ANDERSON: They had big force with Shelden Williams. We wanted to just get it in the hole and tried to make them kick out. We felt we could take them off the dribble as well as they could take us off the dribble. The shots weren't falling. Just keep attacking until things go your way.

ALAN ANDERSON: It feels great. But you can't sit here and be too happy. You have the Kentucky and Utah game. It is as great win for our school and the whole program. You can't blow it up too much. We have a game we need to play and accomplishments.

ALAN ANDERSON: We had to use our depth to our advantage. There is no point in having a rotation if everybody is not going to get after us. We were putting as much pressure on as possible. They did a great job of handling our pressure at times. Then again, we capitalized on it and we just shot to keep the pressure on the whole 40 minutes.

PAUL DAVIS: I think it was actually in the shot. Alan and the couple other guys kept it alive. Once I got it, I didn't really have a move so I tried to create and get a pump fake and try to get them in the air. It worked. And then I did -- my biggest thing wasn't that shot. I was glad I made the free throw.

ALAN ANDERSON: Just aggressive. Like I said, he was attacking the glass. After he missed the jump shot he didn't put his head down. He followed his shot up and tried to get another basket up. Just his whole demeanor from the jump ball to the last free throw he shot was aggressive.

PAUL DAVIS: The way it worked out, having a player like that out, kind of opens the lane a little bit more and they don't have a real danger inside. We can beat some guy with our quickness. It was a huge, huge key. I think we were trying to go at him and on the opposite end they were doing the same. His first half I thought was keeping them in the game. So we had to try to do something different in the second half.

PAUL DAVIS: It was a game where you don't get tired in. You know, there is always catching the second wind for any athlete. I think once the second half started and things started moving up and down and we did catch it, where he tried to wear them down, but a team like that, those guys are 40-minute players. I don't think we really wore them down but I thought we did what we wanted to. We wanted to run and get guys involved.

PAUL DAVIS: I think right now a lot of things are paying off for us. Last year's schedule, playing those teams where we did. I think our experience, I really do think it helped that we did play them earlier from the season. We might have a leg up on some other teams. Seeing them and playing them as well as we did on their court, we were confident coming into this game. We weren't thinking ourselves as the underdogs.

ALAN ANDERSON: A couple of them, yeah. But you know, if I was only shooting 19 percent in the tournament. We had to make them play. Like I say, if I wouldn't have hit those shots, it could have went either way.

ALAN ANDERSON: We had been through a whole lot of them times. We had to bare down and do what we did to get to that point to be in the lead. We had to bare down and execute our plays. We didn't need to score. We just tried to move the ball around and run the clock down. We were doing a great job at the line. We were trying to take care of the ball.

ALAN ANDERSON: We are right up there. It shows how tough and strong the Big-10 is. Great job for Wisconsin. Like we said, we have got to keep rolling and keep playing. Until we get to that point of meeting a Big 10 team, I hope they keep winning.

PAUL DAVIS: Really didn't matter who was up there. We as a team, we felt we just played a 40-minute war. That is what it was. To come out on top, there is no greater feeling. To be on the sidelines with your coaches and your teammates, and having our fans up there cheering the whole game. It was honestly the best feeling you could have to play another day, too.

COACH IZZO: I think they answered that question very well. I have apologized to them in the last meeting I had with them because I felt that I put these guys through a lot in the last few years. Sooner or later, as they say, if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger. We are a stronger team. We are not unbeatable. We are getting stronger, we are growing. I am glad it is a three or four point game. We just kept pounding away and proved to ourselves that we can win these games. We did it out in Worcester. They are more fun than they used to be.

COACH IZZO: His mother and father do a good job of that. I leave that to other people. I just coach them. I think Paul has played good in big games. Yet I said about three weeks before the season ending he was consistently playing better. He was throwing the ball up too much. He was doing a better and better job of being aggressive. If he gets aggressive, he will be as good as a player as we all thought. Sometimes it take as little bit longer than you would like or definitely think I would like, but he is making progress.

COACH IZZO: I don't know. I felt we beat a very good team. When they are coming back there is a confidence about them. Ewing, you have got to love the kid. He keeps competing. He remembers that big three. We finally made some free throws. We took another step forward. Like I said, he has got 30 years and we have got ten. We have got a long way to go.

COACH IZZO: At the end of the half I knew the clock didn't start. That was the right calling. On the dunk our guy did not hit it out. The ball has to continue through the net. I think they were both -- one went for us and one against us. I think they were both no-brainer calls. I don't think either guy complained about it much.

COACH IZZO: Couple of players, Eric Snow and Shawn Respert in our locker room now. What I told these players is beating Duke, you hate to put anything at the end of the world. I called time-out to make sure we weren't going to celebrate anything. We have got games to play. Do it with some class. We talked about a lot of things we haven't done. We had some missed opportunities. There has been no Michigan State team since 1950-something that has beaten Duke. This is something to do, something that your predecessors haven't done. Everyone including me has told you about that.

COACH IZZO: He has been struggling a little bit. He is wearing down. He has played awfully hard. When he needed a second wind, he got it. He made a steal and couple of big plays. I think you will see Shannon really take off and get better and better. He has taken off in a lot of areas. He has improved his defense. He is working on his shooting. One thing about this kid that him and Ager bring to the table, he wants te ball on big time plays. He wants the ball at the end of the game. He wants the ball to get fouled. He is competitive and plays the game that way.

COACH IZZO: We put Bograkos on him for a while. We put KT, Kelvin on him. I thought we did a decent job. We tried to jump to him and so -- he is so effective on those curl moves. I thought we did a pretty good job on stopping some of that. They are a good team. At times, you know, maybe just been a long year for them too. They have had injuries and different things. It sure was a good team to beat. One thing I knew, they weren't letting us win. We had to beat them. They don't beat themselves very often. I thought tonight it was as close to maybe us being the reason we won than them losing the game.

COACH IZZO: No question. Shannon Brown, they know what these guys have done there. I think that we have rallied. I think from the last couple of weeks, I feel better about getting some things out in the open and teaming with them. I think there was as much mental preparation as there was physical preparation. It was something I felt I had to jump in and get involved with. I think we made some progress. To be a great team you have to trust the coaches, the coaches have to trust the players. I never felt -- I felt I was getting along, but was there that real trust? That has been growing the last couple of weeks.

COACH IZZO: I hate to say that now because I felt it all year long. I thought some of it was ridiculous. I don't know what word to use. At the same time, this tournament sometimes is about match-ups too, you know. It is not necessarily we are better than this team or this team is better than that team. Sometimes the match-ups create a situation. It is good for everybody to say this is three Big-10, three ACC. I have no question how good the ACC was all year. I also knew how good the Big-10 was. You try to make it first or second, but sixth, seventh, where we were put I thought that was poor. I really did.

COACH IZZO: I think seeds don't matter almost from the first week. There is too much parity. You have got to play. As far as the middle teams, those middle seeds are good. Anybody can beat anybody. That has happened a lot in the tournament. It is not by accident, it is not that the moon and stars lined up together. It is here to stay.

COACH IZZO: No. That was when we were starting to learn how to do it. I was trying to get the rotation down. We ran a little better there. In all honesty, we showed some of that film on our lapses where we didn't apply the pressure. That was part of our scouting report. One of the last things we showed today, that we have to improve in that area.

COACH IZZO: I hope so. It was just give me 40 minutes of intense focus. 40 minutes, can we stay intense. We didn't do that, but we did -- we had our letdowns here and there. We are getting to the point where we are having a much higher percentage of really spilling it. I think that is the credit to the players.