Post-Game Quotes: Ohio State – Michigan State University Athletics

Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo

Opening statement…. 

 First of all, I give Chris (Holtmann) lot of credit. You know, when you change your team at a year and do the things he’s done and he’s played probably his best basketball last four games, I got a lot of credit goes to him. Those freshmen have been good. (Justice) Sueing has been really good. That’s the first part of this. The second part is, you know, we’re playing good, and I’ll get to that. But, our defense has been terrible. We’re not guarding, and that’s got to change. We went from No.1, No. 2 in the league in regular field goal percentage defense. We’re still, I think, No. 1 in the league in three-point percentage defense, and yet we’re not guarding. Some of it is matchups. Some of it’s tough. They went real small a lot, playing (Isaac) Likekele at the five. And you know, we tried to stay traditional somewhat. But, we’re shooting 54 percent and 60 percent and a coach should be happy. But, I’m honestly not, because I know we’re not going to win that way. We’ve got to do a better job defensively. In saying that, we got to do a better job defensively, it usually turns into rebounding the ball. So, those are the two areas that I think I put a big emphasis on a week ago, and yet, hasn’t carried over. I thought the second half, Tyson (Walker), AJ (Hoggard), Jaden (Akins) got after it. And in fairness to Malik, he kind of really had some back spasms and he just looked like he couldn’t move at all. And that was a little tough on him. But, you know, we had a 10-point lead again and then ill-advised shot, turnover, two threes, and it’s a ballgame. So, we still got some work to do. But if you’re shooting the ball this good, we should be able to regain our defense because we’ve been there for probably two thirds of this year. So, it’s not like we have to reinvent the wheel. We just have to get back to understanding that. I think it was Iowa women’s basketball 40 years ago, you played offense on one end and defense on the other. If I could do that, I’d be really good, but I can’t do that. So, the guys that are scoring – and Tyson’s been one of my best defenders – but that’s the only thing that’s been negative. On a positive, the ball is moving. The fast break – we had 17 points on a break early. That was a big plus. You know, when we bared down, I thought we did a…