March 8, 2007

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

Michigan State Spartans

COACH TOM IZZO:  Well, it's hard to feel great and yet, again, as I told my guys, Northwestern is a hard team to play against.  I think it's one of the harder teams to prep against, and we had some days    I think instead of the players, I've got to take some of the blame for not figuring out better things to do offensively.  It was stifling.  I mean, it wasn't like we missed a lot of good shots, but we did turn it over a little bit too much, although after the first five minutes, I think we only had nine or ten turnovers the rest of the way.
 We did not attack offensively as well as we could or should have, and then they made some shots at the end.  We had hands up and they made some shots, give them all the credit.  They just kept hanging in there.
 This is one and done time, which means win and advance is the secret, not how well you played.  We shot 57 percent and won by an eyelash.  That's hard to do.  We out rebounded them only by seven, and last time we did a lot better job of that.  But I think the whole thing was our poor offensive attack, and believe me, that wasn't the players, that was me.
 We're going to get ready for Wisconsin, looking forward to that.

 Q.  Drew, why do you think the game changed after you got off to such a hot start and looked like you guys were going to coast?
 DREW NEITZEL:  It's a tough game.  Anytime you're playing against Northwestern, it's hard to get in a rhythm.  They're constantly slowing the game down, slowing your amount of possessions down and they made some big shots.
 Scott stepped out and hit a couple big threes there at the end of the first half that kind of changed the momentum.  Late in the game they hit some big shots, too.
 
Northwestern really controls the tempo, and like I said, it's hard to get in a rhythm sometimes.

 Q.  Travis, how did you feel when (Jeremy) Nash threw that ball away on the last possession of the Wildcats?
 TRAVIS WALTON:  I felt great.  Today was just a bad day on execution for offense, but we stuck to it as a family and as a team and we got through it.

 Q.  Drew, you seemed like you had a good rhythm going in the first half, hit three or four threes, then second half you had a long lull without even taking a shot.  Is that because you saw something in the defenses or what was that?
 DREW NEITZEL:  Yeah, it was tough.  Like I said, Northwestern, that one three one it's hard to simulate in practice going against it.  Their players are so long and they do a great job of getting their hands in the passing lane, where I think they were taking me away a little bit in the second half.
 Not only shots, just touches, I didn't    but we found other ways to score, and some other guys stepped up and made some big plays, so that's what we needed.

 Q.  That tied the high for the most threes you've given up this year along with Bradley.  Is there any concern along with the perimeter defenses or is it just a one game thing?
 DREW NEITZEL:  I think it's a one game thing.  Like I said, Scott stepped out and hit a couple big threes in the first half and I hit a couple in the second half.  We knew their big guys could shoot.  I think we were so worried about the back cuts and things going towards the basket that we were kind of on our heels a little bit, and we didn't get out and contest the shots.  You've got to give them credit, too, for knocking them down.

 Q.  Maybe both you guys can address the free throws.  You guys both missed some free throws at the end.  Anything in particular out there today?
 TRAVIS WALTON:  Just came to the line, knocked down one and didn't knock down the second one.  Just didn't make it.

 Q.  Drew and Travis, could you just talk about the Wisconsin game coming up?  You guys have played them twice in the last couple weeks.  What sticks out about those two games?
 DREW NEITZEL:  I just think they're great.  They were both great games that came down to the wire.  It's two great teams battling it out.  We both kind of play the same way, solid defense and don't pressure too much and kind of stick to our principles.
 I think it's going to be another great game tomorrow, and we're going to have to watch some film, get some rest and get ready to play.

 Q.  Along those lines, as defenders go, how would you rate Michael Flowers and the battles you've had with him in those two games?
 DREW NEITZEL:  It's tough.  He's a great defender, a good defensive team.  But at the same time, you know, he    you know, I've had some good games against him this year.  He is a great defender.  He's challenged me, and none of my shots that I've gotten have been easy.  You know, I think it's going to be another tough day tomorrow, too.

 Q.  Drew, is it nice to get this rubber match at a neutral floor here in the Big Ten Tournament?
 DREW NEITZEL:  Yeah.  Like I said, it's been a great rivalry, especially in the Big Ten.  Over the past few years, two solid programs, so I think it's going to be a great game tomorrow.
 THE MODERATOR:  We'll finish up with questions for Coach Izzo.

 Q.  It's tough to play or win four in four days, but like you said, it's one and out now, so you're actually in a two day tournament.  Is it easier having played today as opposed to sitting out and not been on the court and played the game?
 COACH TOM IZZO:  That's almost like buying a car.  If you have success buying one kind, one model, you usually go back to it.  The advantage of, I guess, being in this a few years like I have, we've not played on the first day and had some success and we've played on the first day, and last year we had some success and wore down a little bit.
 But I'd say that the first day back it might be a little bit of an advantage for the team that played, for tomorrow's game a little bit, although you battle your familiarity with the court and the baskets if that's a big deal, compared to your fatigue.  That's the two things you juggle.
 So like I said, I've lost the first game and won the first game, I've gone so many different ways.  I'm not sure where the advantage    I'm a little worried.  Drew (Neitzel) and Travis (Walton) both played 35 minutes, Raymar played quite a few minutes.  But it wasn't a taxing game.  In other words, it wasn't a game where it was a lot of fast breaking or pressing most of the game.
 You know, I'm just looking forward to the game.  I think it's    I think a lot of people are looking forward to it.

 Q.  I know your main focus is tomorrow's game and you want to win as many as possible in this tournament, but do you feel this win today gives you a body of work that merits NCAA?
 COACH TOM IZZO:  You know, it's such a dangerous question because you don't want to upset anybody, but I thought our merit of work was earned before we came here, I really did.  But that doesn't mean we were in then and it doesn't mean we're in now.  That's what's a little more difficult about this tournament right now.
 But if you look at what we've done, I continually say our effect on what we did in the Big Ten, I think it is and was enough, but you never know.  I don't like trusting the situation because you never know who's going to win those tournaments.  You don't know what's going to happen, so we'll just kind of try to keep winning.

 Q.  Their three point shooting, is that just a fact of them making shots or is that a cause for concern?
 COACH TOM IZZO:  No, I'm not concerned.  We did not play great.  I have to give them a lot of credit for it.  But our defense, I mean, we did not play great and they shot 43, and they shot a high percentage second half.  I did not think our big guys did as good a job.  The two they hit on Travis at the end, I think he's still maybe one of or the best defensive player in this league, and he had a hand up, and I have to give him credit.  He hit two bombs, otherwise it's a 10, 12 point game.  And five, six years ago when Dick was there, that's like a 20 point win.
 I was impressed with Bill's (Carmody) team.  They could have quit when they were 16 down and they didn't.  I think that shows a lot about them.  I've enjoyed going against (Tim) Doyle and watching him get better each and every year.  We actually did a pretty good job on him.  The Coble kid is going to be a heck of a player.
 We didn't defend it great.  Our bigs really did a poor job, I thought, on (Vince) Scott in particular because we knew what he could do.
 But no, no, I'm not going to let anybody talk about our defense when we've had 30 games of some of the most unbelievable defense in my career at Michigan State, so that's not alarming for tomorrow.  What's alarming is we just kind of played the game after we got that 16 point lead instead of really having that killer instinct.
 But I think that sometimes happens.  We're still young, we're still growing, and that's going to happen for a while until we learn how to get through that.
 But they deserve credit, guys, they really do.  That zone, not many teams have really cracked it much.

 Q.  The four and four thing, do you have some ideas about what's important to get a team from, say, the first day to at least playing on Sunday, what has to happen, that sort of thing?
 COACH TOM IZZO:  Well, I have to admit, I got to do a lot of things, winning the first thing, losing when you're the No. 1 seed, I've done it all.  One thing I haven't done is four and four, so you're talking about an area that I can't really give my expertise on.
 But I think when you've got a team that can guard people like I think we can for the most part, you just    you know, you keep hunkering down.
 It was kind of interesting because this is the first time I took our shoot around the day of a game.  Everybody talks about shooting at this place.  Our players wanted to come here and shoot at 8:00 in the morning, so we got up at 7:30, and, shazam, we shoot 57 percent.  It shows players are smarter than coaches because I wouldn't have done that.  You can rely on that one game, but you're not going to rely on that for four games.
 I think the defense is something we can rely on for four games and I think that gives us a chance.  When you have the teams that you're looking at to play to get there, starting with Wisconsin tomorrow, I can promise you I'm thinking about nothing else except them.

 Q.  Does it help that you guys are playing a later game and that you're not right back here early in the morning?
 COACH TOM IZZO:  Well, last year, I'll tell you, that was a killer, man, the Illinois to Iowa thing was a killer, and I'm glad they made adjustments.  I hope it's fair for everybody because 1 o'clock in the morning we got back to the hotel and we got back    should have just slept in the arena, it would have been easier.
 Yeah, I think now it's a fair shake that we get as much rest as you can possibly get.  The nice thing is I don't think we need a lot of prep time.  We've just played them    this will be the third time in, what, 18 days or something.  So no excuses there.  It's more about us getting some rest and feeling a little better about ourselves.
 I think the guys were kind of disappointed in how they played, and I'm trying to be cool about it, but I'd have to say I was disappointed that we didn't execute better and maybe guard a little bit better.
 So we weren't as sharp today.  I mean, but in a tournament you always have your glitches.  We beat Northwestern by one I think the year we won it and should have got beat.  Kevin O'Neill was there, he had us beat, Morris Peterson made an incredible shot, or otherwise we lose to them.  That's the problem with this league, when you get a team like Northwestern who's a 10th seed but their style and everything is so competitive, it's a tough game.

 Q.  I was just wondering, the way they aggressively pressured the perimeter, did that mess up the plan at all or were there just plays to be made that weren't made at times?
 COACH TOM IZZO:  There were plays.  Sutton struggled at times.  Every time he got the ball in the middle it was like a hot potato.
 But I mean this sincerely, I didn't do a very good job    this is one that, as I said, I can get on a player or he can get on me.  I can tell the media when the players goof up and I can tell you when the coach did it.  I did not think we were as well prepared as we needed to be for that zone, and we had time to do it.  It's just that it didn't look as bad in practice because we didn't have so much length in there.  We had a bunch of midgets, little guys running around in there as our walk ons.  A 5'8" guy couldn't simulate what the 6'7" guy could.
 But we didn't make some plays.  I thought we fumbled the ball and did some things, and then we had MoJo (Maurice Joseph) in foul trouble and we thought he was a zone buster that could help us.  So there were reasons, but I think more of it is their good play and maybe our lack of getting into proper sets to go against that thing.

 Q.  How scary was it for you when they started hitting the threes down the stretch and drew within three with just ten seconds?
 COACH TOM IZZO:  Well, it was.  It was scary, disappointing, and yet that's the way basketball goes.  Like I said, I've been here with the team that won the national championship and barely escaped.  So I've been beaten by Wright State.  I've got a lot of things I can look back on and say I've been through it.  That's what I told the team, this is probably the calmest locker room we've had because they knew.  As long as they knew we didn't play as well as we could have, that's all that matters to me.
 And yet, I'll continue to say this, not to give Bill (Carmody) credit, but that team deserves some credit.  They made some plays, they made some shots.  And that defense, to echo what you said about the wings and the pressure on the perimeter, I'll tell you what, Doyle does a heck of a job up there.  He just plays it real well and those wings were very long and wide, and we struggled.
 THE MODERATOR:  Thank you for your time.

Northwestern Wildcats

COACH BILL CARMODY:  We played them at the beginning of the Big Ten Conference schedule, and they out rebounded us by 25 rebounds.  That was our main focus today, to try to just sort of match their physicalness of their play.  I thought we did a pretty good job at that.
 They got a few more rebounds, but I think it was mostly defensive rebounds.  We missed more shots than they did.
 But it didn't seem like they got too many second looks, although a couple at the end were real important where they rebounded and brought the ball out.
 But at halftime I told them, fellows, they're off an awful lot, you're getting some open looks, and if we're going to beat this team, you have to make    put the No. 8 on the board, you have to make eight threes.  If you do that, I think we can beat this team.  Each guy is going to have to step up, and we started making some, five or six in the second half that kept us in there.  I was proud of the way the guys hung in there.
 It's not what you like, to go out on the first day because you don't get a real flavor of the tournament to tell you the truth, but I thought they did their best and I thought    I think despite the record, we've been improving.  I think it's sort of promising for the future with a few guys, the few guys we have in.
 Michigan State, they don't play on Thursday too often, and they played hard, and they just made plays when they had to make them and shots when they had to make them.  And we weren't able to handle that.  He had 20 points, but it seemed very economical to me, not that many shots, and he made the right plays and the right passes.  So you know, we struggled guarding him.

 Q.  Craig, could you talk about the comeback and the attitude and the shots you hit and then that last pass that got away from you, the whole sequence and the comeback and the shots?
 CRAIG MOORE:  The comeback was basically just try to get the ball down the court as fast as possible, get it to the open men, make a shot and then play defense.  I think we did that pretty well.  Timmy found some guys, everybody was making shots when we needed them to.
 And then the last play, Jeremy did everything right.  He was on Neitzel, he defended great, he rebounded the ball well, and I kind of    I don't remember if I called for the ball or not, but I kind of looked over at coach to see what he was doing, I looked at the clock and then the ball flew past my face.

 Q.  Mr. Doyle, you joined the illustrious likes of Isaiah Thomas and Magic Johnson today, I think, more than 500 points, 150 assists.  Say something about how you crowned with your career.  It was an exciting game even though you came up short.
 TIM DOYLE:  Yeah, I think it's a testament to Coach Carmody, that 13-18, 2-14 in the league, we just bowed out to arguably the toughest seven seed you're ever going to face.  This is a team that lost two games at the buzzer to the No. 1 team in the country at their place.  So it was just a tough game, but I think it's just a testament to Coach.  We came out and we gave all our heart, we gave all our effort.
 The records are great.  I want to look back when I'm an old man and enjoy them.  Today it's kind of a bitter taste, but it's nice to see the young guys respond to the way I stepped forward, and I always give 110 percent and I see the guys out there doing the same.

 Q.  Kevin, you guys did a lot better job rebounding this game compared to last time against Michigan State.  Did you change anything or was it just seeing the ball better?
 KEVIN COBLE:  If you look at the majority of the games we lose, we get killed on the boards, and that was something that happened there.  The coaching staff had emphasized that throughout the last few weeks of practice, doing various rebounding drills.  I think that's something we've keyed in on.  We realize in order for us to compete in these games and to win that we have to rebound.  I think we consistently got better as the season went on and kind of shortened    lessened that margin of rebounding deficit between the teams.  So I think that was a positive thing and something that we need to continue to work on for next year.

 Q.  Were you a little bit hyper, too quick fouls and you were sitting?
 KEVIN COBLE:  I came out aggressively.  That's going to happen sometimes, I guess, in the game.  I just tried to play hard, and those things are going to happen.  You play enough basketball, it's going to come back and get you.  But you just have to play through it.
 I was pleased with how everybody was able to respond to that, and I was glad to come out in the second half and play a little bit better.

 Q.  Tim, you had 16 in the first half and it could have gotten pretty ugly pretty quick.  Why didn't it?
 TIM DOYLE:  A key guy, that was Jeff Ryan, and he's a freshman, and Kevin is a freshman, and every game    even midway through this game you could see (Kevin) Coble getting more comfortable playing in the United Center.  I think he might have been a little anxious at the beginning like he just said.  But that's just a testament to our team.
 I think we've had that never say die, let's not bow out attitude.  Then we started to gain some confidence and Craig (Moore) stepped up, he hit a couple big shots.  We were right in that game.  They shoot 58 percent for a team that struggles scoring, and you know, they came into    we came into the game hoping that, big arena, early game, they'd struggle with their shooting.  That's a ballgame we can usually win if we shoot that well and get multiple contributions from everybody on the team.
 Like I said, the effort was there and I think that was important because we could have bowed our heads and showed up and took our free meal and left.

 Q.  What excites you about the future with this program?
 KEVIN COBLE:  Oh, I think just the opportunity to continue to learn from the coaches and the incoming recruits that we have and just coming back and playing with the same guys that I've gotten to know over the last couple years.  It's just an honor to be out there on the court with them and continue to grow teamwork wise.  And I think we can do some pretty special things with the foundation that the seniors have sort of laid for us this year, and leading into next year it's going to be something that's really special.

 Q.  Can a game like this where you get your shooting touch back help you for the future?
 CRAIG MOORE:  Well, my next game is not for eight or nine months, so I'll replay this game a couple times in my head.  Coach is already talking about what we have to do as individuals and what we need to do to succeed.
 We learned a lot from the seniors and we're going to miss Timmy (Doyle) and Joe (Kennedy) and Vince (Scott) and Ivan (Tolic) next year, but we're going to have to build on that and do more, do what we have to do to survive without them.

 Q.  Tim, this is a similar question that was asked earlier, but what has to be done to kind of turn this thing around do you think?
 TIM DOYLE:  Well, there's encouraging signs.  We obviously lose the leading scorer in the Big Ten last year and coming into the season we're picked dead last in every poll.  We go out and we have the best non conference record in the history of Northwestern.  There's going to be little steps.  So that's something you've got to build on.
 Kevin (Coble), Jeff Ryan, Craig Moore, we're talking about some young, young kids.  Each year these guys are going to get better.  Last year I assumed more of a role player where this year I stepped up and I had to be the main focus.
 I think next year everyone says, what are they going to do without you, big Vince?  These guys are going to be fine.  These guys are going to emerge.  They're 18, 19-year-old kids.  Guys are going to get more assertive and play with more confidence because honestly, I haven't really improved my game that much.  It's just I became more confident as I got more minutes and more comfortable on the floor.
 The young guys, you're going to see them expand.  We've turned the corner and we're going the right direction, 11 non conference wins or 10, whatever it is, we're headed in the right direction.
 THE MODERATOR:  We can finish up with Coach Carmody.

 Q.  I think Craig touched on it, but you guys did everything right on the last possession but threw the ball away.  Talk about how disheartening that was to see your plans not work out like you wanted them to.
 COACH BILL CARMODY:  Like Craig said, they told them to keep the ball away from Neitzel, Jeremy, and I told you if he beats you back there, I don't care, I'll take the blame for it, but just don't let him touch the ball.  It was a real good possession defensively.  We had Sutton taking the three, and air ball and get the rebound.  What can you say, that's part of playing basketball.  Stuff like that happens.
 I didn't tell them at the time, I had to call a time out because I don't like to do that, I just like to see what the situation is. Usually I don't.  What are you going to say?  We all wish it was different, but you're playing basketball.  I told the kid to keep his chin up.  That's all you can do.

 Q.  How much did the run at the end of the first half and into the second half a little bit get you or keep you in the game?  It was an 11 to 2 run.
 COACH BILL CARMODY:  Yeah, we started off pretty nicely, and like has happened so many times this year, it seemed like we missed a couple easy layups.  They called a walk on, (Ivan) Tolic, Jeff (Ryan) missed an easy one, somebody else missed something I thought was capable, and then I substituted, I changed a few guys, and it seemed like our defense went down.  I took Tolic out and he was doing a real good job in the middle there, I thought.
 It could have blown out.  We could have been blown out in the first half.  Those last like eight minutes    maybe it was the middle eight minutes, and then I think Craig hit a shot at the buzzer and there was something before that that went our way.  We just hung in there.  Still down nine, though, I think at half.
 I liked the way they were rooting for each other and stuff on the bench, and the guys were coming in and    that's important to me, you know, doing what they're supposed to do.

 Q.  You talked about the future looking bright.  I say that every year at this point.  What's different now about the future than has been in the past few years?
 COACH BILL CARMODY:  I don't know, I think our freshmen are pretty good, and I think that some of the guys we have coming in are going to help us right away.  It just seems like some of these freshmen are a little more focused on being good and improving.  It's still going to be incremental, I think, but I hope we can get up towards the .500 mark in the conference next year.  That would be something.
 It'll depend on how much these guys get better and what kind of    you know, what the incoming guys give us.  We clearly have to have    our shooting has to improve, and I think some of these guys are capable of that.

 Q.  Tom Izzo was very complimentary after the game, very gracious.  I wonder if that gets old after a while.  The idea is obviously for you to win games.  Do you almost get tired of that?
 COACH BILL CARMODY:  Well, I like Tom and respect him a lot.  He's a good guy.  We want to win here, all right, and that's the point of your question.  It's just, like, can we turn this thing around, can we get better?
 I think we can.  I'm sure we can, and we haven't done it.  But I feel confident in the guys we have, and we're starting to make some inroads.  I don't want to blow it up too much in the Chicago area, but we're starting to recruit guys and get guys from our backyard, and that's real important, not just this class but the juniors and sophomores, and it took us a while to do that.
 I think we're making some inroads, and we're going to get some of those guys and that's going to help immensely.  So I understand the point.  When is it going to happen because it's been seven years now, so we have to do it soon.

 Q.  To come within three points of tying it, does that give you an impressive profile looking at it, help sell the program a little bit?
 COACH BILL CARMODY:  Yeah, if you're watching the game, as far as recruiting, you can say, hey, they hung in there.  Last year we came out here and I thought it was a disgrace, against Penn State.  Leading up to this game I told the guys, our seniors, that, and I think that they took it to heart a little bit and worked hard and didn't quit.  Sometimes you find out that if you don't quit, then good things can happen.
 But I thought we played much better throughout the game.  Even though we were losing I know I'm going to look at the tape and see a little bit here, a little bit there, a missed layup.
 We're far away but not that far away.  It's hard for me to say.

 Q.  On the last sequence Craig said he was looking to the bench to see  
 COACH BILL CARMODY:  Yeah.

 Q.  Is it a routine to look for him to see whether you're going to call timeout and go, or at that point in the game should everybody just go?
 COACH BILL CARMODY:  We got the rebound, and I mean    there was ten seconds left or something like that.  Like I said, when he got the rebound, I didn't want to call timeout right then.  I wanted to let them all get down the court fast.  They all knew from the time out that we're going to need a three.  But if when they came down, they saw that it wasn't good, then I would have called a time out.  But I didn't want to do it from the full court.

 Q.  If you had gotten the ball into your half of the court, do you think Izzo would have let you all shoot a three or fouled you and forced you to just take two?
 COACH BILL CARMODY:  I'm not sure what he would have done.  We would have tried to prepare for both.  You know what I mean?  A lot of guys like to foul, a lot of guys don't.  I like to, but I don't know what Tom's (Izzo) thinking on that is.

 Q.  I just thought you knew him more as a coach, what his strategy would be.
 COACH BILL CARMODY:  I don't want to say anything because the next time I play him it won't work out.
 THE MODERATOR:  Thanks for your time and patience, Coach.
 
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