Sure, Michigan State beat a solid mid-major opponent by close to 20 points. That's nice. But following Saturday's win, the discussion was mostly about the growth of sophomore Coen Carr.
Izzo also had some interesting things to say about Fears and some of the players who need to step up (Cooper) or show more consistency (Akins, Booker, and Kohler).
But all-in-all, it was hard to find much to complain about.
There were a couple of interesting quotes that were left on the cutting room floor. As for the 10-man rotation, Izzo described as follows:
"We had 43 points off the bench," Izzo said. "We were getting over half our points off our bench, because it's not really a bench, it's just another bunch of starters."
Yeah, that's not surprising. As we have discussed before, the top 10 guys are almost interchangeable and that could be a nightmare for opponents.
There was also a slightly eyebrow raising quote towards the end of the presser that I am not 100% sure how to interpret:
"I was disappointed that some guys didn't play, you know? And everybody says, well, give me another chance. Well, last year, I gave guys another chance, and we lost five games down the stretch. How about give me a chance to keep you in the game? Give me a chance. If it's effort related, no, there's no excuse. Saddi (Washington) said it at halftime. A couple guys took some tough shots. He said, 'this is an unbelievable place. He hasn't taken one guy out because of their shooting.' I only take them out because of their effort. And so, you know, are the minutes going to change a little? I can see some going up, some going a little down, but we need a couple guys to play better."
So it seems that one or two guys were not giving good effort at the end the season last year and Izzo kept giving them more chances then maybe they deserved. I would suspect one of those guys now plays for Vanderbilt.
Izzo also said that he was a little mad at his team that they did not build up a better margin at the end such that the scout team guys could get into the game. That was also interesting:
"I was mad at my team for today, because we have a scout team right now. You know we got the two twins from Okemos (Colin and Brennan Walton), Jesse (McCulloch), who's been unbelievable, and we put Kur (Teng), Gehrig (Normand), and, of course, Nick (Sanders). Nick, Gehrig and Kur deserve to play more. And I was mad at my team for that, because they know how much those guys helped them. The only thing they get is some crumbs, and they deserve to get maybe a half a meal tonight instead of some crumbs. And I think my team agreed."
Check out my full article here:
michiganstate.rivals.com
Izzo also had some interesting things to say about Fears and some of the players who need to step up (Cooper) or show more consistency (Akins, Booker, and Kohler).
But all-in-all, it was hard to find much to complain about.
There were a couple of interesting quotes that were left on the cutting room floor. As for the 10-man rotation, Izzo described as follows:
"We had 43 points off the bench," Izzo said. "We were getting over half our points off our bench, because it's not really a bench, it's just another bunch of starters."
Yeah, that's not surprising. As we have discussed before, the top 10 guys are almost interchangeable and that could be a nightmare for opponents.
There was also a slightly eyebrow raising quote towards the end of the presser that I am not 100% sure how to interpret:
"I was disappointed that some guys didn't play, you know? And everybody says, well, give me another chance. Well, last year, I gave guys another chance, and we lost five games down the stretch. How about give me a chance to keep you in the game? Give me a chance. If it's effort related, no, there's no excuse. Saddi (Washington) said it at halftime. A couple guys took some tough shots. He said, 'this is an unbelievable place. He hasn't taken one guy out because of their shooting.' I only take them out because of their effort. And so, you know, are the minutes going to change a little? I can see some going up, some going a little down, but we need a couple guys to play better."
So it seems that one or two guys were not giving good effort at the end the season last year and Izzo kept giving them more chances then maybe they deserved. I would suspect one of those guys now plays for Vanderbilt.
Izzo also said that he was a little mad at his team that they did not build up a better margin at the end such that the scout team guys could get into the game. That was also interesting:
"I was mad at my team for today, because we have a scout team right now. You know we got the two twins from Okemos (Colin and Brennan Walton), Jesse (McCulloch), who's been unbelievable, and we put Kur (Teng), Gehrig (Normand), and, of course, Nick (Sanders). Nick, Gehrig and Kur deserve to play more. And I was mad at my team for that, because they know how much those guys helped them. The only thing they get is some crumbs, and they deserve to get maybe a half a meal tonight instead of some crumbs. And I think my team agreed."
Check out my full article here:
According to Izzo, for Coen Carr and the Spartans ‘the best is yet to come’
"Coen Carr, no doubt, was the star of the game," Tom Izzo said.
