Nov. 3, 2007

Recap |  Final Stats |  Action Photos 

Michigan State Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Grand Valley State at Michigan State - Nov. 2, 2007

MSU Head Coach Tom Izzo

"I called a timeout with 15 seconds left so I could go over some things I wanted to go over. I'm disappointed in some things that we did as coaches. I'm disappointed in things we did as players. But I have to give a lot of credit to Grand Valley. They were very well coached. They did a very good job.

"We had some of the strangest lineups in there. It's a little early in the year for that. No matter what the excuses are.....they out-rebounded us. They out-defended us. I think they out-worked us.

"There were great spots for us. There were three freshmen that I thought played very well. I'm not sure there's many nights when Drew goes 3-for-15. But it happened and nobody picked it up.

"We got in tremendous foul trouble. I think it hurt (Raymar) Morgan. I think it hurt (Goran) Suton. We had some of the most bizarre lineups in there. All in all, I learned something about my players. I learned something about myself. We'll get better as the weeks go on. I thought the effort was the most disappointing. I think our freshmen played with more tenacity than the upper classmen. Drew (Neitzel) played pretty hard. Travis (Walton) played OK. After that our freshmen definitely played with more tenacity. You know me. It doesn't bother me who I start and who I play. I'm not threatening anyone, but we're not going to get out-rebounded by teams any more. We're not going to get out-defended any more. The turnovers were casual. Kalin (Lucas) had four. And that's OK. He did a lot of good things, and he made a lot of mistakes. But we had some guys who had some turnovers and didn't rebound the ball, and didn't do the things they had to do...

"We played a smaller team. All in all it was not a very well coached team (MSU) and it was not a very well played game. But give a lot of credit to Grand Valley. They did last year and they did it this year. It's a good basketball team. I think we played one of the best Division II teams in the country. And no one should let off us because we shouldn't lose a game or play with that ineptness. I think they made us play that way, so I think the credit should go to them.

"If you ask me what was most disappointing...it was, that was the biggest exhibition game crowd there ever was (sellout), and we sure didn't...we delivered a good game I guess. But we didn't deliver a good play. And I apologize to them, because that was a good crowd, and we didn't show."

GVSU Head Coach Ric Wesley

On the overtime victory......
Well, obviously we're very excited to start our season that way. I told our guys that I wished that was the last game of the year. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go but that's a great feeling for our kids. I'm really proud of the way they played a number of guys. In a marathon game like that we had to dig pretty deep in our bench and we had a number of guys who had never played college basketball game and three freshmen in particular, and two of them are still seventeen years old. So I am really pleased with their effort and the way they came in, and several other guys on our bench. That has been our challenge. As we go into the preseason, to see who our next group of guys are, we are pretty set on our starting group and to see some guys come off the bench and make some tremendous plays in a big time atmosphere really gives us hope that we can have another great year.

On the respect for Michigan State's program...
So we're really excited because we have so much respect for Michigan State's program. Everyday I come into work and I tell our guys our model for excellence is Michigan State. I would love to have people think of our program in the matter - that they think of Michigan State's program and Coach Izzo. So we're really happy and we're really hoping this spring boards us onto a great season and this trip this week down to Florida.

On what it means to GVSU's program...
We're still Grand Valley. People ask me about these exhibition games like we're in Alaska or something, I don't know. We've got good basketball in our league; I'm not saying we're a Big Ten-type of team. But at least it gives us a big type of forum. I see all you guys, you guys don't come to see us play, so at least you walk out of here thinking we're halfway decent. That's good and I appreciate that. We deal with that in recruiting all the time. People think there is an invisible wall between Division I and Division II. It's like Class A and Class B basketball, but not every Class A team is better than every Class B team. I think there is a lot of crossover. Again, I'm not saying we are a Big Ten-caliber team, but I think we are comparable to a lot of low-major and sometimes mid-major teams. We have great kids that work really hard, and they showed tonight that they're capable on any given night of playing pretty good basketball. So I don't think that this is going to be a life-changing experience for me or our guys, but it sure is a great night for us.

On rebounding technique...
They're so big and strong that we just tried to gang rebound. We just tried and get in there and scrap and claw. We probably do the same drills everybody else does but it still comes down to desire and commitment to get in there and throw your body around and our guys did that enough tonight. I don't know that we have any magic or secret drills. I just yell at them a lot and go get it.