Logo

Athens, GA (Mar 28, 2009) - In Sweet Sixteen action from the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball tournament on Friday, Michigan State overcame a five point deficit with about three minutes to go to defeat defending national champion Kansas 67-62. This is the transcript of the Michigan State University post-game press conference as provided by the NCAA and ASAP Sports.

BILL BENNER: We'll start with an opening comment from Coach Izzo and
then take questions for the student athletes.

COACH IZZO: Well, I take my hats off to both teams. I thought Kansas
played awfully well that first half. Yet I felt we played awfully poor
as far as the turnovers.

I think they had 16 or 18 points on our turnovers the first half,
two the second. That was probably the difference in the game. We did a
better job taking care of the ball. I got some guys that just didn't
want to lose. My hat goes off to all the guys up here. They did an
incredible job of executing on the timeouts and last minute plays. We
weren't always pretty looking, I didn't think. We had some bizarre
lineups in there. But even though we got out shot and out rebounded, I
thought the shooting was more of those seven or eight layups they got
off our turnovers.

Kansas is a very, very good team. We beat a very, very good team.
But I'm really proud of the way our guys fought back when they could
have died a few times.

BILL BENNER: Questions for the student athletes.

Q. Kalin, can you talk about the play going against Collins, pump
fake, what was that all about? A set play or instinctive?

KALIN LUCAS: No, you know, it wasn't a set play. One thing, the shot
clock was going down. One thing coach wanted to do is just spread the
floor. That's all I tried to do, tried to create. I just got lucky and
I got him with the bump and I scored.

Q. Kalin, one more thing about that. The last play of the first
half, shot clock was coming down, you waved off a ball screen. You
seemed confident to take Collins. Did you retain that confidence going
into the last five minutes? How key was that?

KALIN LUCAS: It was real key for us, you know. You know, one thing I
try to do is try to create for myself and, you know, try to create for
my teammates, as well. As far as the first half, shot clock was going
down. I just tried to create. I found G open.

Q. Travis, you get the lead, then they have a run to go up five. Did
you worry at that point maybe you guys were out of gas? What were you
able to summon there in the last few minutes?

TRAVIS WALTON: I think that's why we got a great team. When we came
into the timeout, every time we came on the court, you heard our whole
bench yelling, Keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing. It was a
tough game. Kansas played a great game. They was digging. We was
digging. I think at the end, us pressuring them, us running different
bodies at them kind of tired them out a little bit. But we did a great
job, a team effort encouraging each other to keep pushing.

Q. Durrell not sitting with you. You talk about your team effort.
Two minutes to go, he hung in there. He tipped it in. Gets fouled.
Hits one of two free throws, then saves the ball. Talk about those two
plays of Durrell at that time.

GORAN SUTON: I think, you know, Durrell is kind of an unsung hero of
this game. He got the huge tip in, the free throw. He saved that ball
at the end when Collins missed the free throw, he got a huge rebound.
He helped me keep Aldrich off the glass.

He just did an unbelievable job. Shows you the little things that
win the game.

Q. Kalin, you tried to throw down a dunk in the first half. In the
second half, looked like you got into one of Kansas guys' faces. What
got into you in this game? Did you take on the intensity of this game?
Did you feel you had to get more intense, too?

KALIN LUCAS: No, you know what, first, you know, they're a great
team. I know they was going to come out ready and aggressive. I
already knew they was gonna play us tough.

So it was a tough game. It was a tough game for both teams.

Q. Kalin, could you talk about the pass you made to Raymar about
1:46 left, how you did that dunk, reminiscent to what you did against
Indiana, how important that was?

KALIN LUCAS: It was a big play, you know. One thing I try to do, one
thing I did was create it. I seen Raymar on the block. I just passed
it to him. You know, he got the dunk, you know. And it was real big
for our team.

Q. Goran, you guys were down 60-55, I think you got seven straight
rebounds. Is that kind of Spartan basketball, do what you need to do
when you need to do it?

GORAN SUTON: Yeah, I have to say yes. I think I didn't realize I had
seven rebounds in a row.

But I think, you know, that shows, you know, how much effort and how
much we work on our rebounding every day, you know, how much emphasis
Coach Izzo puts in our rebounding.

Q. Goran, it was quite a battle down low for you with Aldrich. Did
that at all spark you offensively from an emotional or mental
standpoint?

GORAN SUTON: Well, yeah, it did. You know, it's tough to guard a guy
like him who's, you know, long, heavy, strong down low. I know he was
going to be tired, 'cause he's working down there. We had to run some
ball screens, make him guard me too so we can get him tired on the
other end.

Q. Travis, did you see anything out of Kalin tonight that maybe is a
step forward for him, another growth?

TRAVIS WALTON: You know, I said all year, he a big time player. He
want the ball in his hands. He showed that to y'all last year when he
made big plays, had the big plays against Pittsburgh, against other
big players. You know, I think the type of person Kalin is, when he
play, gets another big time guard, Sherron Collins, he want to kind of
prove himself to the nation. Today I think he took it personal. I
think at the shot clock, he wanted the ball in his hands. At the end
of the first half, he wanted the ball in his hands and made a play for
Goran. And at the end of the game with the game on the line, he took
it, made a big play, pump faked, made a great play for us. He's just a
big time player. He growing. He young. He got a bright future in front
of him.

BILL BENNER: Gentlemen, thank you. We'll continue with questions for
Coach Izzo.

Q. Tom, Morgan in the second half, was that a pop he took to the
nose or was he out of the game?

COACH IZZO: That's a good question. You know, in all honesty, it
started out where he just wasn't playing as good. Then when he got
popped in the nose, it was a little worse. Yet I had enough faith to
go back to him at the end.

It's been that kind of team all year. As I said, we didn't think
Delvon was doing what he could do, so we just moved some people
around. That made us a little bit, you know, unsure on some of our
plays because we did have some people out of position, and yet we hung
in there.

So Ray made some big plays. I thought the dunk he made, he went with
authority. He got a couple big rebounds. We put him there in the end.
We were able to switch four. On those ball screens, we were switching
a bit more even though we made some foolish fouls.

Q. Suton made the three pointer, tied it at 42 all, Aldrich with a
field goal, the Goran picked up his third foul. You took him out and
then put him back in at 12:05 to go. Was that a call you couldn't
leave him on the bench?

COACH IZZO: This year I have just gone by feel. Sometimes I feel
sick and it works out. That's about the way it's been.

But he's an important cog to our wheel, you know. At times, when we
have certain lineups in there, when we have Chris and Durrell in
there, we've got more scoring out there. When we have Travis and
Raymar out there, we have better defense and kind of toughness.

So you got to have G out there if you have certain lineups because
he can score and he can pick and he can pop. We're trying to keep him
off of Aldrich a little bit. We didn't want him to pick up another
foul. We played ID a little bit more during that stretch.

Things worked out, but they worked out because we executed some big
time plays out of timeouts. I thought we ran some things, even Kalin's
last one, we just wanted to. They were starting to switch everything.
They did a great job. He's a very, very good coach. They started
switching everything up top. We got caught with almost a couple of
shot clock violations. So I didn't even want anybody in there. It just
worked out.

Q. As you said, offensively you struggled a lot in the first half.
How would you account for this?

COACH IZZO: Well, it was easy. You know, we had seven turnovers for
layups. I mean, like I said, I think they had 16 or 18 points for
turnovers. They were almost direct. Korie panicked a little bit. G
panicked a little bit. That ball felt like Christmas, we were just
giving it away. They were going down and dunking it.

I think even though they shot 46%, if you take away those seven or
eight layups, you know, it would have been a little different game. So
I wasn't panicking at halftime except to quit turning the ball over.
Second half, they get two or four points off our turnovers. A huge
difference.

I don't think it was our shooting. We missed some tip ins, some
decent shots. I thought it was our turnovers that led to touchdowns.
That was the difference.

Q. Any win at this stage is satisfying, but the way you did it, to
come back, do it with defense, get all those rebounds at the end, how
good was that to watch?

COACH IZZO: It was. It was kind of Spartan basketball. We got a
break going a couple times. I didn't think in general we got our fast
break going like I wanted to because they did a good job on the
boards. But down the stretch, we did a great job. We really started
getting some guard rebounds. Durrell Summers gets five. I think Chris
Allen gets three. Travis Walton gets five. We weren't getting any the
first half. That made a big difference. If we would have rebounded a
little better, I think we could have run a little bit better.

They're a good running team. I think we're a good running team. We
kind of negated each other there because one of us rebounded real
well, then the other one did. We couldn't keep consistent, either
team.

Q. Kalin knocking down the five free throws at the end of the game,
what goes through a coach as mind when you're fouling the other team
and sending them to the free throw line, stopping the clock?

COACH IZZO: You don't want to know what went through my mind. I just
couldn't believe. I didn't understand the one on the tripping. I think
he tripped over his own guy, I really do. The other one, we were
switching on the side and Travis gets glued into somebody, and he was,
you know, like a Tasmanian devil, he was just on him. That was a goofy
one. What went through my mind was I was very upset about it and tried
not to show it.

Q. Probably don't want to look to Louisville yet. But what does it
mean six Elite 8s in 11 years?

COACH IZZO: Well, I'm really proud of that, for our program, our
university. I'm really proud of it for the Big 10, you know. I think
we were very well prepared this year for this tournament and the
toughness you have to display in this tournament because of the teams
we played in our league. I think our league deserves some credit.
There's no question the Big East is a great league. But our league's
been pretty good, too. I don't always look at who goes the farthest
because I think it all comes down to matchups.

I'm proud for that. I'm proud for our players of the past, Morris,
Mateen, Charlie and Andre. Now I'm proud for the Kalins and Traviss
and Gs, all the other guys. Because it means we sustained something
and are still building.

You know, that's not easy to do at any university. It's not easy at
Michigan State. But I guess I'm excited about it.

Q. Can you talk about the steal Kalin made when he was playing
defense on Collins near the end.

COACH IZZO: He kind of helped because we stepped up on it hard. We
said we were going to step up. Normally we have Kalin continue
through. He just read it. It was a big time play. He just stepped
right in front of it. I don't think it was a bad play by Collins. I
think it was a great defensive play.

That's where Kalin might be growing the most. He's getting to be a
better defensive player.

But I look at Kansas and the job Bill Self has done this year. I
even feel better about the win because I know how tough he is, I know
how good defensively they are. They've got some great players. I told
our team it would probably be a one or two point game either way. It
almost wasn't. They almost handled us pretty good. Hopefully it was as
good a game to watch. I'm sure each fan base feels different about it.


But I felt great about it, so thanks.