BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2022

Tom Izzo

Max Christie

Tyson Walker

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Michigan State Spartans

Postgame Press Conference

Michigan State - 76, Maryland - 72

MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from Coach Izzo and then we'll take questions for the students.

COACH TOM IZZO: Well, with 13 minutes left I told my team I watched three games today. That team had a 17, 20-point lead. I guess I shouldn't have said that, but just concerned about that.

Give Maryland, give Danny Manning a lot of credit, the job he's done this year under a very, very difficult situation. But I do love a couple of those players. Ayala and Fatts Russell, they're special players and they kind of seem like special guys. I've really enjoyed competing against them the last two weeks.

As far as we go, I thought -- I told my team I thought 85 percent of that game we played damn good, damn good, and they hit some shots early and just kind of ground it out. I think we had seven turnovers in the last three minutes. And I guess there's no way that I shouldn't take some of the blame for that because press offense looked just ridiculous and we haven't been pressed much, so I'm going to take a little bit of that and find a way to be positive about the situation.

But the two guys I got with me really grew up, I thought. Everybody's been wondering as Tyson has gotten better and better and tonight made some big shots and big plays and guarded Fatts as good as you can guard him if he's guardable. I think we've all been waiting for Max. It's been a tough go for him for a while, for a couple weeks, and every press conference I had I kept telling him I had faith in him and tonight he was as smooth and good. And everybody will look at the threes and the free throws, I looked at the rebounding. One thing him and I talked about, he's got to get back to rebounding because I think it will make him better, more aggressive. He had three rebounds tonight and he had more than that, but he had three that were in severe traffic late and I thought that was the difference.

So hats off to Maryland, they fought back. Hats off to my guys, we played 85 percent good. 85 in this league or in this tournament or the next tournament is not good enough.

Q. This is for Max. Talk about that shooting a little bit. Obviously you see the first few go in. How did that help you? Did it maybe relax you, settle you down? What was going through your mind?

MAX CHRISTIE: Yeah, when I made the first few I felt a lot more comfortable when I was out there. But like Coach said, when I got those rebounds and played as best defense as I could, I felt even better. and I think that settled me in nice and easy. And then you combine that with the made shots, I think that's a good combination you can have, especially in March. So I felt pretty good out there.

Q. Tyson, first of all, after you got hit in the face, it looked like you were coming out trying to kind of assert yourself. What happened on that play and then down the stretch, particularly on that last bucket you made? What was kind of your read on it?

TYSON WALKER: When I went up for the rebound, he just came down and his elbow hit me right below my eye. And so I was a little shaken up, but it was fine. The last shot is just something I practice all the time when I'm working out and everybody has faith in me to take the shot, so with that, it's easy to make those shots.

Q. Question for Tyson. In those last three minutes you were struggling to get the ball inbounds. Can you kind of take us through what's going on there and has that been kind of a mental block, you know, just kind of get over it and get a good pass inbounds?

TYSON WALKER: They did a good job denying us, everybody from getting the ball and just being -- really trying to get the ball as hard as we should have. I felt like somebody else should go get it and get it to me, but I should have went and got it. And then those turnovers, we did so good for the past couple games not turning it over that we did it late at the end of the game, so just got to get better at that.

Q. Max, on Sunday, whether you were or not, you looked a little more fatigued and you had some turnovers, and you looked more sure of yourself out of the gate today. I'm wondering what sort of conversations you had, what sort of preparation for this, what sort of mental reset you tried to do before this game?

MAX CHRISTIE: Sunday I looked fatigue because my mental head space wasn't in the right spot. I had those couple turnovers and my mental head space went to crap. So in today's game I tried to stay even keeled, not get too high, too low mentally, and I think that showed. That's why I didn't seem as fatigued and felt more sure of myself on the court .

Q. This is also for Max. Those final rebounds that Coach was talking about in traffic, I guess is that a will or want to moment when you're going up for those? And then what about when you get to the line there and kind of knowing where the score is at that point?

MAX CHRISTIE: Those rebounds are definitely a want. They're just not going to come to you. You're not going to get it when you feel like it, especially at that time in the game when everybody needs that rebound. Both sides really need it. I just wanted it more than everybody else to get that rebound and I got it those two or three times. At the free-throw line, I'm confident in myself to make free throws in that situation. I've worked on it for a long time, so by no means was I not confident or nervous that I was going to miss them. I knew I was going to make them as soon as I stepped there.

Q. The drive and press past, Max and Tyson, they say how tough it is to beat a team three times. Did it actually help you a little bit down the stretch knowing that you had beaten Maryland twice and you come to a game almost the same script on Sunday?

MAX CHRISTIE: I would say to that question like you said, it is tough to beat a team three times and I think those -- we did beat them twice, but I don't think we really thought that was a luxury for us. All three times they've come back from a lead that we've had. So we didn't come to this game overlooking them at all because that's what they did to us and they did it again tonight. I think it's built a little bit toughness and greatness to make sure we need to realize we need to close out these games and really lock in at the end of the game when we have a lead. Like you said, it's tough to beat a team three times, but that's something we're capable of.

Q. For both Tyson and Max. When you guys have a big lead and then they come back, what is the feeling right now after you guys do get the win?

TYSON WALKER: You've got to be happy with the win because you keep playing, move on. We're just not satisfied with it because we had the game in our hands and then we kind of let it go. But we knew what they were capable of scoring and we kind of relaxed on defense and that allowed them to score in bunches like that.

MAX CHRISTIE: Same thing with Tyson, we've got to make sure that we can't let up leads like that. At the end of the day, we're comfortable with the win. Obviously a win is a win, but it was ugly at the end and that's something we've got to make sure that can't happen, can't happen.

Q. Obviously for Tom, you just heard the phrase "a win is a win" and this time of year a win is a win, but do you feel that way right now, that it's a win and that's all you need, or are you feeling something different, maybe angrier?

COACH TOM IZZO: I'm angry. I'm not happy with it. I've been in it long enough to know that a win is a win and it is, you know, advance and move on and all those great things. It's been a problem and we haven't solved the problem. We are playing at a higher level longer periods of time and, you know, we haven't been pressed hardly at all. I thought, to be honest, Tyson got fouled twice on that, really, really hammered the one in front of their bench and everything just kind of goes together.

As I always said and I think you don't believe this, but I've got to do a better job with the press. Obviously my staff, players got to do a better job and we've got to appreciate that even though they scored 20 and 17, I thought Fatts and Eric, you know, both took 17, 16 shots. So I think our defense was pretty good if they get that many points with that many shots. We just -- we get to that point where we're 20 up and we're in the huddle and we're talking about it and we come out and make two poor shot selections and a poor turnover and that's kind of a lack of leadership on the floor that we have to continue to build on. And probably we've got to do a better job from the bench and in really designating those things, but you can't script everything in a game.

Angry's probably a bad word. Is that in the vocabulary anymore? Are we allowed to be angry? Probably not, somebody will sue you for it. So disappointed, a little frustrated, a little bummed out, and for Tom Izzo, freaking angry, yeah. Yeah, I was angry. I do not accept that. That's not -- that's not what I should be doing. So I'll go home and beat the hell out of myself, look at the film and figure out how to get better.

Q. Tom, in those final two and a half, three minutes there, have you had a stretch like that in your career that you can remember?

COACH TOM IZZO: You know, that's a good question. I don't think I have. It all happened so quick and I think everybody got caught up in it. Like I said, I thought there were a couple times when Tyson was dribbling the ball or the one over his back, but everybody got caught up and we didn't do a good enough job. I think we had six or seven turnovers in that stretch. Does anybody know? You guys are reporters. How many?

Q. Seven?

COACH TOM IZZO: Seven in the final 2:26. It's got to be bad coaching. Even a player can't do that, so I'll take some blame for that and we'll try to do a better job.

Q. Tom, you said on Tuesday that you kind of thought that this current team was maybe one of the most inexperienced in the postseason that you've had in kind of recent memory. What did today's performance and what you kind of saw do to kind of gauge that, what they need to do kind of going forward to kind of acclimate to the one and done season or not?

COACH TOM IZZO: Like I said, I think I've had two guys that played in this tournament really, Gabe and Marquee, and Marquee hardly played, neither one of them played their freshman year. Their sophomore year we didn't have it, their junior year we had it in front of a bunch of statues -- not a bunch, a couple statues. So this is a new experience as it is for some other players, but that's where I think the fifth year and fourth year and guys that play a little more, you know, I felt our inexperience showed at times, but I'm experienced and I should be able to do a better job of getting that done. I've got to work on myself, too, and our staff.

Q. The drive and press pass, Tom, 36 years ago you had a game against Danny Manning. You lost and the clock stopped for 15 seconds. Did it seem like the clock was stopped in that last 2:26?

COACH TOM IZZO: Yeah. Yeah, it really did. I remember that like it was yesterday. I remember Jud (Heathcote) and the whole thing. It was an interesting time the day the clock stayed still.

It did feel like that last three minutes was an hour and a half, but it wasn't. I could argue about some calls or some things, but I can't argue about the clock. So whoever the hell you guys got there on the clock, you did a hell of a job.

Q. I was just wondering, when Graeme asked Max about his difference between last game and today and his head space and you were kind of there smiling and nodding your head a little bit, I was wondering if you could walk us through what you were thinking when he was answering that question.

COACH TOM IZZO: I'll just say we had a lot of talks in the last three, four days and there's nothing other than my players coming back that excites me more is when you spend time with a kid and you try to walk them through and try to get them to understand that there's a process to this whole thing. When he's making those free throws, I was smiling, I was just sitting there smiling saying, you know what, everybody wants to think of Xs and Os and what happens and skim things. Sometimes it's just talks. And I appreciate Max. I have stood by Max the whole year because he brings it every day and fun to see a guy kind of break through, and he did it at three levels, you know, four levels. Shooting was good, his defense was pretty good, his rebounding was off the charts and then the free-throw shooting down the stretch., So he did it at four different levels, and I'm proud of him, happy for him.

I think we've got some guys that are growing. Jaden Akins gets no credit here. He played pretty well, too. He made a couple of big shots, had a couple of good things defensively. Our young guys sometimes play a little better than our older guys, so we'll have to fix that, too.

Q. Tom, I had a similar question just about Max. As you mentioned, you kind of really stuck with him and let him know throughout the season that you wanted him shooting with confidence. How important do you think that is as you're trying to keep his spirits up to get him through that and to where he was today?

COACH TOM IZZO: I think it gets overblown that coaches can give a kid confidence. I think they can take it away, but I don't know if you can give it anybody. You can't jump in somebody's head. What he's got to do and what he did is worked his way through it but figured out what is he thinking out there. Is he thinking too much about his shot? He hasn't remembered very well, that was one of the things we talked about.

Not to name drop, but I did talk to Magic yesterday but he called and he talked about our team, he watches every game, I think he tapes them and runs them back. He just said if we would get lost in the defense and the rebounding, which is what our program stands for, get our running game back, everything else will fall in place. So I'll give him a little assist on this thing, too. I just felt like Max and I spent some time together, but the confidence is because, as he said, when your head's clear -- and in this day and age it's hard to clear your head. You've got so many different people coming at you. I think if he learned one lesson, it was keep my Army small, the village is parents and staff and himself and keep the team. I think that helped him, I really do.

Q. Sorry to stay with Max, but he didn't shoot for a bit. The focus seemed to be on rebounding and defense and when he finally shot, I think that first three was sort of a knuckleball, the next one he goosenecked and it rotated. It was as smooth as I think we've seen in awhile. Was that part of the plan, part of the talk to have it -- let it come to him a little bit, not forcing contested shots early?

COACH TOM IZZO: Yeah. I think sometimes when you do force shots that Michael Jordan would have a hard time making, then you lose more confidence. But you've got to love Shawn, he's a reporter that still wants to be an AAU coach and a gooseneck, he's got all the terminology, rotation.

But I think you're right. Those were pretty shots. And give AJ credit, too. He hit him on a couple of them. I still think we've got to get him more shots, but he got to the free-throw line more, he just did some great things.

You know, I'm telling you, all in all -- Marcus, when we got him the ball inside, boy, that first jump hook and he hit a couple other ones. Julius, same thing. But turnovers have been what's kind of hammered this team all year and they really do ugly head late in the game. And really, I mean, we've got to do a better job with the press offense as a staff and they've got to do a better job executing it. We'll go to work on that. We've got a nice tape-down area in our nice hotel and we've got room to have a full court scrimmage tonight so maybe we'll get after it a little bit, have a little fun and get ready for the Badgers.