When you go into the United Center, one of the most famous basketball arenas in the world, and knock off No. 2 Duke in the Champions Classic, it would be hard for even someone as self-critical as Tom Izzo to nitpick his team's performance. That's what Michigan State basketball pulled off on Tuesday night, taking down No. 2 Duke in Chicago to start the year 3-0.
After the game, Tom Izzo addressed the media, where he was complimentary of Duke and his own team, while also giving a shoutout to the football team and their recent win over Michigan. You can see his best comments below:
On Duke and Jon Scheyer
- “I made a lot of comments that I absolutely love Duke’s team. I still love them. They missed a lot of shots early that I thought were wide-open shots for them.”
- “It’s a very talented and very good team… Some of it was us, some of it was them tonight. Don’t bet against them.”
- “You guys don’t realize how hard it is to do what he’s done, taking over for arguably the best coach that ever coached the game. That’s not easy, and I think Jon’s done it with class.”
- “It was two good teams. We found a way to get ahead early and kept the momentum, and I think that’s why we won the game.”
On beating Duke
- “As far as beating Duke, I’m apologizing to our fans, to my wife, to my kids, because they’ve beaten us like a drum… All those people are saying that, so it pisses me off.”
- “They deserve what they’ve gotten against us, but we haven’t taken a back seat to anybody either. And I don’t plan on taking a back seat in the near future or in the far future, to be honest with you.”
On MSU’s performance
- “I really believe that we played our best basketball of the year. But we’re three games into the year, so big deal.”
- “It just goes to show our defense, what we’ve been talking about for 20 years: Defend, rebound and run. If you defend, you usually rebound better. The first half, we defended better, we rebounded better, we ran better, and we got some easy buckets.”
- “We can put up with mistakes early in the year, not effort-related [ones].”
On Jordan Scott
- “That was about as good a game as you could have for a guy that went 2-for-7, 1-for-4 from three… And yet he probably changed the whole game himself with his defense, with his rebounding, with his effort-related stats.”
- “I’m sure Grant Hill isn’t happy, since [Scott] came from his high school.”
On Jeremy Fears
- “You’re given a rank; you have a responsibility to live up to that ranking. I thought he was OK in the first couple games. I didn’t think he was Jeremy-like. And tonight I thought he played hard.”
- “Jeremy missed five free throws. He didn’t miss that many in half a year last year.”
On Cam Ward
- “Cam’s another one that got challenged last week… Maybe one of the unsung heroes was the fact that he went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. And that stretch he had before halftime was big for us.”
On Jasiah
- “Jasiah is a gamer, but he’s a practice player, too… You don’t know [the intensity level] when you’re a freshman till you play in games like this… He’s going to be a hell of a player. Mark my words.”
On MSU football beating Michigan
- “If you think that this win over Duke is as big as our football team’s over Michigan, you’re [clueless]… I’m going to add on to what Pat Fitzgerald did. I’m not going to try to surpass that.”
- “This is a good rivalry, but this is a love affair rivalry. That’s a Hatfield and McCoy rivalry. So there’s a big difference in rivalries.”
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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: What Tom Izzo had to say about Michigan State basketball vs. Duke
