Opening Statement

Looks like the clouds have parted and the sun is out and we're ready for a postseason run and to play our best basketball when it means the most up here in March.

On schematically preparing for short turnarounds

I do think the way our roster is constructed that we're challenged to match up in a short term, but Purdue and Rutgers, you got to figure there's whatever Vegas would say, you probably have at least an 80 percent chance of facing one of those teams. We played both of them twice and we played both of them recently, so we'll be very, very familiar. You know, us securing the double-by is obviously a positive on numerous fronts. First and foremost, we had our compact schedule at the end of the year where we really didn't have a chance to practice. We didn't have, it's just there was a lot of games in a short period of time. Everyone had one, I'm not complaining about it, but we had ours at the end and so now if we didn't secure the double-by, we wouldn't have this day to kind of regroup and self-evaluate and reflect, where now we do, so hopefully this will give us a chance to identify some things that we need to tweak, fix, or whatnot and keep it moving.

On Trey Donaldson not playing late against MSU

Well, I'll address the final, someone said 12 earlier. 12-48. Okay, 12-40. I'll address that first. We went with a lineup and that lineup went on 14 to zero run and showed a spark. Look, we all, each team has flaws and when you're constructing a team, sometimes you don't know what your flaws are going to be and sometimes you're very well aware and you think you can overcome those flaws. We don't have great, we don't have a great ability to get in the paint individually, get a piece of the paint, create offense. You saw the the dump down for Vlad and this makes it even more impressive what Vlad's been able to do that he doesn't receive very many of those dump downs or lob passes where he just has to catch and finish it. And LJ was able to get in the paint and as I'm watching the film last night, I'm thinking, man, I wish we could have gotten him more minutes earlier in the year. But then you think about it and you're like, okay, you're 6-0 or you're 12-2 and you're in one position, one-possession game in the conference championships on the line and you're in a position you probably didn't think you'd be in. Do we really try to win this game or do we think, hey, maybe in March we'll be playing better if we give these two or three guys more minutes? And so we chose to try to win that game on that night to stay in the fight, stay in the hunt. And so he hasn't played the heightened minutes that he's getting now and so this will help him. Every decision we make is a gamble, is a risk and we chose to ride the veterans when we were in those situations. So looking back, I wish we would have had a bigger margin and we could have played more guys and got them more experience in Big Ten games, but we weren't able to do that. So LJ was able to get in the paint and we rode that group and in the last four minutes, I wanted to look at Phat Phat and those guys and give LJ just more opportunity, more reps, more possessions. So we need Trey to play like Trey if we're going to be in our best. When you look at our most productive games, UCLA, the first half in Indiana, it's when Trey was running our team at a high level and the shots, they're going to fall. I mean, but I just told someone in the office, if you would have said, hey Dusty, in 20 games from now, you guys are going to shoot 30% from three, I'd be saying that, what is today? March 10th. I'd say I'm probably on an airplane on March 10th to go recruiting. That we probably didn't make the Big Ten tournament. I mean, full transparency, we wouldn't be, I wouldn't think we'd be 14 and six. I think we'd be six and 14 if you told me we're going to shoot 30% from three over the course of the Big Ten season. So we have guys that are going to make shots without a doubt in my mind. I'm obviously a very optimistic person that believes in our guys, but I thought yesterday there were probably eight or 10 shots that from my angle, in my view, I thought they were going in and they rimmed in or out. They hit the back of the rim. And then I started, you know, just thinking about at a deeper level is because we were playing behind, is our starts causing us to play a little, just a little bit tighter because we're playing from behind? Or is it just that point of the season where the shots just aren't dropping, your legs a little tight, whatever the case. So there's a million reasons why those things happen. But the last two days of practice leading up to Michigan State, we shot the ball like we did earlier in the season. And I felt like other than one or two of our threes, we generated really good looks against Michigan State. And so you got, you got to believe that if you keep doing that, then they're going to drop, especially with a little bit of a break here now, and hopefully some renewed confidence going into the new season.

On a common quality or trait for a team that has had success in the postseason

Well, you guys asked a question the other day, I can't remember who it might have been you, and asked if we'd ever been a part of something like this. And someone on our staff said, yeah, when we made the lead eight of Florida, we lost three games in February late, three consecutive games in February late. So I have, I didn't remember that because like everything else, I don't remember. I didn't even realize until a little bit ago that we had a five or six-game winning streak in between this last, I didn't realize that because it's, that's not, whether we're playing Purdue, USC, Rutgers, or ourselves, that's where my attention's going to, not, oh wow, that's three games in a row, has this ever happened before, how do we counter this, how do we get our guys back believing the way we believed before, and how we're playing with the same edge and confidence that we played with for majority of the season. And also not taking in, also taking into consideration who we were playing, which I think the last three games, in my opinion, might be the three most talented rosters in our league. If they're not the most, they're up there, I mean UCLA's obviously got an extremely talented roster. There's some other groups that, you know, have great depth and size, athleticism, good players, well, you know, well coached, and so I definitely think it's, it's a bad time not to make shots and turn it over when you're playing the quality opponents that we were playing.

On how much it matters to have players on the team who have had postseason success previously

I mean, I definitely think it matters, but, and this is just my opinion once again, but I think what matters is we've been playing in heightened games for the last month, where every possession is big, there's championship ramifications on the line, we're in the driver's seat, and so it feels like we've been playing one-and-done games for a while now, up until yesterday it felt like every game was a one-and- hopefully because of that experience and that familiarity, but when you get into a win or go home setting, I think it comes, I think it comes down to match-ups and health and things like that, but the match-up piece is big. You know, what, if you go against a team that their strengths are your weaknesses, then you're going to be in a dogfight.

On the importance of having a consistent third scorer

I mean, I think I'd be stating the obvious that we, when we've been good, we've had that, and when we haven't been at our best, we haven't had that. Vlad's getting a lot of attention and we've got to do a better job of leveraging that attention to create close-outs and open shots for the other guys. That's on all of us.

On his excitement level this team of the year

I'm terribly excited. Me personally? Yeah, I'm extremely excited. Like I said, today is a good day. We don't know who we're going to play. I mean, obviously we're going to prepare for all three teams and we're going to, I don't say fully prepare for all three, but we're going to look at the things we struggled against all three and realize we may see these scenarios again, so we'll tailor that into our practice tomorrow, but when you reflect and you see how poorly we've shot it and how well we've defended at times when we weren't making shots, and that's the hardest thing to do. When we've made shots, we've defended and our energy's been great, and so this reflection period has given me a lot more hope than maybe just how I felt yesterday after watching the game and then watching the film and looking at it from a very, very, you know, definitely, I wasn't looking at it from a bird's eye view. I was definitely looking at it very, very, you know, six inches away or three inches away, so I feel a lot better about today, but just excited that our guys, you know, I think that they still are trying to figure out a way to do it together as a group and they still trust and believe in each other and that gives me the most hope.

On any regret from the incident against MSU

Remind me to answer that last part because I think there's a lot of layers to this. Number one, do I know the customs and traditions of any other Big Ten school? No, I don't and won't know until I experience it. I don't watch Michigan State documentaries. I don't have a Sparty foam finger growing up, so I have no idea what they do. I know this, that the officials walked over and said that they have a tradition on senior night where their players kiss the logo as they're coming out of the floor. It's going to take some time. Great, that's awesome. These seniors deserve it, and on top of that, these guys earned a Big Ten championship. I have a lot of respect for what that team did this year. 17 and 3 in this league and battling the way they battled, I have a lot of respect for what that team did. Now, as far as what happened after that, from my perspective, I'm standing on the sideline and keep in mind, Kohl and Carr had just gotten a layup a couple of minutes before on the last free throw. They missed a free throw. He sprints past us, they advance it, and so we had talked about being more alert on free throws. I think it's Pippen's of the line, LJ and Phat are half-court. I think Frankie Fidler comes out of the game, kisses the floor, hugs his teammates. This is a little bit fuzzy. This is all just off memory. This wasn't on the TV copy. No issues whatsoever. Kisses the floor, goes out, does his thing. I think maybe they're subbing for another senior at that point, and our guys, Phat and LJ, are standing at the exact spot they were when Fidler kissed the floor, not doing anything other than just standing there, and then out of the blue, they're still standing at half court, and the Michigan State player comes up and two-hand shoves them in the chest. Now, the Spartan logo is about a third of the court. The game is going on. I didn't know that this happened during the game, and so if we needed to back them up to the other end or put all of our guys on an offensive, I don't know what we were supposed to do in that situation. I know that we had two freshmen standing at half court, and they're respectful, great dudes, and obviously, like I said, this was not the first person that came out, kissed the floor. We'd already agreed to the officials and whatnot, and so, yeah, that's my perspective on it. I'm very proud that our guys didn't retaliate in a different manner that could cost them playing in the Big Ten tournament. To have that self-restraint and self-discipline and realizing that they're representing Michigan the way they do, so I was very proud of that moment because that could have gotten really, really ugly.

On whether he has spoken with the team and if he plans to do things differently next year`

Next year, I'd like to have the lead. Next year, I would say the guys move back five feet. I mean, once again, this is competition, man. We're playing a game, and our guys are standing at half court, and once again, it wasn't as if Frankie Fiddler's coming out of the game, and it was just something happened during that, and this is a long period. You guys have the time, but it's three or four or five minutes. They never moved. A player had already done it, so I mean, what I would tell them differently, like keep your antennas up for whatever that behavior was. I'd ask them, hey, guys, move back 10 feet on defense because they're so fast in transition, and I'm giving them credit for that as well. I tell our guys to move back 10 feet, but as far as knowing the positioning we're supposed to stand and things like that during Michigan State Senior Day, I wasn't aware. If Netflix, that's never popped up in my, what do you call it, queue. It's never popped up in my queue if it's Netflix or Prime or whatever the case, but once again, I don't think it was a big deal either. I mean, like I said, I was just proud of our guys to show the restraint that they did and not make it an issue that could cost them playing a big tournament. Dusty, before the year began, you talked about how you thought this team would improve more than most because of all the newcomers and staff.

On whether the team has been a victim of its own success early in the season

I think we're a victim of what the scoreboard said at the end of the games. Would we go three of 24 from three yesterday? If we go nine of 24 from three yesterday, we win the game, and are we a better basketball team because those shots went in? Yeah. Are we better than we were? Absolutely. We're much, much better. Is the competition opponent quality much greater? Without a doubt. Yeah, I mean, I'm just thinking about our players, how far Danny Wolf, Vlad Goldin, Nimari Burnett defensively. Reuben Jones has just had a tough, tough stretch where he's been injured or healthy since the day he came on campus, and up to this point, he was a very durable player, always played through injuries in North Texas, played a lot of games. Obviously, Roddy Gayle, he's not been the same player he was earlier in the year, and I still believe in Roddy, and there's going to be some real bright moments for him. I told the story of Mike Forrest. I shared this with the team. Mike Forrest was with us our first year at FAU. He was a local kid, and we begged for him because he had the characteristics of a We'd never seen him play live other than film, but we knew how hard he worked. We knew his reputation in South Florida. We thought he would give us a little bit of credibility, and he had some really good options to go to other schools. We came in late and somehow convinced him to join us at FAU, and he was probably our most important piece for four years, most consistent worker, did everything right. I mean, the kid is a 10 out of 10 in every facet, and his fifth year year, and he got passed up by Davis and Martin and Boyd and some of those guys for minutes and whatever, and he struggled. I mean, he had a tough, tough senior year, and something happened before the Tennessee game where he kind of found his groove and his rhythm, and we don't beat Tennessee to have the opportunity to go to the Elite Eight if he doesn't go off in the second half. Got one to go in, and you could see the light went, his eyes lit up, and literally it was bang, bang, bang in a game where we couldn't score, so me being the optimist, I believe some of it's part of being a basketball player. You're going to go through tough stretches. It's not always going to be butterflies and whatever the case, so I believe that Roddy or one of those other guys, they have a might force moment if they stay the course, and they continue to believe and find that whatever it is in them that makes them special and unique.

On the turnover issues

Yesterday, there was a few poor decisions in heightened, intense moments, and then I think we had four offensive fouls on illegal screens where we haven't done that very often. I mean, I can't remember another game where we had two illegal screens in the same game, and we have been imploring our guys to be better screeners and whatnot, so why? You know, there's some things that I believe, but I don't think there's an easy answer to it.

On the message for Danny Wolf at the half

I had a message for Danny at the half, just from my view, and I haven't studied the numbers, because each, I mean, even when the game's out, you know, when the game's 20, Michigan State plays differently than they do when they're up two as well, so there's a lot of, it's not, you can't just look at a spreadsheet and draw a conclusion, but Danny Wolfe, late games, last five minute games, second half, as the game goes on, his level of aggression and assertiveness changes, and this is just my eyes in film watching, and so why, you know, I don't know why that is. I mean, it's a good thing, because I'd much rather have that than the guy that's banging in threes the first five minutes of the game, and in the last five minutes gets tight and can't perform, so Danny has had, he's done that most of the season, he's played really, really well late and down the and we count on, we lean on Danny. I do think that, like, the cumulative effect of those turnovers caused us to play more sped up and not as trusting of each other as we needed to be. You talked about LJ earlier. He's obviously earned a lot more trust lately.

On Danny Wolf's defensive improvement

He's made progress. He's gotten better. Is it at a championship level? No. I mean, he made a couple errors. He made a couple freshman mistakes, but he acknowledged them right away. They registered as soon as they happened, which is a good thing. Sometimes freshmen make a mistake, and you correct them, they have no idea what you're talking about, and so he acknowledged the mistake in real time immediately after it happened, and so that's where the experience comes in, where he's really, really close to eliminating a lot of those mistakes, but I think that's just when you check in a game of that magnitude, and you guys saw the environment. Things are happening a little faster than practice or a little faster than they were maybe even in pre-conference, so he's really, really close to eliminating a lot of those, but he brings some real unique things to our team that I think only he's provided at times.

On how to balance confidence in players but also telling them more is needed

Make sure that they know that we believe in them, and we haven't lost faith, and we know what type of players they are, and thinking back to the good moments, and just to stay fresh of what they were doing to help your team win, but also letting them know that you don't have to come out and score 30 to help this team win. Just make a hustle play. Get an offensive rebound. You know, the Wisconsin game, a lot of people talk about the 4-5. That was the game where Vlad and Danny found a real rhythm together, and the thing that jumps out in our staff's mind are Roddy Gayle's verticality late in that game to save a big, big basket, and those are the moments that you got to hang your hat on when the shot's not going in. There's so many ways in basketball to impact the game other than making shots and whatnot, so just letting those guys know that they have a big role in this team, and we believe in them, and we need them, because if they don't, then we're not going to play very much longer, and so our success is dependent upon them having a big role in this team.

On Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin getting conference honors on Tuesday

Yeah, I mean, when you look at, you know, and I don't know, do they look at conference stats, or conference production, or is it overall production? I don't even know. I think it's both. It's both, okay. When you look at Vlad's Big 10 conference production, at 19 and whatever it is, seven or eight rebounds, and whatever the case, it's incredibly impressive, and then the same with Danny when you look at the double-doubles, and so I'd be shocked if those guys didn't walk away with some nice awards, and especially, you know, we're, I think we're tied for second with Maryland. Maybe, is it just two teams tied for second? So, I think we're three seed, so for a team that finishes in the top of the standings and playing such meaningful games all the way to the final week, I can't imagine those guys aren't rewarded accordingly. I think there's a media poll and a coach's poll, so I'm excited to see those guys, you know, get the rewards that they deserve.

On teams rising and falling with guard play

I mean, it's one of the great cliches of sports. I think teams rise and fall with good play, you know, and I think back to our best, the best runs I've been on. There have been games when the big men had monster games, and there are games when the guards took over, but playing good solid team basketball and on the floor, whether it's your point guard or your power forward, just getting really good, sound leadership on the court is important this time of year. So, I don't want to put that pressure on if we lose, it's because of our guards. If we win, it's because of our guards. We need to play much better as a unit, and if we keep advancing and play many, many more games, it's going to be because we played, we had good guard play and we had good play up front.

On being without Sam Walters impacting the team

Yeah. I mean, even look at Rutgers on the road, just, you know, his ability to stretch the floor, his ability to be a threat and have to be accounted for at all times, and then that's not even taking into account his ability to bang in two or three straight threes to separate. I mean, even earlier in the year when we had some games with margins, when we go back and look at those, at those, the clips from those games, a lot of them, Sam was a big part of the separation, you know, going from 12 to 20 quickly or whatever the case, and so, and then I'll, obviously, the minutes, the wear and tear, you know, Will Tschetter's in foul trouble yesterday, so now you're basically playing Vlad and Danny until the wheels fall off without a break, and Michigan State's running in four or five different big combinations, so they're going against a fresh body at all times, and so without Sam, we don't have that three-four backup position that stretches the floor, makes shots, and Sam had become a pretty sound defender. I mean, part of it was his reputation coming into it. They went at him. They, when they got the switch, they went at him and credit him for making the improvements where they weren't very efficient going at him, and his rebounding was getting better, and so, yeah, that's been a loss, but I'll stick to every team that's had illnesses and injuries and whatever the case, and, you know, we're going to coach the team that's playing.

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