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BAYLOR POSTGAME QUOTES

Head Coach Scott Drew
"I thought the beginning of the game they were on fire from three. Our guys -- we went man -- and they run a bunch of great man sets. Without having much prep, we were a little concerned if we would be able to guard all their actions because it is early in the year. I thought our guys really got after it defensively. On the offensive end, the big thing was taking care of the basketball with only seven turnovers and 24 assists. Any coach would take that any day of the week. And then when you out rebound a Michigan State team -- you know you are doing something well. Coach Izzo does a tremendous job in every facet of the game."

"We have some depth and have some different options, you can keep them fresh. At different times, they all can get on a roll. They complement one another. It stems from our leader Ishmail Wainwright -- he is our only senior on the team. He is such an unselfish player...keeps everyone together and I think that trickles down to everyone else."

"We were able to get stops and get some transition buckets. When we are able to get in transition and get some easy ones, that loosens things up. In the first half, they were getting transition baskets and we weren't getting back. I thought first when you score, it is easier to get back. Second of all, you get stops and transitions, it easier to score. It all kind of works together."

"We are blessed to have some good players that have good size."

"They had a late game last night. They have been traveling all over the country. Coach Izzo plays a great schedule and I am sure there are some of those shots that they would normally hit, but I think our guys for the most part did a good job to try and contest and make things tough."

Jonathan Motley
"We are bigger than them in the paint and think we are tougher so we used that to our advantage."

MICHIGAN STATE POSTGAME QUOTES

Head Coach Tom Izzo
"A lot of things are going through my mind. I am not sure if we ran out of gas at the second half. I think you have to give credit to Baylor -- I thought they came out and punched us right in the mouth and don't think we responded. I don't think that is the way our makeup is.

I am going to make an excuse so I can get ripped for it. I did a terrible job of scheduling and think it caught up with us a bit. We need more time to prepare than we have and this turnaround was almost insane. And we just don't have a team that we can change enough things now to accommodate that. They deserve the credit. They brought it the second half. They hurt us in our weakness and went inside. We were moving the ball and really playing well the first half. And we quit doing that. I think we looked awfully tired. And I can accept that - that is my fault, not theirs.

We have to compete a little harder and have to be a little fresher to do that. I thought Baylor played awfully well the second time and we didn't."

"They shot 55% in the second half -- that is an effort-related stat usually. But give them credit, they had 24 assists on 30 baskets. We had 17 assists on 22 baskets. We had a couple of guys who competed and number of guys that didn't. I don't think that's because we are non-competitive."

"As you can see, we have weaknesses. We have to slow Nick down a little bit. He did an unbelievable job in competing -- he wants to play, but doesn't understand yet that when there are three guys around you, you cannot spin, especially when they are 7-footers."

"We didn't move the second half. I felt we didn't look like we had the energy we needed."

"They are a zone team. We cut that up pretty good the first half. And then went to man, and they punched us. I can't say I prepared them for the man."

"We have to practice some. The schedule is brutal in terms of travel and who we have played. But the schedule has been brutal because we never have a practice day. It just worked out and I actually apologized to my team. I have always played a tough schedule....it just worked out the travel -- made it more difficult....It ain't on them, it's on me."

"I think the biggest problem (about the travel) this created is that we don't practice...We are going to get this straightened out. There are certain things that I love what we do. We are pretty unselfish with the ball. We are still making too many turnovers. We didn't get to the line, but when we did, we made our free throws. We are still taking too many threes. We can correct -- some are correctable. We need to get a little more healthy and get more practice time."

"We are going to get better. We are going to keep improving. We have made a lot of improvements -- I know that is hard to believe, but we have made a lot of improvements."

Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn Jr.
"It has been tough on us (the travel), but we can't make excuses for it. This is the schedule we have and we have to do a better job."

"I came here to win the championship and it hurts not to play for the championship. But it is always fun to play back home."

Miles Bridges
"We have to work hard on defense and rebounding. That is the only thing we need to work on. If we work hard and get the rebounds, we will be good but we didn't do that today."