The Victors

“Guess the crowd didn’t watch the game because I’m nobody’s damn little brother, and neither is my team. I’m really proud of my team, how they played,” said Izzo.

“They shot 40% from the three, and they took 100 free throws. That was a difference in the game. We made some boneheaded plays where we didn’t step up on ball screens, let him get downhill,” Izzo said. “And we made some uncharacteristic mistakes, fouling a guy and things like that.”

“I don’t care what they’ve done. “They’ve deserved what they got. Twenty-nine and two and deserve every bit of it. But we deserve what we got, and we will get better because I’m going to make some of those same ball-screen mistakes we make in the games.”

“I thought Jeremy Fears played his ass off, 99% of that game. And you know what, I did what I was going to do. I chewed him out for it, but I watched it on tape and guys pushing him in the back, and sometimes that stuff happens, you know.”

Izzo said he was sick of one-sided calls.

“That’s what upset me about the first time. So Fears will get his lunch from me. I wonder if some of their guys will get their lunch from what happened in the first game that didn’t get publicized. But I don’t condone anything. I don’t think he tried to kick him on purpose. If you watch it, it was like he didn’t even know he did it, and then he probably said, ‘Oh, that’s Fears. Let’s go.’ So, don’t condone it. I don’t know exactly what happened, except he did get pushed in the back, and that’s why he got the foul. And you know what, Fears has done a hell of a job. Since getting publicly reprimanded by everybody. And he’s done a hell of a job. And nobody’s tougher on him than me. Nobody”