ANNOUNCER 1 (VOICEOVER): Ward, the deep position. Here's a double team. Can he find somebody? And he almost threw it away. Baseline, Jackson, pure. Jaren Jackson Jr.
Langford, rejected. McQuaid, and the bucket. Count it! And the foul!
McQuaid, looking for Ward. Here's a double. Cross-court, wide open, Winston, how about that? Who says I can't pass?
How about Winston with the rebound, finds a cutting Bridges.
ANNOUNCER 2 (VOICEOVER): And see, by taking a quick shot like that--
ANNOUNCER 1 (VOICEOVER): Ball knocked away and stolen. Goins, great hands. Stepping into the passing lane.
ANNOUNCER 2 (VOICEOVER): I'm just so impressed with the activity.
ANNOUNCER 1 (VOICEOVER): The lob-- holy mackerel! Bridges from Winston!
It could be a pretty thing to watch. Bridges, top of the arc, uh! Oh, you want me to be selfish?
Jackson, baseline, uh! Nick Ward, great pass by Langford.
ANNOUNCER 2 (VOICEOVER): Going to be able to get open and turn the corner, and get in the lane.
ANNOUNCER 1 (VOICEOVER): Tum Tum to the hole, and a tip jam for big Nick Ward. The G-Man aggressive tonight.
Up top, Jackson takes a three, and hits.
ANNOUNCER 2 (VOICEOVER): What a luxury.
ANNOUNCER 1 (VOICEOVER): Juan Dixon.
ANNOUNCER 2 (VOICEOVER): Juan Dixon at Maryland.
ANNOUNCER 1 (VOICEOVER): I think he's smaller than Dixon, though.
ANNOUNCER 2 (VOICEOVER): A little bit.
ANNOUNCER 1 (VOICEOVER): Inside, oh! Bridges!
ANNOUNCER 2 (VOICEOVER): Let it breathe, Gus. Let it breathe.
ANNOUNCER 1 (VOICEOVER): Whoo! One more time.
ANNOUNCER 2 (VOICEOVER): One more again. But he was going up to dunk that two hands. Then, he adjusted because he can jump so high. He adjusted in the air.
ANNOUNCER 1 (VOICEOVER): The Spartans will improve to 17-3, 5-2 in the Big Ten. Michigan State, five players in double figures, led by Bridges' 22. Nick Ward had 18, and 13 rebounds. Indiana falls to 11-8, 4-3 in the conference.
- You talked about getting the message across about energy, effort, the defensive end. I think your guys listened a little bit.
- Well, I did think we played with a lot more energy, you know. And this guy started out with a bang, and that's what he's got to do. We need him. I need him. They need him. But I thought, you know, we got better play out of Winston. Other than about a three minute stretch when we turned it over about six times in the second half, I thought we played a pretty complete game.
- I thought the defensive effort, the activity, the rotations were there. How big was that, bouncing back off that Michigan loss, to have that kind of activity?
- Well, I think you hit the nail on the head. We said, we made mistakes, but the energy level was high enough that we made up for our mistakes. And that's what good teams should do. And you know, it's a step. I mean, I'm not ready to canonize us that we're back yet. But we took a big step forward. Miles has a lot to do with it.
- The secret sauce. Wanted to talk to you about Nick Ward, because he played outstanding this evening.
- Well, we did say, we're going to pound it in if we get him running. And he ran better, and I thought he posted better. Didn't you, Miles? And that made a big difference.
- Thanks a lot, coach. Miles, for you, coach has been talking to you about being more aggressive, being more selfish. I understand it. For you, in your mind, what does that mean?
- It's just something I gotta step up to do for the team. In order for us to win, I've got to be aggressive every play. And I tried to do that today.
- What was the message coming out of practice yesterday, in regards to this game against Indiana, knowing it was a disappointing loss at home against Michigan?
- Yeah, we knew they were a physical team, and we needed to bounce back. So we had to play Spartan basketball today. We had to rebound, we had to limit turnovers, and we had to run.
- Well, with the performance you had tonight, how do you move this forward for the rest of the season?
- I just gotta continue to stay consistent, keep depending on my teammates. I mean, we've just got to trust each other, and once we do that, we'll be an unstoppable team.
- Do you know how many players want their coach to tell them to be more aggressive and shoot? Take that and eat it. Keep doing what you're doing, all right?
- Ha-ha, that's a good one.
- You got it. Thanks a lot. All right, back to you guys.