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Below is a partial transcript from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's postgame press conference:

Q: Is your team embracing its defensive success late as part of its identity?

Izzo: "Jeremy [Fears Jr.] did a great job of that in the huddles. You had to lock up. If you get leads and you don't let them score, you can't lose. No matter how you play, I think there's a little bit of that. Those are battle cries that are good battle cries. It was just so strange. We're missing free throws, and we get the ball on a rebound, and they knock it out of our hands. There were a couple of calls I did not appreciate, but maybe I was wrong, maybe I was right. But it was a little bit of a helter-skelter ending, but it was a good helter-skelter."

Q: Can you speak to Jaxon Kohler's evolution as an elite rebounder and what makes him so effective in how he's become this?

Izzo: "Now, that is an intelligent question that I would agree with. I thought he'd be more of a scorer. I still think he can be a scorer. He's been shooting the 3-ball really well, and he missed two or three wide-open ones today. Monster heart, just like [Xavier] Tillman. He is just an animal to go there. He does it in our practices. Doug Wojcik and Saddi Washington say it best because they got him every night. There's never a day when he doesn't come to practice. There's never a day when he doesn't come to go hard. He's not gifted with long arms or two more inches or phenomenal jumping ability. I once told Zach Randolph -- Zach was there when I recruited him; It was 10 minutes from Zach's house -- I said, 'Z-Bo [Randolph], he's a lot like you, you know?' I'm not sure he ever gets a dunk in college, but he can rebound, and he's got some Z-Bo qualities. He's got good hands. He just has a nose for the ball. He's like a great linebacker. He has a nose for the ball, and some of those ones he got were in traffic, and I was going on the bench, 'How the hell did he get that?' Because their guys are good, too, and John Tonje is a good rebounder. He's got strength. Jaxon plays possessed. That's how he gets it done. He is like a heat-seeking missile. If we get everybody to play like that, we'll improve even more."