Fran McCaffery had to dig deep into his bench for answer and those players responded with 39 points in the hard fought win over Michigan State on Tuesday night. Following the victory, McCaffery discusses the success off the bench, the status of C.J. Fredrick, and senior All American Luka Garza reaching 2,000 career points.

Q: When they hit their first six from three what was it from an execution standpoint that allowed them to hit those shots and be so open?

McCAFFERY: I don’t think it was anything execution wise. I just think they were hitting shots.

Q: Your starters got off to a slow start, but the bench picked it up. How important were they tonight?

McCAFFERY: I don’t know how many times I picked up a stat sheet after a game and have seen 39 bench points. That is incredible.

I feel terrible for C.J. He’s clearly not himself. I love him and we are trying to help him work through this and we will get him right.

We missed some shots early with the first group and they came back and gave us some quality minutes after that. We have a team where we can go deep into our bench and get productivity. We got rebounds, points, and solid play with low turnovers. It was great to see Joe T with six assists and one turnover.

Q: It is a good thing to have lineups changing at this point in the season? Maybe lineups changing?

McCAFFERY: Yeah, you are right. It is always an interesting slippery slope because you want your starters to be comfortable and confident and know that they are going to play a certain amount of minutes and get a certain number of shots. As you saw, every game is different. Saturday and in the last two games, Michigan State couldn’t buy a jumper. You know Henry and Langford. They are really good players, along with Hauser. Those guys can shoot and they came out on fire. C.J. wasn’t right, but we hung in and hung in and the bench was fabulous in the first half and once again, Jack Nunge was awesome. Then in the second half, same thing. We went to the bench, but I thought we got solid play from our starters, but the bench came in and really provided energy and aggressiveness. We had that one lineup on the floor that just clicked and that has happened before. It’s not like I want into the game thinking Joe T, Perkins, Patrick, Luka and Jack or Keegan. It wasn’t like I went in with that lineup. But they were in there and they got the transition game going with Joe finding Patrick a couple of times. I think that’s what you have to do in this league. Tom (Izzo) is playing 11 and we played 11.

Q: You had 42 points in the paint and you attempt 35 free throws. Did you feel like you had an edge inside?

McCAFFERY: I wouldn’t say it was our complete focus was on that. We always want mix it up. We want transition, go inside, ball movement, drive and kicks, and jumpers. They were really pressing up on the three point shooters so it gave us opportunities to feed the post. They weren’t doubling as much. They were coming some and Tom has an abundance of bigs that he can rotate fresh bodies on Luka and he has a lot of fouls.

Q: Luka went over 2,000 points. Can you talk about that career accomplishment? His first comments were about winning tonight.

McCAFFERY: And you have to love that about him and you didn’t expect anything else. To hear him mentioned with Roy Marble. I coached against Roy and watched him play and we became close friends once I got here. Then I got to coach his son, who is one of my favorite players ever. I wish Roy was here to see it. He would have gone out and given him a big hug when he breaks the record. 2,000 points is pretty amazing. It is a testament to his character and his consistency. When you think about who he is doing it again, that’s what makes it even more impressive.

Q: There was one point where you had Joe T and Jordan on the floor together. Do you anticipate using that lineup more moving forward?

McCAFFERY: I think that is a possibly. We are going to play Jordan at both spots. He will play with Joe and he will play Connor, Ahron, or Tony. Any one of those guys can bring it down and Jordan is smart and we can move him around in our offense.

Q: Seems like you got effort guys from the bench players. Does it make it harder to take them out?

McCAFFERY: It does. My plan was to go back to Connor, Wieskamp and Jordan a little bit earlier. But, those guys had played so well and they needed to stay out there. The only thing I was looking at that juncture was for fatigue. That’s why I took Patrick out. He was tired so I took him out first. Then I took Joe and Tony out and went with my veteran guys coming down the stretch. I wanted the big lineup on the floor playing zone so the backline would be Keegan, Luka, and Jack because they are our three best rebounders.