Dining in Italy: 

Izzo: "They eat over there for like 2 1/2 hours ... It was like you’ve got some spaghetti, and that was great, but that’s just the appetizer before the lettuce. I had trouble with that, my Italian roots, that’s not how I was raised, and that's not my personality. Food and wine."

"We went to a place called Verona, and they had a coliseum there where they were having a big concert at 10 o’clock at night, we got there earlier, but around the coliseum where these eating places. That might have been our greatest meal, we had the whole group there, that was a lot of fun."

Valentine: "So much to eat. Lots of pasta, lots of pizza. So much bread. There was a pizza and pasta place at every corner. We ate good though." 

Seeing St. Peter's Basilica:

Izzo: "We had a private mass, and that was pretty cool."

"The Vatican surprised me, you figured you have all these different nationalities, you had difference races, you difference religious values, and yet, when they got in the Vatican ... We took their tours and we let the players go with the professor. Me and a couple of other people and then we went with the first one. We were right next to each other. We got done, and an hour later we got done and we’re standing outside, and Stanford’s players came by, they were going in after us, and they (MSU players) got done an hour after us.’ I kind of said  "What the hell were they doing?” (My players) were all asking so many questions, and even the guide was impressed. I was impressed. I never went to one thing where (my players) went ‘Aw we gotta be here.'”

Valentine: "We got some people here who are really into religion, so we were asking a lot of questions. We were even having some debates about things. We learned a lot, especially myself, I learned a lot being around that place. That was a pretty cool experience too."

Tum Tum: "I asked a lot of questions. I wanted to know about everything that he was talking about if I didn't understand it"

Touring Venice:

Izzo: "Venice was Venice. It was boats, a lot of boats, a lot of water, but a pretty neat place, too."

"Coming into Venice impressed the most because we went there at night, after the game, 11:30 at night, and we took this fairy cab ride, and it was all by water, the lights on, even for a Yooper it was pretty impressive."

Valentine: "They had a Venice city of water, I think that's pretty amazing. We get there, to get to the place  you had to take a water taxi. That was a pretty cool place to be at. Only spent two days there but it was a pretty city."

Almost getting a technical foul in Italy

Izzo: "The officiating was good. I told one guy and he almost T’d me… (I said) ‘Don’t … I’m Italian too.’ He didn’t think that was funny, but other than that it was really good. My staff even said, ‘God, it was good.’ So they were all in great shape but they didn’t work 57 games out of 58 nights.”

The differences between European teams and American college basketball teams

Izzo: “Some of those other teams never threw the ball inside, yet got to the free throw line. We were fouling a lot. Here it’s two hands, there it’s one finger and it’s a foul on you. And inside you can pretty much beat the hell out of somebody and it’s okay."

Tum Tum: "The Big Ten is really physical. They're a lot physical, and they move the ball really, really really well. I think if it's one thing we can learn from them, it's to move the ball from side to side and keep a lot of spacing."

Bonding with teammates

Valentine: "We have a lot of different guys. Different personalities. I think this trip definitely helped us gel. We all roomed with somebody that we didn't get a chance to have a relationship with before, so I think this trip was very good to build this relationship."

Tum Tum: "To be honest, just being with my teammates (was my favorite part of the trip. I think we got a lot closer. I think guys opened up more, (Deyonta Davis) opened up a whole lot more, all the freshmen did. That was a great experience, being with them almost 24/7. Even when we had chances to go our separate ways, we always stuck together just learning about each other. I think it's going to be key this year, the camaraderie." 

Miscellaneous 

Izzo: “Seeing a $3 million Ferrari was important to me."