Everything Tom Izzo said after Michigan State's loss at Iowa

Changes are coming for the Spartans after three straight losses...

Michigan State men's basketball suffered its third consecutive defeat and its fifth loss in six games with an 86-60 loss at Iowa. Following the game, and in the midst of this tough stretch, Spartan head coach Tom Izzo met with the media to discuss this latest defeat for MSU.

On Iowa:

“I’ve got to give Keegan Murray credit. I mean, a couple of those first couple shots I thought were decently defended and he was unbelievable. But, as good as any player I’ve seen in this league in a while. You start talking about ‘Players of the Year’, you start talking about ‘Coach of the Year’, I think it might reside in Iowa City here.”

“I thought Fran did great job with his team. He just keep reeling people in there, and they do a good job of just keeping the pressure on you.”

“We just didn’t guard tonight. We lead the league in three-point field goal defense, and tonight they shot close to 50 percent. So, you’ve got to give Iowa a lot of credit, you’ve got to Fran a lot of credit and [Keegan] Murray…is a special talent. He does it in a special way.”

“I will say this – I think Iowa has been a good team all year. It’s just their schedule was reversed [from Michigan State’s]. They played those tough teams early. They lost a couple of tough games where they played pretty well against Illinois, and I think Purdue, to their credit.”

More on Keegan Murray:

“I’ll give his dad come credit, I’ll give Fran some credit, I’ll give the kids a lot of credit. They’ve changed their whole game, as [Wisconsin’s Johnny] Davis did.”

“Christie is a hell of a player for us, he’s just struggled. And I think the added strength that [Murray] has gotten since last year, he’s done a good job in the weight room, Fran’s done a good job with him. They’re pushing the ball with those multiple guards. They just bring in guard after guard. Those guys are playing 10 and 15 minutes – I’ve got to figure out how he’s keeps them happy, because those sub guards might be the MVP of the team because they do their job and they do it very well.”

“They’ve got a star. He is a star. Don’t kid yourself. We talk as a staff, you know, who’s the best player in the league? There’s, I think, four guys right now up for the Wooden Award in our league – maybe five. The one that’s showering right now here is got to be really high on that list, after spending time watching him on film and then seeing him in person. Watching him warm up, he seems like a hell of a kid. His dad was a hell of a guy. So, you’ve got something special – enjoy him.”

On cutting into deficits:

“We’re having this problem where, every time we get it to eight or nine, we just take a bad shot, we make a bad turnover. So, we’re going to changes some things up probably.”

“We were concerned about turnovers. We did a decent job. We were concerned about rebounding – we get 14 offensive, they get 10. They shot a pretty good percentage, but that was a concern. It was the three-point shooting and our lack of offensive productivity. We got it to ten there, and then Marcus is going to go one-on-one from the top of the key – we’ve got to fix that.”

“I thought we had our chances to cut it down and we do some things and we missed a lot of good shots. I mean, we missed a couple layups. I mean, poor Max missed two layups. You’re not going to win games like that.”

On MSU players who played well:

“I thought we got good play out of both point guards. I was really happy with AJ, even though he didn’t shoot it great. I thought he did a pretty good job running our team – six assists, one turnover. Pretty good defense.”

“I thought Tyson Walker also played pretty well. I thought Malik Hall played well, and I thought Julius Marble played pretty well. After that, it’s been a struggle.”

On Max Christie, Gabe Brown:

“Our two shooting guards, that are good shooters, went 2-for-18. So, I don’t know how you get any assists if you’re a point guard when that happens. But, as much as I was disappointed at times in our offense, I thought we got good enough shots. I think, of those 18 shots, we counted three that were bad.”

On free throws, only 4 attempts for MSU:

“[Iowa is] not a great free throw shooting team, and I don’t know if they missed one or two, but they didn’t miss many.”

“The only guy posting up is Julius. We went to Marcus [Bingham Jr.] on the first play and he scored. I think some of it, I’ll give [Iowa] a little credit, but give us a lot of blame. Getting to the free throw line four times is a lot of blame.”

On mental toughness, changes in rotation and lineup:

“There’s always concern with mental toughness. Nobody has much of that. There is concern with that, but our schedule’s been weird too. It’s back-loaded, and so, you’re going to have games on the road. Now, they shouldn’t be like they were tonight, but that’s what happens when they pile up.”

“So, they’ll be some things that will be changed. We’ll change them up and see if we can get this thing back.”

“We’ll get better. We haven’t quit. We’ll get better.”

On technical foul:

“It was a pretty crazy play, I thought, and I just said it was a foul. Didn’t swear at him. … And I knew better. I knew because of what happened. I’m sure we’re not even allowed to say ‘Hello’ or ‘How’s your mother?’ And, personally – completely undeserved. I didn’t run out on the floor on him – yes, I was on the floor, I didn’t even realize I was on the floor, but…that was ridiculous.”