Everything Tom Izzo said about MSU's loss to Ohio State in Big Ten Tournament

The Spartans' head coach was not pleased with his team's energy and effort defensively...

Michigan State had a disappointingly short stint in the 2023 Big Ten Tournament after being knocked out by Ohio State in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Spartans head coach Tom Izzo met with the media following the game to discuss the defeat. Here's everything Izzo had to say:

Opening Statement:

"No matter how long you're in it, it never ceases to amaze you. I thought we had as good a three days of practice as we could have. I thought our guys were fresh, sharp. I thought we started out the game pretty good."

"But I give a lot of credit to Ohio State and to Chris Holtmann. He got his guys to play hard, and I just didn't think we brought it. We were ready to go early, we get a little lead. You've got to give them credit too. They hit some incredible shots. We just couldn't buy some."

"I said to our media for three weeks that I didn't think our defense has been very good and it would get you in a tournament, so I guess my experience kind of gave the answer. It's a shame, too, because these three guys I thought played pretty hard, not always made shots."

"For Tyson to get eight, nine shots and Joey to only get five, that's kind of our fault as a staff, and we'll look at that. Some blame goes to us on how we played, a lot of credit goes to Ohio State on the job he did getting them off the dead and competing like they did. They were a good defensively, they were good offensively and they made some shots, man. They made some shots."

On playing through fatigue, how body language affects a game, Ohio State's Chris Holtmann and players:

"It all depends. You look at with Sensabaugh out, I thought they played better. That's not an insult to him. Another three-point shooter in there and definitely defensively. Somebody else got a chance."

"Where fatigue is overrated, excitement and energy is underrated. I try to tell a couple of my guards that your body language, your emotion, your energy makes a difference. Tyson, I thought he played hard all game. We had some other guys that didn't play as hard. I don't know why."

"But when you start making shots like that, things go your way -- I mean, they made some shots. Give Sueing credit. He acted like a fifth-year senior. 4-of-7, he's just not that kind of shooter. But give him credit on that. And Gayle, he gets his chance more now and goes 3-of-3, and a couple of them were tough shots. And the best shooter shot the worst, McNeil, you know."

"But we didn't guard, and we haven't guarded, and I've been complaining about it."

On Ohio State's defense, Michigan State's lack of defensive intensity:

"I think it was more their defense, to be honest with you. I think they did a good job. I think they're a better defensive team with the group they got in there. That's no insult. I'm a better defensive team with certain guys, you have to weigh whether it's offense or defense."

"The great thing about the tournament is we all know defense wins games. We all know the scores are lower. Look at the scores of some of these games. We all saw what happened. A team like Rutgers who guards the hell out of people, and they find a way to win a game and they find a way to almost win another game."

"You've got to be able to guard, and if you don't defend well and you give up, as Tyson said, drives, then you don't rebound as well. We're outrebounded them by two, that's not good for us."

"I just thought from the head down our energy wasn't there. It wasn't fatigue. It was, maybe we thought with Sensabaugh out, you know, I warned my team of that, had it happened. I didn't think they responded that way in any way, shape, or form in the locker room, but I had to address it."

"I don't know. It's one of the more disappointing days because I thought we had a legitimate chance to maybe win this thing. That doesn't mean everything's gone wrong, and the way we played the last three weeks, month, after all we've been through has been pretty damn good. Today we laid an egg, and part of it was Ohio State, and part of it was Michigan State."

On point guard play, missed opportunities:

"We've heard this a little bit lately. Energy. Tyson did a helluva job. We did not -- the point is a key guy, and whether I had Mateen Cleaves or Waltons or different guys over the years, 'Tum Tum', they've got to put pressure on the ball, and we didn't. So we switched it up, and we got Tyson in there, and he started to, and it started to turn things."

"We had a chance to tie the game with that layup, and not only didn't we, but we gave up two threes in a row. So we played like a front-runner team, which is probably the most disappointing to me because it's the anti-whatever to me. I do not want a front-running team, but that's kind of what we played like. For whatever reason, I don't know, but that's what I'll have to get back and figure out."

On transition points, importance of boxing out for rebounds:

"That was one of the other things that we've been so good at. We've been so good on our break, and I think the last time we played them, we scored 22 points or something off our break."

"Today, I thought A.J. pushed it early, and then I thought we just didn't. For whatever reason. That was part of our struggles. Listen, they're playing really good. We're not as bad as we played today, and that's been evident by what we've done in the last month, to be honest with you."

"A couple things happened early in that game. We didn't cut out to get a rebound. We've been really pushing the envelope to try to make people understand that the little things matter. I was watching a game today, and my pet peeve is free-throw cutouts. We lost at Iowa because we did not cut people out. That went unforeseen with all the threes they hit, there was a missed free throw, we didn't cut them out, they got a bucket. That was the difference in the game."

"I saw today there was about four times when one of the teams didn't cut out at the free-throw line and it ended up costing them. The little things do matter, but this day and age, I think most kids don't look at it the same way. So, that will be emphasized this week in practice, see if we can do a better job."

On fixing defensive problems before NCAA Tournament:

"That's the beauty of it. I don't have to reinvent the wheel, as I said. We've been there, done that. We played really good defense. We were second or third in the league in field goals. We were first, I think we're still first in three-point field goals. You wouldn't guess it, but we really were."

"Even when those two teams late hit some in the regular season, we're still first. So we've already been there. But effort is a funny thing, and energy is a funny thing. Sometimes, when I think you start playing better offensively, I feel like we got casual defensively."

"You saw that one stretch when we weren't, that should be 40 minutes of that, and that falls on me. So I'm going to find some guys who want to do that for 40 minutes, and today we didn't. The better team won. They outplayed us in every aspect -- offensively, defensively, even rebounding that we beat them, blocking shots."