MSU's Izzo Says 'We'll Get Better,' More after Loss at Wisconsin
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As it stands right now, Michigan State is not playing good enough to expect a deep run in March.
The 10th-ranked Spartans have now lost three of their last four. Friday night's 92-71 loss at Wisconsin not only takes the Big Ten regular season title out of the picture for MSU, but its the program's most lopsided loss in nearly four calendar years (lost by 26 at Iowa on Feb. 22, 2022).
"First of all, that was a good, old-fashioned ass-kicking, to be honest with you," Tom Izzo said to open up his postgame press conference."
Maybe the fact that Wisconsin had been running away with the game since before halftime allowed Izzo to calm down a bit, but he was relatively mild, as far as how his postgame press conferences go after a loss (or even some "bad" wins).
What Izzo Said
The big story of the game was Wisconsin's shooting. The Badgers made 10 threes on 17 tries in the first half to help open up that significant lead. MSU did OK, going 5-for-14 from deep, but that wasn't enough to keep up with Wisconsin's offense that also out-scored the Spartans 18-4 in the paint in the game's first 20 minutes.
"They made some shots now; they started banking them in," Izzo said. "I don't give us fault on that. But, in general, very disappointed in our rebounding, very disappointed in our coverages, and I've got to take some of the blame on that. We tried to do something a little different because we just didn't feel we could cover certain guys with the way they can shoot it and penetrate it, and I take full responsibility for that, not the players."
The rebounding was a pretty jarring stat: even at 38-38 on the glass. Michigan State is a team that should be able to dominate that area. Even after this game, MSU is all the way up in fourth in the nation for average rebound margin at plus-12.6. Wisconsin, on the other hand, is down at 134th at plus-2.5.
Wisconsin also took advantage of said rebounds a lot more. The Spartans had 14 offensive rebounds to the Badgers' 11. Despite that, second-chance points were 19-8 in favor of the home team.
Michigan State's defense just looked like a shell of its normal self. Wisconsin ended up scoring 1.44 points per possession, which is almost certainly the highest number that MSU has allowed this season. Usually, getting above 1.0 points per possession is a challenge against this team.
"I mean, we've been really good defensively," Izzo said. "I think we're fourth in the country. And I think our defense let us down tonight."
Izzo was likely referring to KenPom having his team's defense ranked fourth in the country. That is where the Spartans were entering Friday night, but the site slid MSU down to seventh for that one. KenPom graded the game as the sixth-worst defensive performance from Michigan State since the site's inception for the 1996-97 season. The 92 points are the fifth-most allowed during a Big Ten game in the Izzo era, and it felt like Wisconsin could've reached 100 if it really wanted to.
Something else that stuck out from this game was the near-total lack of assists from people besides Jeremy Fears Jr. MSU ended up recording 13 assists to nine turnovers during Friday's game --- not great, but it's done worse.
Well, Fears accounted for 12 of those assist and only one of the turnovers. To make matters worse, the only other assist came from Jesse McCulloch with 1:30 left and the game already having long been decided.
"I thought when they went into the post, we panicked early," Izzo said when asked about that stat. "They doubled us, did a good job there. I thought the ball moved pretty good at times, to be very honest with you. We just missed shots, and we missed some good shots. Now, they played good defense, but early on, we missed some good shots, and then it just kind of snowballed. But, yeah, the ball's got to move better."
This skid is going to have to end sooner rather than later. There are only six regular season games left and Selection Sunday is about a month away. MSU still has a 20-5 overall record with a 10-4 Big Ten mark to work with, but it feels like it has missed its opportunity to compete for a conference title again.
"We'll get better, guys," Izzo said. "We'll get better. I mean, it's one game. Yeah, there's some things you can look at on --- why you didn't do this and why you didn't do that. But I also know how we've played in most of the games this year."
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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