Izzo Takes Blame for MSU's Struggles Against the Zone, Will Be Ready Next Time
Tom Izzo will not make the same mistake twice. You can count on that.
No. 11 Michigan State was once again humbled when Indiana came into the Breslin Center on Tuesday and upset a Spartans team that had previously been undefeated at home, a loss that was due in large part to the Hoosiers' 2-3 zone defense that simply stumped Michigan State's offense.
Izzo had placed the blame on himself after the game for his team's unpreparedness against the zone and did so again when he addressed the media on Thursday.
"After looking at the film -- I took responsibility that night, I take more responsibility," Izzo said. "They played 4% zone the whole year, they played 90% after we got up 20-8. They adjusted. We adjusted, but we didn't adjust good enough. And that falls on me. I'm the first to, at least behind the scenes, blame a player for something if they didn't do it, but I also think my job is to put players in a position to be successful. And we fell a little short on that."
Contrary to what many outside the program believe, Izzo seems certain that his team can handle a zone.
"[W]e still knew what we were doing," he said. "We missed some good shots, and I didn't think we did a good job getting the ball where we needed to. We were in enormous foul trouble, we had people all in different positions. Call them excuses, call them the truth; I don't really give a damn what anybody thinks."
Indiana's success against the Spartans begs the question: Will future opponents be encouraged to also use a zone against Izzo's squad? That isn't an issue to the Hall-of-Fame head coach.
"Do I think we're going to get zoned by -- if we play Syracuse and [Jim] Boeheim comes out of his tunnel, yeah, we're going to get zoned," Izzo joked. "Other than that, nobody is going to zone us because of one game or something like that. And if they do, bring it on."
Illinois is the next team that will have the opportunity to do so, as the Spartans are set to take on the Fighting Illini in Champaign on Saturday in what will be a rematch of the Jan. 19 thriller in East Lansing.
"Am I worried about zone? I hope we get zoned 40 minutes on Saturday. How is that?" Izzo said. "That's how worried I am. 40 minutes. I hope they zone us the whole time. I'm not worried about it."
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