Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast: Recapping B10 Tourney Win Over Oregon
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- A tournament setting made no difference for No. 7 Michigan State on Friday as the Spartans were in firm control most of the way in their 74-74 conquering of Oregon.
Michigan State was able to put together momentous stretch that ultimately made the difference. The Spartans shot the ball well (except from the free-throw line, where they went 17-29), held Oregon to 32 points in each half, outrebounded the Ducks, 36-29 and forced the opponent to turn the ball over 15 times.
The Spartans also held the Ducks to just 21.1% from deep.
Our Aidan Champion recaps Friday's contest on this latest postgame edition of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast. You can watch below:
Below is a transcript from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's opening statement of his postgame press conference:
Izzo: "I'm proud of our guys. These guys did a lot, a senior and a sophomore that have to do a lot. I thought the team in general, we were so good defensively, again, first half, but the turnovers cost us. That team shot 56%, and I thought we did a hell of a job in the first half. In the second half, we just came out and turned it over five times and gave them some layups, and there were turnovers for touchdowns. I think when Mariucci was here, he thought it was a football game. I felt like after we settled down, we really did a hell of a job. Then the last thing that hurt us is something that hasn't hurt us all year, and that is, we missed a lot of free throws, and that's uncharacteristic of us. In general, Jeremy [Fears Jr.] did a hell of a job on. The Shelstad kid -- the [Jackson] Shelstad kid is really good. Jase [Richardson] did a hell of a job on [TJ] Bamba. These kids are really good players. We had over half our team trying to guard him. All in all, defense wins, and our defense was really good, but our offense wasn't bad today.”
Michigan State is one game away from the Big Ten Tournament title game. It will face the winner of UCLA/Wisconsin.
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