WATCH: Everything Michigan State's Tom Izzo Said After Loss to UCLA
No. 9 Michigan State was bested for a second game in a row, this time against UCLA in what was a narrow 63-61 defeat for the Spartans on Tuesday.
Michigan State committed 16 turnovers and shot 37.7% from the field in the loss. Despite an admirable second-half push, the Spartans will leave Los Angeles empty-handed, facing a much more desparate need to get back on track.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo addressed the media after the loss.
You can watch below:
Below isa partial transcript from the opening statement of Izzo's presser:
Izzo: "Well, I'm not sure we deserved to win the game the way we played in the middle of it. I said that at USC, we didn't compete as hard as we normally do. We turned the ball over a little too much and we missed a lot of free throws. Here, I thought, against Mick's [Cronin] team, because he's a hell of a coach, he does a hell of a job, we competed, we made our free throws, we turned the damn ball over 16 times to their three, and that was the difference in the game. That, along with a couple of things at the end there when we just -- to beat good teams on the road, you got to play hard enough, but you got to play smart enough. And I thought we made some plays early in that game that weren't smart enough. So, that's the only disappointment I had. I'm actually proud of my team. The road trip's the road trip. It isn't as easy as I thought it would be. And yet, it was great, as far as all the things, the practices, everything you could have, but it's a long time on the road for college guys, and I thought we handled it pretty well. I mean, we got beat by -- you can call them -- the hottest team in the league right now, and deservingly so. He's [Cronin's] got a lot of weapons, he plays a lot of people, he does a hell of a job with them, and like I said, we played well enough; we didn't play smart enough, and we turned the damn ball over too much. And that was the difference. And they [UCLA] didn't turn it over at all, give them credit."
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