Tom Izzo Talks About Michigan State Hoops and the State of the B1G

Earlier this week Tom Izzo talked with the media about the state of Michigan State hoops and the state of the B1G conference. As usual he was straightforward

Earlier this week Tom Izzo talked with the media about the state of Michigan State hoops and the state of the B1G conference. As usual he was straightforward and gave some great analysis. Here is part of what he said:

Well we are only a couple of weeks in to the Big Ten season. It’s amazing that there is a bunch of teams at the top. I think everyone thought Wisconsin would run away. I still think they are the best team. When you look at the situation we’ve been in the last two years with injuries Wisconsin has been the opposite. Last year I don’t think they’ve had a hangnail. That is what happens to some teams.

If you look at our league now I think there are some surprises at the bottom and a couple of surprises at the top if you ask me, Yet it’s only four of five games in with a lot of basketball left to be played. When you start looking at it nationally I think you are seeing my point. I don’t know if its parody or keeping guys focused our my advertisement on the social media driving kids nuts, but it seems to be a little bit more of this year than I have seen in a lot of years.

For the most part our defense has been very very good other than parts of the Northwestern game. The lowest of my era as far as where we are now: field goal percentage, three point field goal percentage. Rebounding has not been as good all because of the Maryland game. We were a minus 16 in that game. Otherwise we would probably be plus seven or eight. I didn’t think this would be a great rebounding team, but it’s done better than I thought.

I said something to you guys a couple of weeks ago before we started the Big Ten. I quoted my football coach Mark Dantonio who says, “Your seniors have to play well if you’re going to do well.” Right now as an example our two seniors are playing awfully well. Trice and Dawson. Dawson is leading the league in rebounding. Trice is leading the league in assists, assists to turnovers, steals and scoring he is up ranked in the top right now. Those two guys are playing very well right now. Yet we are entering a tough stretch with three out of four on the road.

It’s been a unique couple of things that have happened. This is the longest Michigan State has been off in my era. We were off almost a month. Usually Christmas break is 20 days, 18 days, 21 days and there has been goods and bads with it. Also the first time I have had two buys in the first two weeks of the season or two and a half weeks of the season. I think it helps us this week a little bit, especially with our injuries. Because we will get a little healthier. Then it gets tough because we have a lot of games, especially on the road. It will be like an NBA schedule. By then our players will be ready for that.

I feel like we are making some big progress. With the next four games and three of them on the road this is a time we can come together and make up for that loss at home. Hopefully. Traveling to Maryland for the first time will be interesting. I have traveled there once before, not for a game. I’m sure it will be Fourth of July and Christmas. Big weekend game, big TV game. I’m hearing they are going to honor Gary Williams. It will be a festive day. They’re one of the leaders in the Big Ten in field goal percentage defense and one of the biggest teams in the Big Ten.

They gave us a little problem before and yet in the last game we shot 32% they shot 33%. We shot 22% from the field and they shot 18%. It wasn’t our defense that let us down it was our offense that let us down it was a little bit our offense let us down. Uncharacteristically we didn’t get beat on the boards we got killed on the boards.

I didn’t look it up because I didn’t want to already feel worse than I did that day, but I would think that was one of the worst in my era. I don’t know of anyone that our rebounded us by 16.

If you ask me what do we have to do this week? We have to rebound better and another interesting stat is that they had zero free throws in the first half and 32 in the second. So rebound, defend without fouling and watch this topsy turvy league kind of go crazy.

I still think the top dog is the top dog in Wisconsin. I don’t think we are as strong at the top as we were last year, but I think we are a lot stronger in the middle and at the bottom. When you look at Minnesota at 0-5 and I’m telling ya Minnesota is a pretty good team.