Tom Izzo Talks Michigan State Basketball Ahead Of The Iowa Hawkeyes
The Michigan State Spartans went into Lincoln, Nebraska and came out on top dropping the Cornhuskers 86-65. The win improved the men in green’s season record and conference record to 18-9 (10-5).
The team will return to the hard-court Tuesday, February 25, 2020, in East Lansing at the Breslin Center. They will be taking on the No. 20 Iowa Hawkeyes. It can be seen on ESPN2 at 7:00 PM ET.
In the above video, Tom Izzo talks about all things Michigan State from his weekly press conference. There is a partial transcript below:
Opening statement…
Well, it sure hasn't been a very smooth part of the season. Trying to figure out how you blow a seven-point lead in that period of time, play so poorly in some ways and so good in other ways. What we had is I thought Xavier (Tillman) was unbelievable in the first half, we just can't get everybody on the same page at the same time. In the second half, the job we did defensively to hold them down to 14 points in 17 minutes and then 14 points in three minutes is mind-boggling. But there were some breakdowns on how we were covering some stuff. That three that the big kid hit shouldn't have happened. The issue is that we felt like we took a few bad shots, but not many. But we do have to know that in the last few minutes of the game, our best shooters have to take the three-point shots, not just those who are open. I thought defensively, we were phenomenal in the second half, even at the end. They hit a couple of shots after going 0-of-10 from 3. Now how do you go forward? Well, we move forward by looking early this morning at a meeting and late last night looking at where we've been. It seems like there's been a common denominator from Kentucky on; with two minutes left in the game, we're down two, we're down two, we're down one, we're down four a couple of times and it's either a great play by them… Kentucky or with Virginia Tech hits a three with him laying on his back or a bad play for us like the three games we missed all of the layups. You put those two things together and I had a slide show I made this morning, with the nine games, there were five of them that were more than winnable. I think our average margin of being down was -1.1 in the last two minutes. So, what I'm trying to sell, not to you because fans don't believe it, but to my players, that we're a basket away, a layup away or a play away from being very, very, very good, winning three or four more games easily. I've been there in 2005 with a similar deal when we finished in the league fourth or fifth with a lot of close losses and we were able to right the ship a little bit. I felt like our guys played hard, we just didn't play as well in that first half. The biggest issue in the first half was our transition defense. They were very good in the first half; we were better in the second half. So, I'm disappointed in our performance, especially in that first half, we need to find ways to win games and not lose games. But in all nine of those games, I throw out Duke and Purdue because I say we got our butts kicked; with the other seven, I showed them wherewith two minutes left in the game, the worst was a six-point negative, most of them were one and two points and that's what we got to do. I thought Cassius (Winston) and Xavier (Tillman), we're putting a little too much on them. Aaron Henry after a bad first half played much better in the second half. Rocket (Watts), I thought one of the commentators made a good comment when they said we have to get back to role-playing a little bit. He made a couple of shots, missed a couple of shots and maybe took one bad shot. But, the defense he played on that kid was unbelievable and for a freshman to do that was a plus we're going to move forward on. I guess I have to congratulate Xavier (Tillman) and Tamia because they finally had their little boy this morning, took care of that and that's a plus.
As far as Nebraska goes, obviously I think they're very well-coached, I'm a big fan of Fred Hoiberg. He came here during his year off and spent time with us here and there. Even though they've lost ten in a row, they have a strange team and he'd be the first to tell you. They have a lot of players who can fill it up, they're tough; they just took Maryland to the wire and missed a layup to win it at Maryland. So, they've got guys who can hit threes, they've got guys who in open court are very very good. They've had some very tough losses. They have three players in double figures, the (Haanif) Cheatham kid we've played against, he started at Marquette then he went to Florida Golf Coast. He signed up for Bilas' travel agency so he can get these guys to spot so I'll have to see if Jay will get me a discount on that. We saw him last year at Florida Gulf Coast and he's a very good player. Cam Mack is I think a very good player averaging seven assists. He's quicker than quick and he can get shots up. They've got seven players who have shot at least 20 threes, so that can be good news or bad news. We're going to worry a lot about Michigan State today, we're going to start preparing for Nebraska tomorrow and see if we can convince our team that we've been an eyelash away and that's been in every game but two. It's funny how when you win by one point, you're God and when you lose by one point, you're the other kind. So that's what I have to do and build on.
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