What MSU's Tom Izzo Said Following Solid Victory at IU

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. --- The phrase "January, February, IZZO" exists for a reason.

Tom Izzo's 13th-ranked Michigan State team looked sharp for most of the way against Indiana on Sunday, taking down the Hoosiers on the road, 77-64. It's MSU's second road victory in just four days and also the team's fourth straight victory overall.

"I'm proud of my guys, 'cause coming back from that Thursday-Sunday deal [playing Purdue and IU], both on the road, I thought they showed a lot of care," Izzo said after the game. "I'm proud of my staff; those preps are not easy at this time of year."

This victory propelled the Spartans to 24-5 on the year and 14-4 during Big Ten play. Michigan State returns to action on Thursday against Rutgers, which will be the team's final home game this season.

Full Tom Izzo Press Conference

More on Sunday's Victory

This is a high-quality win for Michigan State. Indiana is an NCAA Tournament bubble team that was going to be desperate for a win, and MSU had a handle on the Hoosiers the entire time. Sunday's result will end up becoming the Spartans' eighth Quad 1 victory of the season. They're also very, very close to clinching a top-4 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, the triple-bye to the quarterfinals that comes with it, and are going to be difficult to seed below a 3 in the NCAA Tournament right now. Grabbing a 2 seed doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility, either.

These last two games at No. 8 Purdue and at Indiana might be the best two-game stretch Michigan State has had all season. It feels like watching everyone is collectively watching the same movie again: MSU looks good for a while, dips in late January or early February, and then starts trending in the right direction again towards March.

"For us, it's a monstorous week," Izzo said. "Now we have a couple of days off and spring break, so maybe we can regroup a little bit and refresh and get ready for Rutgers."

This looks like a basketball team that has the makeup of a team that can make a big run. The pieces have always been there, the problem lately had just been that they hadn't showed up consistently enough. Part of what made last season's team dangerous was its depth and the fact that teams couldn't know who was going to be the one to play well. This year's team doesn't solidly go 10 deep like that squad, but it's starting to show now that, on any given night, it can be Carson Cooper, Jeremy Fears Jr., Jaxon Kohler, or even Kur Teng who can get you.

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