Tom Izzo opens up on needed defensive improvements for NCAA Tournament

Michigan State fell victim to Ohio State‘s improbable Big Ten Tournament run, losing to the Buckeyes 68-58 in the quarterfinals. The Spartans’ defense has not been looking like itself as of late, especially in their last game, as head coach Tom Izzo was asked following the loss was asked how they can improve between now and the start of the NCAA Tournament on the defensive end.

“That’s the beauty of it,” Izzo said. “I don’t have to reinvent the wheel, as I said. We’ve been there, done that. We played really good defense. We were second or third in the league in field goals. We were first, I think we’re still first in three-point field goals. You wouldn’t guess it, but we really were. Even when those two teams late hit some in the regular season, we’re still first. So we’ve already been there. But effort is a funny thing, and energy is a funny thing. Sometimes, when I think you start playing better offensively, I feel like we got casual defensively.”

Sparty’s defense has dropped to No. 7 in the Big Ten, allowing 67.4 points per game this season, and in four of their last six games has given up more than that many points to their opponents.

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“You saw that one stretch when we weren’t, that should be 40 minutes of that, and that falls on me. So I’m going to find some guys who want to do that for 40 minutes, and today we didn’t. The better team won. They outplayed us in every aspect — offensively, defensively, even rebounding that we beat them, blocking shots,” Izzo said.

This was Michigan State’s third meeting with the Buckeyes, defeating them handily in February and holding them to just 41 points. But their last two meetings were much different, back-to-back matchups where Ohio State shot nearly 50% from the field and superbly from the three-point line. In their regular season finale Michigan State was able to outscore Ohio State, but that was not the case on Friday.

“I give a lot of credit to them. They’ll have their hands full with Purdue. This tournament is about matchups too. Sometimes matchups work for you. Sometimes they work against you. If I wasn’t playing against them, I would have been cheering when some of those threes that had no business — I’m giving them a lot of credit,” Izzo said. “So make sure you guys from Columbus, especially my buddy back home, understands they still made some shots from heaven, and that’s kind of what happens.”

Izzo was right, as Purdue defeated the Buckeyes 80-66 in the semifinals and would go on to win the entire Big Ten Tournament. He continued to give credit to the Buckeyes for their performance against them, and now has about a week to shift the mentality of his team’s defense in the right direction ahead of the NCAA Tournament.

“I give them a lot of credit. If they can keep that going, they’ll keep winning. I think those guards could create some problems, and Purdue is really good, but maybe they’ll set a precedence and keep winning. I mean, it’s been a fun team to watch from close and afar. Tell my guy that probably Chris deserves some credit for that,” Izzo said.