Tom Izzo addresses where Michigan State stands amid win streak

Michigan State has enjoyed a three-game win streak during the middle portion of January, most recently holding on for a 61-59 win over Maryland over the weekend. And ahead of a matchup with league-leading Wisconsin, head coach Tom Izzo shared how the winning spurt has changed the outlook.

In short: Not much. It’s provided a little bit of margin, as the Spartans went from 9-7 to 12-7 and added some quality wins, but hasn’t changed Izzo’s overall desire to see a more complete effort.

“About that much,” Izzo said, holding his index finger and thumb less than a centimeter apart to signify the small margin the Spartans built. “When you dig a hole like we dug, I mean, your back’s going to be against the wall. The encouraging part is there’re so many other teams now you’re seeing struggling at times. I just talked to the Baylor coach, they lost two in a row. It’s — ready to jump off a bridge. That’s kind of what’s happened a lot this year. But what I feel better about is getting a road win, because that was getting to be an albatross and then coming back after being up and going down and coming back, I mean that’s something. We showed a little grit. And we’re improving in some areas.”

Prior to the win at Maryland, Izzo’s Spartans were winless away from the Breslin Center, and can now ideally play a little freer away from home.

And in the win against Maryland, Izzo didn’t think his team played to its full potential all game. A crisp first half was followed by a subpar second half. Until he sees a total effort for 40 minutes, Izzo is likely to feel that wall just behind him.

“We’re just — I don’t think we’ve put the whole game together yet. We haven’t rebounded well when we’ve defended well. When we were defending well and running in the first half, I thought we were as good as we’ve looked all year, against the best defensive team. Second half, at one time we were 2-for-17. I thought we took some bad shots, I thought we got a little tired. I thought they cranked up the defense, I thought — we’re not as physical a team, both in size and strength, especially on the perimeter as we were and have been over the years. Once in a while that catches us,” Izzo said.

And with Wisconsin visiting on Friday, Izzo and his Michigan State squad have a chance to play a complete game for the first time all year, at perhaps the most critical juncture.