Tom Izzo not using excuses for loss vs. Iowa

It was a difficult loss for Michigan State on Tuesday night when the Iowa Hawkeyes came in and beat the Spartans in East Lansing. However, for head coach Tom Izzo, there aren’t any excuses for the loss.

One possible challenge that Izzo was asked about after the game was Iowa’s usage, or lack thereof, of forward Owen Freeman on the inside. Still, Izzo insisted that coming into the game expecting one thing and seeing another isn’t a good excuse.

“That would’ve been okay,” Tom Izzo said. “I could use that as an excuse if I wouldn’t have had a second half. We have a halftime because you try to make adjustments at halftime. I thought they went at us just as much the second half.”

Malik Hall is the forward for Michigan State who was playing opposite Owen Freeman. The change didn’t, according to Izzo, seem to throw him off. Instead, the Spartans just didn’t do a good enough job on the defensive end of the floor.

“I don’t know what happened. Malik’s stats were good, but defensively, even he wasn’t great. We just didn’t handle them well. We let them get the ball in there, when it got in there, we didn’t do much. They went at it,” Izzo said.

“I thought some of it was some strange calls in there. That’s gonna happen, too, in a game.”

The two teams ended the game with 36 rebounds each. However, eight Michigan State turnovers to only four by Iowa, mixed with the Hawkeyes shooting 50.9 percent from the field and taking nine more free throws contributed to the loss for the Spartans.

Tom Izzo not interested in flushing loss

Many coaches and teams might want to put a loss like the one to Iowa to the side. However, that’s not what Tom Izzo is interested in doing.

“No, I never flush a game. Never ever. I didn’t flush last year’s loss. I never flush a loss. I flush some wins, I never flush a loss. I’ll spend tonight looking at the film and getting upset at some of the absolutely incredible mistakes I think we made that we shouldn’t make, and then I’ll try to figure out why,” Izzo said.

“We’ll give them tomorrow off because everybody’s gotta have time off. I’ll work tomorrow. It’s not Presidents’ Day, it’s not day-off day, it’s not COVID day. I’ll be working tomorrow and I’ll figure out what we did wrong and see if we can do it. But I don’t play, either.”