Tom Izzo goes on rant about ability to push people, calls on Michigan State to be different

Michigan State has started the season 7-4, facing one of the toughest schedules of any team in the country. That’s by design, helping coach Tom Izzo push Michigan State to be different.

Izzo explained some of his thinking behind the challenging non-conference slate for the Spartans.

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, that’s why,” Izzo began, opening up a nearly four-minute explanation about some of the difficulties in creating a truly tough team in this day and age.

Losses? Struggle? Adversity?

Those used to be things that were celebrated for their ability to reveal, to test the mettle of a team and allow it to respond, Izzo essentially explained. Not so much anymore.

At various points in Michigan State’s gauntlet so far, losses to Gonzaga, Alabama, Notre Dame and Northwestern were met with serious questions.

“I had a hard time talking to you guys about it because the minute you say something you’re making an excuse,” Izzo said. “I understood it, I’m just usually pretty open about it. At first I didn’t want to admit it. I didn’t want to say they were tired.

“I think the greatest show of it was at Penn State in the first six minutes, seven minutes. I kept saying it to my staff, ‘We’re in quicksand, we can’t move.’ Felt that way at Notre Dame the first half, and yet the second half we played a lot harder and a lot better.”

Watching your team fight through the difficult stretches is how you learn about the mental makeup of your team.

Tom Izzo on societal impediments to pushing for greatness

Izzo was making no bones about it in a press conference following a win over Brown. The current reality in college athletics has presented coaches with some serious new hurdles.

Namely, preparing your team to actually fight through adversity.

“In this screwed up world we’re in right now where you’re not allowed to demand anything, kids are not allowed to fail, they’re not allowed to be pushed through things, it’s hard to push people,” Izzo said. “I think what we got out of this: We kept pushing, they kept accepting. Guys like AJ (Hoggard) got better. Rest of the players see that. If we wouldn’t have played those big games, we might have beat some teams by 10 or 15 and not known any of that. You saw it today, some teams struggled. I mean there’s going to be games.

“Who can sustain a level of play that is good enough? I think everybody is struggling with that. I think we’ve caused some of that. I think society has caused some of that, and I think some of the rules have caused some of that.”

In the transfer portal era, sometimes the solution is simply understanding the grass isn’t always greener.

Tending and mowing your own lawn can be a reward in its own way, sometimes much moreso than simply seeking a new opportunity elsewhere at the first sign of trouble.

Can Michigan State be different?

The message at Michigan State in combatting some of these modern hurdles is simple. Dare to be different.

“I just keep preaching to my guys, ‘Let’s be different,'” Izzo said. “And we haven’t been all different yet, but that’s going to be my goal, to be honest with you. Let’s be different, let’s not give into this. Let’s be different. Let’s fight through it.”

The non-conference schedule certainly served its purpose for Izzo, even if he’d prefer to have a better record than 7-4 right now.

“We have a measuring pot now of what we’ve gone through,” Izzo said. “I see the Top 10 and I see, ‘Oh, we played them.’ Oh, by the way, we played Tennessee in that scrimmage and that was a game in our minds. Then we played this team and Gonzaga and then we played that team and Alabama. I’m not afraid of anybody.”

Forget the outside noise — impossible, right? — and simply focus on the process of getting better.

Izzo has so much ammo to work with now thanks to the non-conference schedule, he should be able to riddle his team with really apt lessons when needed. Push their buttons to unlock additional levels, extra gears.

“Look at, guys, it helped us. But when I sat here that first press conference and said we could be 1-7 those games I was dead serious,” Izzo said. “As I look back, I think we could have won one or two more games, also. So I’ve got enough to complain about either way to my team. I’ve got enough good things to point to. It’s fun when you can be honest with your team. I’m going to be able to be honest with them, because I can look at that Top 10 and say, ‘What are you afraid of?’ And I can look at a couple teams that beat us and say, ‘Who do you think you’re better than?’ And I think it’s going to help us.”

College basketball becoming more dynamic

In addition to the added demands in roster retention that the NCAA transfer portal has created for college coaches, Izzo believes it has actually impacted style of play quite a bit, too.

That’s another new wrinkle to deal with.

“I don’t think we’re that much better than anybody, but I think you can go into a meeting room and say, ‘Hey, we’ve been defended so many different ways and had so many different offenses.’ The guys that deserve the credit are not me, it’s my staff,” Izzo said. “Because when they have to go scout a team, I’ve never seen this many different… I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the players. Maybe coaches are trying to figure out how to play some of the players because everybody’s transferred in, they’re not staying. I don’t know what it is, but it’s been a little different.”

Regardless, Izzo’s approach doesn’t seem to have changed much.

You’re still going to get a lot of tough love if you suit up for the Spartans. Society be darned.

“We’ve done what we always do. We’ve played good people, we take our lumps, we learn from them, we get better,” Izzo said. “This is going to be the most critical two weeks, three weeks of our season. Then just when we feel like we’re getting back, ‘Oh, we’ve got to add Malik (Hall).’ Not that I can’t wait till we have Malik, but that will take an adjustment, too.”