Tom Izzo, Tre Holloman explain how Michigan State flipped switch in 2nd half vs. Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament

Michigan State entered the half of it’s Big Ten men’s basketball tournament opener trailing Minnesota by two, 34-32. And the message from head coach Tom Izzo at halftime was rather simple: Defend, rebound and run transition offense like the Spartans are known for.

Following a 45-33 second half in which the Spartans did just that, going on to win, 77-67, Izzo was pleased with how his team responded. But he didn’t love how they had to dig out of a small hole in the first place.

“I think we’re so much better than we’re playing and at times — we did a much better job second half,” Izzo said on the Big Ten Network after the win. “But we still make some mistakes that I don’t think a veteran team should or a veteran coach. So I’m being critical of myself.”

In the first half, Michigan State committed six turnovers, forward Malik Hall got into foul trouble and sat for around the final 10 minutes of the half. It was not a winning formula.

But in the second half, Hall managed to keep himself in the game and the guard triumvirate of Tyson Walker, AJ Hoggard and Jaden Akins gave the Spartans a real jolt offensively in the second half. The trio had scored seven, four and five points in the first half, respectively.

By the end of the game, Walker had 15, Hoggard had 17, and Akins tacked on nine points while making some clutch rebounds and defensive plays.

“I thought Ty was passing up shots, I told him finally to shoot the ball. I get accused of a lot of things, but I tell my guys to shoot the ball,” Izzo said. “They gotta shoot the ball. But we got some things out of our inside guys, Malik Hall came back after sitting out so long. That really hurt us. You saw the difference it made with him in the game. He can handle that double team a little better than the other guys, so I was proud of him.”

Hall also finished with nine points and sixth man Tre Holloman produced an efficient nine points, going 3-of-3 from the field, including a pair of 3s.

And for Holloman, Thursday’s game in the Twin Cities meant a homecoming for him.

“This is a blessing. Coming back home, it just means a lot. Family and friends coming out to see me man, just a blessing,” Holloman said on BTN after the win.

Holloman led the charge for a bench group that scored 24 of the Spartans 77 points on Thursday, providing solid spells of play with the aforementioned starters on the bench in various combinations.

And Holloman shared some of what Izzo said to his team at the half — the PG version, at least — that kicked Michigan State into playing at a higher gear.

“Just get stops and then run,” Holloman said. “Malik came up big second half, AJ came up big. Jaden Akins came up big with some tough rebounds, steals. So we just got out and ran.”