Tom Izzo on preparing for Kentucky after almost beating Gonzaga

On Friday night, Michigan State lost to Gonzaga 64-63 on an aircraft carrier in the Armed Forces Classic. Tonight, the Spartans play Kentucky in the Champions Classic. On Sunday night, the No. 4 Wildcats will play the No. 2 Bulldogs in Spokane. As someone who has coached against one team and is preparing to play the other, Tom Izzo compared the two in his Monday press conference.

“The biggest difference is we’re going to go from a team that runs a lot of stuff and does a lot of things and completely goes into their center [Drew Timme] in Gonzaga,” Izzo said. “Now we’re going to go into one that is athletic as maybe any team we’ll play with a great point guard but wings that can shoot and length. Oscar [Tshiebwe], he gets a lot of his points — he averaged 6.2 offensive rebounds a game last year. I mean, that’s unbelievable and because of that, he scores a lot of his points that way. So they don’t go to him like Gonzaga went to Timme, or at least they haven’t. Maybe they will this year because he’s been in the program a little longer, we just haven’t been able to see that because he hasn’t played.”

Oscar will reportedly play tonight after missing the first two games of the regular season due to a minor knee procedure last month. Lance Ware and Ugonna Onyenso have held down Kentucky’s frontcourt in Oscar’s absence, but Drew Timme presents a different challenge than the Wildcats have seen thus far. Timme led the Bulldogs back from a 12-point deficit vs. the Spartans with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Even if Timme doesn’t score, he almost always draws a foul. Against Michigan State, he was 4-10 from the free-throw line. Spartans center Mady Sissoko fouled out, finishing with 14 points and 9 rebounds in 25 minutes.

“Not many teams just absolutely throw it in to a guy who has those kinds of post moves where he’s gangly and he draws fouls,” Izzo said of Timme. “He’s very good at it.”

“We thought we matched up in every way but one with them. We did not think we matched up as good at center and ironically, our center played pretty well, but it still in the end, why did you lose? A million reasons, you know, but in the end, their All-American came through and made a couple of big rebounds, and then they scored.”

A contrast in styles

Whereas Gonzaga’s offense centers around Timme, Kentucky has more weapons than just Oscar. Antonio Reeves and CJ Fredrick are averaging a combined 37.0 points through two games. As John Calipari pointed out yesterday, Oscar returning opens up the floor even more for Fredrick and Reeves. Add in length, athleticism, and a veteran point guard in Sahvir Wheeler and Izzo says Gonzaga and Kentucky couldn’t be more different in terms of style of play.

“Now we’re going to get almost the exact opposite. [Gonzaga] was not a real athletic team, although their perimeter guys have some athletes. Now we’re going to go against length and athleticism. There we went with some skill level, especially with their center, with Timme. Pretty solid play. Now you’ll go against real solid play at the point. Their point was a new point. He’d been in the program but first time starting.”

Izzo is prepared to try all of his big men against Kentucky’s frontcourt. In addition to Sissoko, the Spartans start grad forward Joey Hauser. Freshman forward Jaxon Kohler was scoreless in 11 minutes vs. Gonzaga and freshman center Carson Cooper didn’t even play.

“We’re definitely going to have to play all three of our bigs because we’ll have to bring them in there a little bit more and as I probably poorly told Jax, there’s a reason why Carson didn’t play but at the same time, this game has a lot more length and a lot more girth than the last one we played so it is great for Jaxon. He’s going to see what it’s like to go against those kinds of people.”