Tom Izzo says Michigan State is 'dead' tired and needs practice time
East Lansing, Mich. – Fatigue is a serious issue for Michigan State coming off a Big Ten loss to Northwestern, and things will not get any easier as the Spartans prepare for a road game at Penn State on Wednesday.
“Our players to be honest with you are dead,” Tom Izzo said at his weekly press conference on Monday. “Part of the problem is a lot of people are going smaller ball against us. And that is not where our depth is. Since we left for Portland, we’ve been scrambling defensively, and we all know the reason why. We haven’t been as sharp. We have had nothing with our break because of our personnel.”
Playing without Jaden Akins and Malik Hall, Michigan State went 2-1 at the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, Ore. The Spartans have lost games to Notre Dame and Northwestern since then.
A brutal non-conference schedule has caught up with Michigan State, which has worn down with key players logging too many minutes.
“We were playing great before the injuries,” Izzo said. “One or two guys make a big difference. Right now, we’ve got to get a couple guys better defensively, a couple of guys in better shape. It’s going to be hard … I just wish we could get a couple of guys to play better defensively and hope we can get some practice time.”
Izzo’s message to his team is simple: Give it everything you’ve got on that road Penn State on Wednesday, and then we’ll have a chance to work on ourselves.
“We need our health back,” Izzo said, “and that ain’t going to happen for a while. We’re just going to have to do the best job we can. We need to play a little smarter, but I think the biggest thing hurting us is that we are running out of gas.”
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Playing smarter means keeping key players out of foul trouble. Having Tyson Walker on the bench in foul trouble crippled Michigan State’s ability to operate effectively against Northwestern. With Walker being Michigan State’s best all-around player, the Spartans need him to balance playing aggressively on defense with being smart about fouls.
Losses to Notre Dame and Northwestern haven’t changed how Izzo feels about his team.
“They know where they have been, they know where they are and what they have to get back to being,” Izzo said.
Having Akins back back could help mitigate some of the issues Michigan State is facing. Pierre Brooks, for example, has played upwards of 30 minutes per game during a recent stretch of games during which Akins and Hall were sidelined by injury. Brooks is physically not capable of playing that many minutes without diminishing returns.
“He was playing 18 minutes a game, and now he is playing 30 minutes a game,” Izzo said. “That has been a major issue as I look back on all of these games.”
