REACTION: Tom Izzo table-pounding angry with lack of discipline in Michigan State's loss at Iowa

Tom Izzo had mostly words of credit to his players and the opponent after Michigan State’s 112-106 loss at Iowa on Saturday, but he slammed his fist on podium during the postgame press conference when it came time to talk about himself and his coaching performance. 

“Focus and finish are two F’s for me,” Izzo said. “I add a third one in there sometimes. 

“I don’t know why we didn’t (finish).”

Then came the fist slam on the podium as he said, “Those are things that a leader has got to do! I get all this credit for leading, I didn’t lead. We did not finish that game and I take as much responsibility as anybody.

“I’ve been here long enough where I’ve had a lot of disappointments and a lot of exciting times and today will go down as one of our worst because I thought it was right in our hands.”

Izzo thought about little errors which left the door ajar for Iowa to make a legendary comeback with five 3-pointers in the final :39 seconds of regulation to battle back from a late 13-point deficit in the final :93 seconds.

Several errors gnawed at Izzo as he recounted the disaster, such as failed box outs at the foul line, Joey Hauser’s failure to switch in the final seconds which left Payton Sandfort open for a game-tying 3-pointer with :05 seconds left in regulation, and failure to carry out simple defensive principles in the final minute. 

“We talk about not funneling in when they drove in the last two minutes,” Izzo said. “(But) we funneled in twice, they kicked out and hit wide open 3s at the top of the key. Just stuff I haven’t gone over well enough, so I have to do a better job. Period.

“We just looked like we were in quicksand there. They miss a shot and we don’t get a rebound and they kick it out. We talked about not doubling down.”

But Malik Hall doubled down on a post player, leaving the man Hall was responsible fore, Patrick McCaffery, wide open at the top of the key for a kickout and 3-pointer which cut the lead to 98-95 with :20 seconds left.

“It’s a combination of things and just a lack of discipline which means the head coach has to take responsibility,” Izzo said. “We had to go small (with Hauser and Hall in as the bigs). We couldn’t have Mady (Sissoko) in the game because of free throw shooting, so we had to go small for a lot of that. Malik hasn’t played that many minutes and he hasn’t guarded that many positions.

“We are the leading 3-point defending team in the conference and one of the better ones in the country. Give them credit. They hit some. But give us blame. We didn’t didn’t stay disciplined.”

Hauser had an excellent game, otherwise. He scored 18 points, was 4-of-4 from 3-point range, had five rebounds and stretched defenders to the outside. But focus wasn’t strong enough on his behalf, or Hall’s, in order to finish properly – and Izzo intends to address that in the games and practices that remain.

FOUL OR DEFEND?

Try to watch it just once, @IowaHoops fans. 🙌@payton_20_ 🤝 @Saucy___T pic.twitter.com/aA701pf8L1

— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) February 25, 2023

Izzo was asked if Michigan State considered fouling when up by 3 after AJ Hoggard missed a foul shot with :10 seconds remaining.

“No, I didn’t,” Izzo said. “We were supposed to switch that and we didn’t do that very well. We had certain guys in there that didn’t switch.”

Hauser didn’t execute the switch well enough to gauge whether the strategy would have worked. 

“I felt AJ was going to make the shot to be honest with you,” Izzo said. “He was 12 for 12 at the time.”

Michigan State’s defenders were back beyond the halfcourt line after Hoggard missed the free throw.

Sandfort grabbed the rebound, and kicked it out to McCaffery. 

McCaffery pushed the ball upcourt unimpeded with four dribbles and then stopped and executed a handoff to Sandfort five feet beyond the top of the key.

Hauser began guarding McCaffery 30 feet from the rim.

When McCaffery executed a handoff to Sandfort, Hauser was supposed to switch and guard Sandfort. 

Instead, Hauser sagged under the screen for a moment and Sandfort had an open shooting window. 

Tyson Walker, who was guarding Sandfort, couldn’t get over the screen. Hauser recognized his error after a brief second and tried to get out on Sandfort, but it was too late.

The handoff came with :06 seconds left. Sandfort got into his shot trigger with :05.5 second left. 

• MORE: Comparoni and SpartanMag subscribers are debating the foul or defend strategy at the Final Fourum Michigan State basketball message board.

‘IT’S NEVER 38’

Michigan State shot 59.3 percent from the field and 73.3 percent from 3-point range (11-of-15). 

Michigan State made 31-of-36 from the foul line.

It’s almost impossible to lose a game with those kind of numbers. 

But Iowa hit 17-of-34 from 3-point range and erased a 13-point deficit in the final minute and a half. 

“In a game that Iowa needed to win and we needed to win, we did a hell of a job,” Izzo said. “That’s shouldn’t be underscored that 90 percent of the game we did a hell of a job. But the game is not 40 minutes. Sometimes it’s 45. But it’s never 38. That’s my responsibility.

“When I say that, I’m not trying to keep something off of my players. The blame goes to the guy that’s leading them and that’s me.

“Some guys made some big shots. We out-rebounded them in the first half and we got our butts kicked in the second half.

But when we can’t even cut out on our free throw line and get it, just not enough time spent on it and that solely falls on me.