Michigan State vs Minnesota game will not be rescheduled; Tom Izzo not happy

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo frustratingly announced on Monday that the Spartans’ game against Minnesota, originally scheduled for Feb. 15, has been canceled and will not be rescheduled.

The game was originally postponed due to the tragic shooting of eight Michigan State students on Feb. 13, which resulted in the deaths of three and the hospitalization of five. One of those students who was hospitalized has been released. One of the five remains in critical condition. 

“It won’t be played,” Izzo said on Monday. “The Big Ten office is sending something out today. I’ve been disappointed with the way it’s been handled at the Big Ten office.” 

There was talk last week that Minnesota and Rutgers may move their game scheduled for Thursday up a day to make room for the Gophers to play Michigan State. But those talks apparently broke down.

“There were not a lot of options,” Izzo said. “I would like to publicly state, because my assistants (showed me on social media) where (Rutgers coach) Steve Pikiell was getting some (criticism). Don’t blame him. Maybe I’d blame the Big Ten office on what I got. I did not think that it was very aggressively handled early and as I look back it might have been one of those things – because of TV, because of all the stuff – there was just nothing that could be done. 

“It’s too bad. I know (Minnesota coach) Ben (Johnson) wanted to do everything he could do to play and I think Steve would have helped in any way he could, it just didn’t work out.”

Michigan State is the only team in the Big Ten that didn’t play Minnesota once, much less twice – a factor that could have implications in the Big Ten standings. 

Michigan State is 17-11 overall and 9-8 after Saturday’s overtime loss at Iowa, with two games remaining – at red hot Nebraska on Tuesday, and at home against Ohio State on Saturday. Nebraska (15-14 and 8-10) has won four straight.

Izzo is angry that more wasn’t done to help Michigan State in this situation after he acquiesced to the Big Ten office in 2021 and played three games at the conference’s request in short order after the team was off for 17 days with only two days of practice time due to COVID. In that season, the Big Ten asked Michigan State to rush back to action for TV reasons and other considerations. The Spartans lost 67-37 at Rutgers, and then played at Ohio State on two day’s prep (losing 79-62) and then played at Iowa on one-day prep (losing 84-78).

That marked a string of three road games in six days with virtually no practice for the previous three weeks. Izzo went along with it back then, as a favor to the Big Ten, took some serious lumps and almost missed the NCAA Tournament. He would have liked similar consideration for his team, this time.

“I did it that year when we were dead and got my … back side kicked,” Izzo said. “Got my back side kicked three games in a row. You try to do what you can do. I think people tried to do it, I think the Big Ten maybe tried to do it. I just didn’t feel like there was the communication that was needed, and that’s a little disappointing but maybe it’s nobody’s fault.

“So a couple of years ago, it didn’t work for us because we played all of the games. This year, it didn’t work out because we didn’t play. Just another good thorn in my side to motivate me to work harder.”

Michigan State and Minnesota will be the only teams that didn’t play a full 20-game season in the conference. What will that do for Michigan State’s seeding in the Big Ten Tournament?

“Let the Big Ten office – they seem to be good at handling things – let them handle this,” Izzo said. “I have no idea what that does. I guess it goes by percentage.

“You know what? If we would have won Saturday, we would have helped ourselves. So we move forward.”