Reaction: Michigan State coach Tom Izzo wishes he could tell us what he really thinks about the officiating

East Lansing, Mich. – Wrapped around heavy compliments for Matt Painter, Zach Edey, Fletcher Loyer and the entire Boilermaker outfit, and his respect for being able to play a nationally-televised, afternoon game on Martin Luther King Day, and pride for his Spartans in coming back from a 13-point deficit, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo was otherwise angry with factors surrounding Michigan State’s 64-63 loss to No. 3-ranked Purdue on Monday. 

“I’m not going to ruin a good party for them and just bitch about the officials but as physical as that game was, and we’re calling that one (foul) on Tyson (Walker) out front was, um, disappointing,” Izzo said. 

The foul on Walker occurred as he was guarding Loyer during a side ball screen with :32 remaining. The foul sent Loyer to the free throw line. He hit both foul shots to give Purdue a 62-61 lead. 

Walker responded with a go-ahead field goal, but Zach Edey delivered the game-winning points with :02 seconds left with a bucket in the post against Mady Sissoko.

Izzo had a long list of complaints.

“We lost the game in the first minute,” Izzo said. 

Michigan State fell behind 24-11 in the first half.

“The ridiculous turnovers in the first five minutes,” Izzo said. “A.J. (Hoggard) looked like he reverted back to last year. We looked like we were out of sorts. We were throwing it into guys’ backs. We just didn’t do our job and dug ourselves a hole, and to the credit of my team, we battled back and physically out-rebounded them. 

“We out-rebounded the best rebounding team in the Big Ten and one of the best rebounding teams in the country. We out-shot them. We missed a couple of key free throws (Hoggard’s misses with 3:00 to go and Michigan State up 57-56). There were a couple of tough calls and a couple of bad plays that we just couldn’t catch up from, and Purdue is a hell of a team. 

“It was just a slug fest.”

Which is why Izzo was bothered by what the Michigan State coach felt was a touch foul, 20 feet from the basket, in the final minute of a hotly-contest physical game. Izzo was lobbying officials throughout the game for foul calls against Edey as he was battling to post up.

“One guy is 400 pounds and one guy is 150, one guy is pushing out and one guy is pushing in,” Izzo said, exaggerating of course. “We tried to push him out. When we pushed him out the time before, they called a foul and I did not think that was neccessary. You try not to let him get in that deep and then you get paranoid about how they called it.”

Edey finished the game with no personal fouls. Early in the second half, Sissoko was called for a foul when Edey seemed to trap Sissoko’s arm in an underhook and proceeded to fling Sissoko to the floor in a wrestling whizzer move which ended in a judo hip toss, inadvertent of course. But Sissoko was thrown to the floor while having both arms and and hands extended to show no intent to commit physical contact. The Breslin fans crowed in disbelief, as did Izzo.

And then for Purdue to retake the lead with :32 seconds left on the touch foul by Walker set off Izzo even further.

“It had no bearing on anything,” Izzo said of Walker’s contact. 

Walker agreed with his coach.

“I just felt like in that moment I didn’t think I fouled him, especially just fighting over a screen, getting bumped,” Walker said. “I didn’t think I fouled him but the refs think otherwise.”

Walker finished with 30 points, the most he has ever scored at Michigan State. 

“I’m really proud of my team for how they responded, how they competed, how they executed down the stretch,” Izzo said. “I’m proud of Tyson for making big shots. Joey played so much better after the first few minutes.”

The Spartans were playing without Malik Hall, who missed the game with an ankle injury and is out indefinitely.

“We were trying to win the game for him because he’s crushed,” Izzo said. “Me, personally, today was an important day for me because I do appreciate Martin Luther King Day and I appreciate people that had dreams and goals, because that was me. That was me. And I appreciate that Malik handled it so well, and we still don’t know exactly what’s going on (with his injury), especially because they just looked at it today and he had a meeting with (doctors) by Zoom during our game. Nothing looks good in the immediate future.

“I just felt like we gave everything we got, except at the beginning. We ran out of gas. 

“I was hoping we could win so I could complain about the schedule and what we’ve gone through but I can’t because when you lose, you can’t do that. A lot of people are burned out when you go through that, and why we would go through it as a conference, I don’t understand, but it’s going to continue. 

“I’m not complaining about a loss. Purdue is one of my most respected programs, and Matt Painter I think is the best coach in the Big Ten and one of the best coaches in the country, and it’s been that way since Gene Keady was here and Jud Heathcote. But the consistency of things, whether it be scheduling of whether it be fouls, I think we have to take a good look at that and I don’t think we have.”

It was almost an incredible day for Izzo and the Spartans.

“It was a privilege, one of the greatest days in our nation,” Izzo said in the opening statement of his postgame press conference. “It’s an honor to get chosen to play on that day. I told my team that this is one of the privileges of playing at Michigan State. You are wanted on big events. You have the opportunity to do stuff that a lot of people just dream of doing.

“So we watched a little bit of the ‘I have a dream’ this morning. I had a dream that turned into a little bit of a nightmare.”