A tough 66-60 loss to No. 4 Duke left Tom Izzo feeling dejected Saturday as the legendary head coach reflected on No. 7 Michigan State’s first loss of the season.
“I don’t feel very good about what happened today,” Izzo said in his post-game press conference. “I didn’t like the way we did some things that are staples of our program.”
Among the staples Izzo harped on was a lack of effort on free-throw line cut-outs. He said the Spartans (8-1) missed four during Saturday’s loss after not missing one for a year, with three leading to offensive boards for Duke freshman standout Cameron Boozer—something Izzo called “disgusting” and “ridiculous.”
Boozer scored 16 of his game-high 18 points in the second half and finished with 15 rebounds (four offensive) to help Duke (10-0) outscore MSU, 35-26, after trailing 34-31 at halftime. For Izzo, the performance underscored how slim the Spartans’ margin for error is against top competition.
“There are coverages we just didn’t do, and those are effort-related and intelligence-related, not skill-related,” he added. “And that stuff bothers me. So, that means I didn’t do a good enough job getting it through. … I ain’t happy about us. I have a lot of respect for [Duke head coach] Jon [Scheyer] and the job he’s done. It’s why we can’t beat ’em.”
Izzo also shared the Spartans typically work on free throw line cut-outs a lot in practice and on game day, but forgot to until after Friday’s practice. Paying attention to the little things is something every good team does, and in this case, Izzo believes it’s one of the things that cost his team a win in its biggest game of the season so far.
“That’s inexcusable,” Izzo said. “I don’t care if parents are mad at me, I don’t care if media is mad at me, I don’t care if my wife’s mad at me. The worst part is I’m mad at me because I didn’t get that done, and it cost us. And give them credit though. I sound like I’m not giving them credit. I mean, the job Jon’s done, I’m in awe of [it]. Most people don’t want to follow a legend. He followed an icon, and he’s done a hell of a job.”
Izzo’s Spartans will next take the floor on Dec. 13 against Penn State, where they’ll hope to implement what they learned from the big loss to the Blue Devils.
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