Tom Izzo furious after Michigan State basketball performance vs. Northwestern

EVANSTON, Ill. — The moment Tom Izzo entered Northwestern’s media room, his frustration was evident.

The first words out of his mouth made it clear.

“I’m embarrassed as a Michigan State Spartan at the way we played,” the 29th-year, Hall of Fame coach began his opening statement after Sunday night’s 88-74 bludgeoning, his team’s third straight loss to the Wildcats and fourth in the past five meetings.

Quickly, he complimented Northwestern coach Chris Collins’ approach and how his team “kicked our butt in every physical way they could.” It was the physical nature of said punishment which stood out most.

Not simply because Collins’ team thumped and bumped and bullied its way to a surprisingly comfortable victory. Northwestern seemed to relish each hard foul, each body tumbling to the floor — especially when the Welsh-Ryan Arena at times felt like a road game for the Wildcats with the amount of MSU fans in the stands.

Izzo was seething because it reminded him of how he built his own program’s foundation since 1995, calling Sunday’s dismal showing “the worst we’ve played” this season.

“That,” Izzo said to conclude his initial thoughts, “wasn’t Spartan basketball.”

“They were physical as hell,” Izzo said of Northwestern, in an old-school game that featured 39 fouls and 40 free-throw attempts. “I mean, I didn't like that. And then the other side of it, I loved it. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. That's why give (Collins) credit. Absolutely loved it. I thought those guys were way more physical than us. And they did that all day long.”

Later, he broke it down simply: “The scouting report is we have to play better, harder and more physical. And that doesn't normally happen in my team.”

MSU, after appearing to correct some of its issues during a five-game win streak that included a home blowout of Penn State on Thursday, dropped to 1-3 to open Big Ten play. The Spartans (9-6 overall) next travel to No. 10 Illinois on Thursday, and have another back-to-back road swing at Maryland on Jan. 21 and at Wisconsin on Jan. 26.

“It's a must-win. There's no other way around it, there's no sugarcoating that,” senior point guard A.J. Hoggard said. “We gotta get back to the drawing board and figure it out and go do it in Champaign.”

Izzo knows what the next three weeks mean, particularly for a team that has lost both conference road games. A menacing environment awaits against the Illini in always hostile State Farm Arena.

“We had a lot of (fans) tonight, so that was not what I would call a hostile crowd,” he said. “I mean, there were a lot of Michigan State people there that I appreciate and (feel) embarrassed for.

“I thought we're totally ready to play. Good practices. Great walkthrough today. Guys were good in meetings. Maybe it was because of that. Maybe it was — I don't know. ... That was just inexcusable. Again, that all falls on me.”

Izzo pointed to how the final stat sheet — which at a glance appeared somewhat balanced, aside from the final score — did not show the intangibles he demands that were absent Sunday and what he needs moving forward.

• Northwestern shot 54.2% from the field and 39.1% on its 23 3-point attempts; MSU made 47.4% from deep and 48.1% overall. Both teams hit nine 3s.

• The Spartans finished with a 30-28 rebounding advantage and had a 12-8 edge in second chance points, grabbing 10 offensive boards to the Wildcats' eight.

• The two teams both made 15 free throws, though Izzo's team missed seven – including two front-ends of 1-and-1s – while the Wildcats missed just three.

• Points in the paint also were fairly even, with Northwestern holding a 34-28 advantage. MSU outscored the Wildcats 20-5 on the fastbreak, but the Spartans were blitzed 21-2 in points off turnovers.

The defense, however, was not gritty enough, Izzo said, waving the paper that also showed his team trailed by as many as 19 points and held a lead for just 5 minutes, 31 seconds in the first half. Northwestern led by double-digits the entire second half and turned the ball over five times in the game to MSU’s 13.

“We didn't defend at all,” Izzo said. “The stats – all you analytical guys, I hate analytics, because they're phony. Sooner or later, if you look, at a guy's heart and you look into a guy's eye, and then you find out about a guy. Everybody in the NBA and in college now, they want analytics. Analytics? What does analytics mean here? Does it mean we won the game?”

He slammed down the stat sheet for emphasis.

“Analytics are crap,” he continued. “You know what? Sooner or later, guys gotta just muscle up. We just came off one of our best games that we can play. And I had a guy that played his best and doesn't get a rebound tonight. I don't even think he scored a point. I mean, it's ridiculous.”

That player was Malik Hall. The senior forward had zero points, zero rebounds and zero assists in 26 minutes after totaling 42 points with 13 rebounds and nine assists in MSU's past two games. He tied his career high with 24 points in Thursday’s 92-61 home blowout of Penn State.

Izzo said he felt Hoggard “was our best player by far” with 13 points, eight assists and four rebounds in 33 minutes.

“It was other guys that just didn't play to the capability that they can play,” Izzo said.

Tyson Walker scored 27 points, 16 in the second half as MSU tried to come back from its largest halftime deficit of the season (15). Jaden Akins added 13 points but was a minus-32 in 31 minutes.

Hall finished minus-11, Hoggard minus-10 and Walker minus-8 as the Spartans struggled to stop Northwestern’s guards from driving into the paint and getting open looks outside, including ones they missed. The Wildcats’ starting trio of Boo Buie, Ty Berry and Ryan Langborg combined for 53 points and 16 assists, and disrupted MSU's offensive flow with their physical double-team defense.

“They did a good job moving the ball, we didn't,” Izzo said. “They did a good job playing their roles. Shooters shot, penetrators penetrated.”

Said Walker, “We just didn't get stops. Offensive rebounds, we let them get too many. And then we turned it over too much for touchdowns.”

Looking for a spark inside in the second half with Hall not producing and his other interior players having defensive issues with ball screens, Izzo inserted Jaxon Kohler for his first action of the season with 12:41 to play in the game and the Spartans trailing by 15. The sophomore played three scoreless minutes in his return from offseason left foot injury, and MSU trimmed a point off the deficit.

Mady Sissoko finished with seven points and five rebounds but played just 16 minutes, finishing a minus-14. Sophomore Carson Cooper logged 16 minutes and had 10 points and six boards. Freshmen Coen Carr (12 minutes) and Xavier Booker (seven minutes) both went scoreless and combined for three rebounds.

“Mady wasn't great. I thought Cooper played better,” Izzo said. “But it was our guards that didn't play well and our power forward that didn't play well enough.”

As he prepared to leave the media room, Izzo was asked how he felt his team might bounce back Thursday.

“We gotta do as good a job as we can do as coaches, making sure that we get consistent,” he said. “I think over the years, that's one thing — and that's why your defense and you rebounding is so important. That's the one thing that can maintain consistency. So I'm gonna try to do a better job for Illinois.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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Next up: Illini

Matchup: Michigan State (9-6, 1-3 Big Ten) at No. 10 Illinois (11-3, 2-1).

Tipoff: 9 p.m. Thursday; State Farm Center, Champaign, Illinois.

TV/radio: FS1; WJR-AM (760).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tom Izzo furious about what Michigan State basketball failed to do