Tom Izzo's key to Michigan State basketball 'big run' ahead or case of insomnia? Consistency
EAST LANSING — In one week, Tom Izzo watched his Michigan State basketball team “go from a very low spot to a very high spot, with no in between,” vacillating wildly during two games with far different outcomes.
A strong start was followed by an ugly collapse at Minnesota that left Izzo seething last Tuesday. Moments of frustration on Saturday that sent him dashing onto the court screaming in the first half were followed by him beaming with pride by the end as the Spartans rallied for a gritty (and pretty) home win over No. 14 Illinois.
In all, there were enough positives to leave the 29th-year Hall of Fame coach, who has seen almost everything, ready to ride the waves the rest of the way with this team.
“I still think that this team is good enough to go on a big run. And they're inconsistent enough that I still don't sleep very good,” Izzo said Monday. “So it's different, it's an adjustment, it's a little different. But I feel I'm more at peace with it now.”
ON GUARD: A.J. Hoggard heading home; Tyson Walker fighting through injury
Having won 11 of its last 15 games, the task now for MSU is to find better consistency and get a few road wins, starting Wednesday night at Penn State.
Tipoff is 6:30 p.m. in University Park, Pennsylvania (BTN).
After pulling away late from the Illini for an 88-80 win Saturday at home, only seven regular-season games remain for the Spartans (15-9, 7-6 Big Ten). Four of those are away games, and MSU is 1-5 on the road this season, including the 59-56 loss last Tuesday at Minnesota. However, Izzo’s team won last year at Bryce Jordan Center and is 15-3 there all-time against the Nittany Lions (12-12, 6-7).
“It always feels like our backs are against the wall,” senior A.J. Hoggard said after practice Tuesday. “We got things that we want to accomplish, so we gotta get some more wins. We gotta stick together.”
To do so, Izzo knows this is the time of year when he needs his backcourt — Hoggard, Tyson Walker, Jaden Akins and versatile reserve Tre Holloman — to play their best basketball. He got a glimpse of that ceiling Saturday, with those four combining for 56 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and six steals against Illinois.
“Some of the magazines, they were picked as the best backcourt or one of the best backcourts in the country, the three of them,” Izzo said of his starters. “I said, ‘Have we consistently played like that?’ They said no. I said, ‘Why not?’ I didn't have a good answer, they didn't have a good answer.
“But guard play is what helps you win when you get to a tournament. Guard play is what helps you win in big games. Why have we lost some of these two-, three-point games at the end? Guard play. And coaching, and coaching — you gotta take the responsibility for that.”
THE PATH FORWARD: Win over Illinois critical for Spartans' path to postseason
All three starting guards have had their ups and downs all season, sometimes in surprising areas.
Walker, for instance, entered his fifth collegiate season as a 76.1% free-throw shooter. This season, despite leading the Spartans with 19 points and 31.9 minutes a game, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound combo guard is shooting just 70.6% at the line. He went 4-for-7 against the Illini.
Afterward, Izzo said he joked with Walker's father about it being an inherited family trait. James Walker chuckled and left Izzo stunned with his response.
‘He goes, ‘You know who just had him up in the gym?’ I mean, this is 25 minutes after the game,” Izzo said of the conversation with Tyson’s dad. “I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He goes, 'Steve Smith came down and grabbed him and said let's go up and shoot some free throws.’ … And then Steve came to me and I said, 'Man, what did you do? What did you say to him, because I don't see anything broken with his shot?'
“He goes, 'You know what? I think he gets tired in games. And maybe you're not shooting enough free throws when he's tired.'”
Hoggard has had issues throughout his career of overreliance on his jump shot, which reappeared in the loss at Minnesota with Walker on the bench tending to a groin injury. But the 6-4 senior again began to attack the basket off the dribble to get fouled, set up his teammates and applied hellacious defense against the Illini.
SHAWN WINDSOR: Tom Izzo, A.J. Hoggard often at odds. MSU's win shows it's worth it.
And Akins, MSU’s biggest 3-point threat, went 6-for-10 from deep in the two games last week. But it was the job the 6-4 junior did defensively and on the boards against the Illini, finishing with six rebounds, that completed the all-around effort from the Spartans’ Big 3 they hope to carry on the road to Penn State.
“We just gotta go in there with the focus that we had on Saturday and just continue to raise our level and play at a high level,” said Hoggard, who had 23 points Saturday.
The Nittany Lions are a markedly different team now than the one MSU walloped at home Jan. 4, 92-61. Before losing a hard-fought battle Sunday afternoon at Northwestern, first-year coach Mike Rhoades’ team had won three straight.
Guard play is guiding the Nittany Lions. Sophomore Kanye Clary leads them at 17.1 points a game, while senior transfer Ace Baldwin Jr. posts 14.1 points and 5.4 assists per game. MSU held Baldwin to 0-for-7 shooting and just two points in the first meeting, but Clary scored 21 points on 5-for-10 shooting and went 10-for-10 at the free-throw line.
“Those two guys, Clary and Ace Baldwin, they're the real deal,” Izzo said. “They both can score it, they both can drive it, they're both strong, they're both tough.”
Those are all of the things he wants and needs his guards to be. Not that they haven’t shown it in spurts, sometimes individually and occasionally collectively. But come tournament time, for MSU to make a move in March and contend for postseason titles in the Big Ten and NCAA, he needs the best basketball from Hoggard, Walker and Akins to be ahead of them.
And how they faltered against Minnesota and recovered against Illinois gave him a critical teaching point.
“It kind of gave us a moment of this is the way it can be,” Izzo said of the loss before turning to the win. “And I came back (Sunday) and said, ‘This is the way it should be. And how are we going to get there collectively? What can I do better? What can you do better? Open dialogue. You tell me what you want from me, I'll tell you what I want from you.’”
That was much easier for all of them to answer.
“We want to finish out strong in the conference ... and get ready for the Big Ten tournament,” Hoggard said. “So just we want to put ourselves in position, all across the board, in each tournament. The only way we can do that is by winning games.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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Next up: Nittany Lions
Matchup: Michigan State (15-9, 7-6 Big Ten) at Penn State (12-12, 6-7).
Tipoff: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday; Bryce Jordan Center, University Park, Pennsylvania.
TV/radio: Big Ten Network; WJR-AM (760).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball's key to making 'big run'? Consistency
