Izzo, Spartans Move On From Painful Loss, Focus On 'Winning The Weekend'
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
EAST LANSING - At times this season, even Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo wondered whether the Spartans would be able to extend the program's streak to 18 straight NCAA tournament selections.
Not only did the Spartans make the tournament, they had won eight of their last 10 games before they took third-ranked Wisconsin to overtime in the Big Ten tournament championship game Sunday.
Michigan State did not score a single point in the extra period, however, and the resulting loss stung the team badly. Izzo said the team has recovered from a brief hangover from the defeat, but he allowed himself a few moments to ponder aloud what it would have meant for the Spartans to win that game.
"That banner, in my mind, would have been as significant as any banner hanging out there," Izzo said Tuesday. "I know how many of those injuries. I know how hard it was to come back from them. I know that we weren't as talented in certain areas. I know what we went through. That one would have been one that if I would have walked out there for 10 more years and ever was questioning a team, midway through the season, where we are, I could just glance up and say, 'Oh yeah, still got a chance,'" Izzo continued. "That's the way I looked at that.
"Somehow I'm going to try to use that anyway because there's 125 minutes in the weekend, and I told my staff I thought we played about 110 minutes pretty damn good," Izzo added. "Really did. Three days in a row, one day with 15 hours rest, and I'm going to try to use that even though we don't have the banner."
In the first round of the NCAA tournament, the Spartans will face 10-seed Georgia. In the next round, Michigan State could face two-seed Virginia. While the Spartans might not be a Final Four favorite as they have been in recent years, Izzo hinted he expects his team to at least win those first two games.
"Our program is at the level where you do got to go down there and win two games," Izzo said. "You've got to do it one at a time, but we'll be preparing that way. I'm excited because I think our team's playing some of the best basketball it's played. I still know our limitations. As I said, we're not a vintage Michigan State team, but it's been kind of exciting because being a little different, we can do it different ways."
Given the struggles the team has endured this season just to make the tournament, Izzo has not encouraged his players to keep the Final Four in mind as the target - at least not yet.
"The battle cry is to win the weekend, and then we'll assess where we are," Izzo said. "There's been so much thrown at this team, not by anybody except ourselves. There are things that have been confusing to them. It's been good because it's taught me a lot. I have learned a lot this year, I really have. You'd think by this time I'd had every base covered. I've learned a lot. But If all the years that I've been here, I still think I've got a team that cares about each other as much as any I've had, spends more time with each other, as much as any I've had.
"We're probably not the same talent level team that we've had here in recent years," Izzo continued. "You always hear this in sports: 'The margin for error is very slim.' With us, it's paper thin, and yet we've learned how to live with that. I don't think that's pressure. I think that's a goal to try to be mentally, physically better on each and every play ... It's just kind of the way this team has to be. If that means, in some people's eyes, well, you're putting too much pressure on them, every play, well, if you want to win a championship, if you want to advance deep in the tournament, if you want to win the Big Ten championship, that's what you've got to do."
The Spartans (23-11, 12-6 Big Ten) and Bulldogs (21-11, 11-7 SEC) tip off Friday at 12:40 p.m.
