East Lansing – Tom Izzo only took a few seconds to point the finger to Michigan State BasketballThe Tuesday evening defeat at Indiana directly to itself.
The admission of the temple coach of the 30th year renown after training Thursday was not new. Izzo has preached responsibility with his players for years and pushed him on him as justified.
The overhaul of the Spartans 71-67 classified from the 11th stumbling against the Hoosiers, the third defeat of the last four MSU games, only had Izzo’s belief in his role with the struggles of his team against a defense zone and a full press.
“I took responsibility that night. I take more responsibilities (after watching the band), ”said Izzo. “(The Hoosiers) played an area of 4% all year round. They played 90% after we went up 20-8. They adjusted. We have adjusted, but we did not adjust themselves well enough, and that falls on me.
“I am the first to, at least behind the scenes, to blame a player for something if he didn’t do it. But I also think that my work is to put the players able to succeed. And we short of that.
MSU (19-5, 10-3 Big Ten) Go to Illinois for a power test on Saturday evening at State Farm Arena. Tipoff is at 8 p.m. (Fox), the Spartans seeking to sweep the Illini (17-8, 9-6) after an exciting victory of 80-78 at home on January 19.
After having built the 12-point advance against Indiana, Izzo’s offensive stagnated when the Hoosiers deployed a 2-2-1 press on the field to slow down the fastbreak of the Spartans, and had trouble Resolve their 2-3 half-terrain zone with outdoor shots continuing to draw more iron than the net. MSU went 4-in-23 from the range of 3 points and has lagged behind up to nine points before setting up a furious but ultimately unsuccessful return to put itself in one while the Indiana held by performing 9 of the 10 free throws in the last minute.
The first home defeat of the Spartans of the season left them in third place in the Big Ten, two weeks after sitting at the summit at 9-0. They understand that with seven games to play in the regular season, there cannot be much more slippages to face the 11th Izzo Conference Championship.
“In the end, we are still 19-5 years old. We have indeed won 19 games, and we still have a lot of season, “said first -year leader Redsirt, Jeremy,” said Jr. “No one is perfect, nobody will be invainly. You win games, you lose games. We did not play as well as we had to win the last game. And we know it. So this game is over. We got a big game on Saturday that we are trying to win, and we just was able to continue moving and continuing to roll. »»
While looking towards Illinois, Izzo was also just as reflecting the loss of Tuesday and the challenges that opponents begin to present his Spartans as the degree of difficulty increases with each match. He dares more teams to adopt the Indiana approach – “Am I worried about the area?” I hope we have zoned 40 minutes on Saturday. How so? This is how worried I am about it. – Because he puts himself on him for errors and the ability to correct them. This included two training sessions scheduled for Thursday in preparation for the Illini, because MSU had the day of leave of the lessons to commemorate the two -year birthday of the shooting on the campus.
What if opponents deploy more areas? “Bring it,” he implored with challenge.
“(The players) did not spoil. I have messed up, ”said Izzo. “We didn’t cut it. We made our five minutes of normal zone (in practice), because generally against a team so late in the season, you have taken 23 games, you have played 4% of zone, you don’t. And then inside, we always knew what we were doing. We missed good shots and I didn’t think we had done a good job to get the ball where we needed it. We had huge problems. We all had people in different positions.
“Call them excuses, call them the truth.” I don’t really care what someone thinks. I just tell you, I already own that.
It is a level of admission and responsibility, Izzo players respect hearing a coach, not to mention a legend who remains stuck in equality with Bob Knight for the victories of the Big Ten Conference in the History at 353.
“He does it all the time,” said the student in the second year Coen Carr. “He will tell us when we spoil, but he will also tell us when he will make a mistake. It will not be too often when he makes a mistake, and he will tell us and let us know that he did. So, having a coach who is able to take responsibility, it shows us how we can be better by taking this responsibility on our side. »»
This bidirectional communication remains one of the strongest features of Izzo as a coach. And why, with another victory, he will break the tie with Knight. And with another regular Big Ten season, he will bind Knight and the Piggy Lambert Piggy district for the most in the history of the League at 11.
Poor trend: The 3rd defeat of MSU in 4 games continues to exhibit the gaps of the Spartans
“I can look at what we have done. I can look at what happened, ”said Izzo. “If you think I’m worried about losing my team because of a couple (losses), I am not. If you think I think we are not as good as I think, which was not as good as (foreigners) thought we were. …
“We still have a chance (in the Big Ten title). We are in a position where ball is in a way in our courtyard because of whom we play at home. But there are a lot of teams that are a chance at the moment. »»
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow it @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Defi Tom Izzo: bring more defense of zone vs Michigan State
(Tagstotranslate) Tom Izzo (T) MSU (T) Liability (T) Indiana (T) Michigan State (T) Zone Defense (T) Jeremy fears Jr. (T) Illinois (T) Purdue
