Tom Izzo’s goal for Michigan State basketball: don’t worry about others in Big Ten Race

East Lansing – When Tom Izzo entered the Breslin Center podium for the last time, wing the wisconsin meant everything for Michigan State Basketball.

SO Michigan lost at home in Illinois A few hours later. Suddenly, the celebration of Sunday had a new meaning. Spartans no longer need a victory to win his 11th record title from Big Ten.

As the n ° 7 MSU refers Thursday to Iowa (8 p.m., FS1), Izzo and its team will know if they play for a pure and simple championship. On Wednesday, the 15th grade Wolverines welcome Maryland No. 14 in a match that will shape the importance of the last days of the regular season.

If UM loses, the Spartans will win at least one part. If wolverines win, Msu gets a song by beating the Hawkeyes. And a UM defeat coupled with a MSU victory gives Spartans the pure and simple title and makes their revenge of rivalry in the image of the title Big Ten.

In relation: Couch: 3 quick sockets on the 71-62 victory of Michigan State Basketball on Wisconsin

However, Izzo on Tuesday, on the same podium, said that he had not talked to his team about what has been at stake since he won a fifth consecutive and fourth game against an opponent classified against the badgers. He insisted that the Spartans (24-5, 15-3 Big Ten) will not celebrate the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in one way or another if they earn, either a portion or the pure and simple crown.

First of all, he said, because he would never do this on the floor of an opponent. Second, due to the respect he has for Fran McCaffey, his coaches staff and Iowa fans.

“And thirdly,” said Izzo on Tuesday, “we have more important objectives than winning it. Winning and winning it squarely.

“And there are other goals that we have, playing better all the time, so we are preparing more for tournaments that arrive when it is a bad day, a bad half, and now you are absent.”

During its 30th season, Izzo can match Bob Knight from Indiana and the Purdue “Piggy” Lambert district – which both preceded the League tournament that started in 1998 – mostly in the history of the Big Ten. Izzo, 70 years old, earlier this season, has exceeded Knight for most conference victories and now has 358.

However, only four of them were the only champion. The first two teams of Final Four from Izzo in 1999 and the national 2000 national title team won the titles of the League, as was the 2009 team which finished finalist of the NCAA. The last pure and simple crown of the Spartans came in 2018, when they lost in the second round against Syracuse.

Yet another reason for Izzo’s rallying cry for this year’s team to be “different”.

“This is the goal all year round,” said Main guard Jaden AkinsWho was still in high school the last time that MSU won the Big Ten in 2020. “We are entering a difficult environment against a difficult team. And this is exactly what we are focusing on at the moment, the game in front of us, so we are going to go there and play as hard as possible. “”

Iowa (15-14, 6-12) fights for his life as a Big Ten tournament with two games to play. With the extended league of 18 teams this year, the three low teams will not make the post-season event in Indianapolis which begins next Wednesday. The Hawkeyes are currently on a par with the USC for the last place in the field of 15 teams, with Washington (4-14) and Penn State (5-14) already eliminated and the Trojan horses having a head-to-head victory against Iowa.

In the meantime, the championship and first place in the Big Ten tournament next week will meet in Spartans and Wolverines (22-7, 14-4). UM should beat the terraaps, then eliminate MSU in the Revenge match and the regular season final on Sunday at Breslin Center (Midi / CBS) to do so. The Izzo team won the first meeting, 75-62, on February 21 in Ann Arbor.

The other carrot in front of the Spartans is the possibility of making a way in a seeded n ° 1 in the next NCAA tournament. It is also the first time that Msu Visit Carver-Hawkeye since Blow an advance of 13 points in the last 1:30 of the second half on February 25, 2023While Iowa equalized the match and won it in overtime, 112-106.

“It really makes him personal,” said the junior center Carson Cooper, who was a first -year student in this team. “I think none of us really look at the past (iowa), or no longer turns to the effect after the effect that is the real game.”

Izzo continues to keep the short -term goals of his simple team: “I just said:” Hey, we have to play, we have to improve. “”

“I want to put us in a position where the goal is to win the matches,” he said. “We think we have to win the games, yes, to win the League. We think we have to win the matches to improve our chances of seed. We think we have to win the matches to improve by improving, especially offensively.

“So I said that once we beat Maryland, we didn’t need anyone’s help. If we have, great, but we don’t need anyone help. I almost like this mentality. Take care of your own business, don’t expect someone to lose. Make enough for you to win. And this is the position in which we are.

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

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tom Izzo’s goal for Spartans: don’t worry about others in Big Ten Race