Tom Izzo has had a hard time finding another team in the country going through the same thing the No. 22 MSU men’s basketball team has suffered through.
Izzo working to get Spartans back into shape following injuries
Head coach Tom Izzo talks to freshman forward Kenny Kaminski on the bench March 6, 2014, at Breslin Center during the game against Iowa. The Spartans defeated the Hawkeyes, 86-76. Julia Nagy/The State News
So much so, he’s talked to other sports, cheerleading squads and even bands to get some advice on how to deal with all the injuries the Spartans have suffered this season.
Last Wednesday, Izzo talked to Georgia head football coach Mark Richt about his 2013 football season, which saw a good number of his starting players knocked out with injuries.
“But of all the people he lost, I think there were six on the offense and most of them for the year,” Izzo said. “But the two players, not all-American, were his two linemen, and he said when he lost those linemen, it really hurt his team. He said, ‘Well, the line is this group of five that’s a team within the team.’”
Izzo laughed and said it reminded him of a basketball team, but it was harder for Richt to replace his players with third stringers and walk-ons.
As for how the Georgia football season ended?
“He said ‘We went 8-5,’ so it didn’t go that well.”
Izzo said former MSU basketball head coach Jud Heathcote still pays attention when it comes to the Spartans and he regularly shares his observations with the current head coach.
With the Big Ten Tournament beginning Thursday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, and three games under his belt with a full lineup at his disposal, Izzo said now is the time.
In almost 20 years of coaching, he said this is the most important Big Ten Tournament for him because it gives the Spartans a chance to get more playing time together.
“Rhythm is something that takes time to develop, and confidence I think is another thing in Keith (Appling’s) case that takes time to develop,” Izzo said. “But it’s not like anyone’s working less to get back to that. You just don’t know. It can happen like that.”
MSU will play in the late game Friday night against either Iowa or Northwestern, teams they went a combined 4-0 against this season, playing very well for stretches in each game.
There was a stretch during the loss to Ohio State Sunday in the Big Ten regular-season finale where MSU went on a 9-0 run and looked better than they have in months.
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Izzo said that’s the kind of excitement that the team needs to capture and ride if they’re going to right the ship, but they’ve got to sustain it.
“That is who I think we are, but you can’t be who you are for minutes, you gotta do it for a lot of minutes,” he said. “I wanted to pick it up. Maybe that didn’t work. Maybe there was some weird calls. There’s so many subjective reasons for a lot of things.
“You set up roles for people and if you’re constantly changing roles, it’s hard on them.”
The Spartans have had the last three games to try and get back in the swing of things with their full compliment of players, and have gone 1-2 in that stretch.
Still, they’ve been making big improvements, with the key pieces coming back and playing important roles in all three games.
MSU has won the Big Ten Tournament three times, most recently in 2012 behind an MVP performance from Draymond Green.
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Historically, Izzo shifts his focus to the NCAA Tournament and uses the Big Ten more as a warm-up even, but this year, things are different for a Spartan team that needs the extra time to gel, refocus and earn valuable minutes on the court in crucial game situations.
“The tournament is gonna be big for us,” he said. “Most years, it’s not. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, we’re just trying to bring back some of the magic we had early in the year when we had everybody playing together.”
