Indianapolis — After a stretch of three physically and emotionally draining games in 47 hours, Tom Izzo refused to cite fatigue as an excuse after his team shot 28.3 percent while falling 53-48 to Iowa in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Saturday at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The MSU head coach felt so strongly about it that he opened up his postgame press conference with an emphatic "no."
"Fatigue had zero to do with the loss, zero," Izzo said. "Zero, zero, zero, so don't use it, don't say it, don't even ask it because it had nothing to do with the loss."
Although Izzo refused to focus on the tough schedule, the numbers seemed to refute his claim.
The Spartans' 28.3 field-goal percentage was the first time they shot less than 30 percent from the field since shooting 26.3 percent on Jan. 17, 1996 against Wisconsin. A majority of the misses went off the front of the rim, a sign of the players not putting enough behind their shots.
"All my shots felt good coming off my hand," sophomore guard Drew Neitzel said. "When I released them, I thought they were going in, but they just came up short. I don't know what you can do about it, but you just got to keep shooting it and focus in more when you're tired."
But it wasn't just shots coming up short that became a problem as MSU had 18 turnovers, while getting 3-of-23 shooting from Neitzel and junior guard Shannon Brown.
"We did not handle time and possession very well and the turnovers — we made a ridiculous time and number," Izzo said.
Five of the 18 turnovers came from senior center Paul Davis, who had his pocket picked on several occasions as the Hawkeyes double-teamed him in the post in the rare instances that he was fed the ball.
"It just seems that the times we do have them, they're critical and the other team capitalizes on them," Davis said. "They come at the wrong times. I think we had 18 and regardless of the outcome, they shouldn't be that high."
The Spartans also relied on the 3-point shot at times, passing up chances to drive to the basket and get fouled. Outside of Davis and senior forward Matt Trannon, the rest of the team shot only one free throw.
"It was bad execution of offense," Brown said.
The lone bright spot of the game was senior guard Maurice Ager, who scored 21 points on 8-of-18 shooting, including 5-of-10 from behind the arc, and kept MSU close when he knocked down the team's only two second-half 3-pointers late in the contest.
With about 14 hours between Friday's game against Illinois and Saturday's tilt, many expected the team not to be as prepared as it could be because of the short turnaround. Izzo was impressed by that aspect, but frustrated by the lack of execution.
"They prepared unbelievably well last night and this morning," he said. "I thought we even took away some of their specialty lobs and things. There was no problem there. I did not think we showed any fatigue in the huddles or tiredness, we just didn't get the job done offensively and that was the difference in the game."
