“Sometimes I’m a masochist of my own ways,” Izzo said Monday during his weekly press conference. “Sometimes you want to make sure that you let a loss hurt.”

Although he didn’t readily admit it, Izzo seemed a bit irked by the decision — especially after a reporter asked him whether he had heard how exciting the game was. But he said the severity of the loss, MSU’s second straight at home, justified his decision.

“I’ve had some disappointing losses in my career here,” Izzo said. “Some in the Final Fours, some like the Wisconsin game here that would have won a banner; last year, there were one or two. But this one at home was probably worse … because we worked so hard to build this home court advantage.”

Trouble from deep

Rather than watch the Super Bowl, Izzo studied film of MSU’s loss to the Nittany Lions. He said he didn’t learn much from the tape other than the fact that some of the 3-pointers Penn State made were from even longer out than he thought.

Izzo said the Penn State 3-point-shooting onslaught brought back memories of the Jan. 21 Northwestern game, where the Wildcats snapped MSU’s 28-game home winning streak in large part by hitting several triples that were so long, “you wouldn’t defend against them in a game of ‘horse.’”

“I’m not sure how much you blame the defense, but you’ve got to give them a lot of credit for making some incredible plays,” Izzo said. “I’m kind of tired of having those banked in threes go in twice in those losses, but it is what it is.”

Morgan update

Izzo said he will probably shut down MSU junior forward Raymar Morgan this week to expedite his recovery from what has been diagnosed as walking pneumonia.

“We’re baffled,” Izzo said about Morgan’s condition, which has hampered him the last two weeks.

“They’ve run more tests; they’ve done more things. I feel very bad for the kid. Before the (Penn State) game, he said, ‘Coach, I can give you whatever you need, and I can give you some minutes and I’m not that bad.’ He just doesn’t have any strength.”

It was Izzo’s intent to sit Morgan the entire Penn State game, but he summoned him from the bench late in the second half when MSU was trying to mount its comeback.

“The only reason I played him is because we just needed to run a couple things as sharp as we could run them,” Izzo said.

He added that Morgan’s three-minute stint on the court did not thwart his recovery.

Morgan has averaged 12.5 minutes during his last four games.

Another injury

Izzo announced junior guard Isaiah Dahlman sprained his ankle during pregame warm-ups Sunday and could miss about three weeks.

Dahlman, a key member of MSU’s scout team during practice, has played in 10 games this season, averaging 0.8 points and 0.8 rebounds in 2.1 minutes.

Rank and file

The Spartans fell from No. 9 to No. 13 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll released Monday.

Two other Big Ten teams appear in the poll: Minnesota at No. 19 and Illinois at No. 23.

MSU will host Minnesota at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Breslin.