But the hardest part of this season, which ended last Thursday in a second-round loss to UCLA in the NCAA Tournament in Tampa, Fla., wasn’t handling the losses or all of the other issues. Instead, Izzo said his most difficult job was keeping the whole season in perspective.

“Sure it was a disappointing year for us from a standpoint of our final record, the losses and the way everything went,” Izzo said. “But it wasn’t a disastrous year. It was a letdown.”

On more than one occasion Tuesday, as Izzo addressed the media for a postseason briefing, he described the season as nothing more than a “dip.” MSU was supposed to be one of the best teams in the country, but looking back on it now, Izzo said he’s not surprised the Spartans never were able to reach those expectations. Izzo said there were too many distractions his team had to face to be successful. Those distractions continued all the way until Lucious was dismissed from the team in mid-January, just days before the Spartans lost at home to Michigan.

The constant turmoil on his team all season left Izzo frustrated, but during the briefing, he said he wasn’t upset. Izzo said he finally had put everything in perspective, especially after looking at what down years at other programs are like.

“I say, ‘Wow, how fortunate we’ve been for most of these years,’” Izzo said. “And it’s probably more the norm for this stuff to happen rather than the exception.”

In a disappointment of a season, MSU still reached the NCAA Tournament for the 14th straight time — third behind only Kansas (22) and Duke (16) — and tied for fourth place in the Big Ten.
Izzo admitted his program is beyond considering that a successful season, but he said that also shows how far the program has come.

And despite the down year, he was happy his players never gave up. About the time of Lucious’ dismissal, Izzo said everyone in the program began to feel a pressure very few people ever could understand.

“From the middle of January, coaches and players, we felt it every day and understood it as part of the program,” Izzo said.

However, the Spartans never threw in the towel.

“When February came, and we had the straw above the water to breathe, I thought we responded pretty well considering the circumstances, even in the (conference) tournament,” Izzo said. “We played pretty well with a lot of pressure on us in the Big Ten Tournament. There will be some good things to come out of what it is that we learned.”

Izzo jokingly said he doesn’t spend more than “every hour of every night” thinking about how he could have handled this season differently, especially when it came to putting together a consistent rotation.

However, he also said this season might be good for him and his program in the long run.
“I’ve enjoyed getting kicked in the teeth this year, I really have,” Izzo said. “I think it humbled everybody, and I think that’s OK. As I look at it, maybe I needed to be humbled.”