Despite holding The Master’s College to 29 percent shooting from the field, head coach Tom Izzo was not pleased with his team’s defense on Monday night.
“We’ve worked harder on our offense than our defense (in the offseason) for probably the first time in my career and probably the last time in my career,” Izzo said after the game on Monday night, sarcastically noting that a couple of his players would have struggled to guard his 88-year-old mother.
It was a shaky start for MSU, who allowed The Master’s College to make three of its first four 3-point attempts to start the game.
“We just didn’t guard anyone on the perimeter,” Izzo said.
Junior guard Denzel Valentine wasn’t as concerned chalking the defensive effort to “first game jitters.”
The Spartans 3-point defense tightened up from then on, holding the Mustangs to 27 percent from beyond the arc.
The Master’s College finished the game with 56 total points, which is ten points less than MSU allowed on average last season.
Izzo, who is known for his defensive acumen, isn’t too worried about the defense just yet.
“It’s something we’ve always been pretty good at, so I think we’ll get better at it,” Izzo said.
One way Izzo believes his players can improve defensively is by guarding Eron Harris , the junior transfer guard from West Virginia, in practice.
“Harris is probably the hardest guy on our team to guard. Everyday Denzel (Valentine) is asking to guard him, and Trice guards him some,” Izzo said. “I thought those two played better defense this week.”
Valentine agreed defending Harris has helped him.
“I don’t think there’s a better player in the country to guard than him,” Valentine said of Harris, who averaged 17 points per game last season.
“Eron’s a great player. He can do a lot of things,” junior guard Bryn Forbes said. “He’s athletic, he can handle the ball, he can shoot the ball, he’s a very skilled player. Guarding him is a real test.”
St. Cloud State may be a Division II team, but they averaged 81 points per game last year and will give MSU another chance to improve its defense on Friday night.
“We got a lot of things to work on,” Izzo said. “Ninety percent of it will be our defense.”
