Defense and rebounding — these are the aspects of basketball MSU head coach Tom Izzo expects his players to excel in. And at his press conference Monday, Izzo said the team is finally starting to show him they understand why.
"Well you know, I thought early in the year, we were ranked one, two or three in our defensive field-goal percentage and one, two or three in our rebounding," Izzo said. "And I didn’t think we were great at either one. Some of it to me was a little bit of fool’s gold."
A 28-foul performance in a one-point loss to Wisconsin and another one-point loss to Nebraska is what Izzo is referring to. But after a week of adjusting to the new "freedom of movement" rules, which were penalties called a lot on the team against Wisconsin, Izzo said the Spartans are now playing deserving of their statistical rankings.
MSU is eighth in the country in field-goal percentage defense, holding opponents to just 37.4 percent. The Spartans are sixth in three-point field-goal defense at 28.4 percent and are also second in the country in the rebound margin, as they grab an average of 12 more rebounds than their opponent per game.
MSU held the Terrapins to 38.6 percent shooting and out rebounded them 46-36 on Saturday, including a stellar 17 offensive rebounds.
Junior guard Eron Harris said the team knew it had slipped on defense during the losing streak and made it one of its goals to "snap back in" on the defensive end and get back to what MSU is known for.
"(Assistant) Coach (Dane) Fife was a defensive player of the year in college, so he gives me a lot of my concepts," Harris said. "Defense is the most important part of this program and this system."
Izzo said he thinks Harris and senior guard Bryn Forbes have both improved a lot on the defensive end. He said they are starting to understand that the better they play defensively, the more fast break opportunities the will get.
"I think we’ve just got to keep on and realize that what we’re trying to sell to our guys, if you defend and rebound then you get to run," Izzo said. "It’s a lot easier to run off of a rebound then off of a made shot. That’s the way we’ve tried to sell it."
Izzo said the icing on the cake, though, is senior guard Denzel Valentine's ability to defend now that he is back in game shape.
"I know this, you’ve got to have staples in what you do to be successful, it’s been a 20-year staple, and I think you try to, as Mateen says, 'cheat the bloodlines' and you run into trouble," Izzo said. "Maybe our guys are starting to buy in. And Denzel, Denzel’s a pretty good defender. If you watched what he did in that game, a little bit like a Draymond, he position-wise is a good defender, he understands jumping to the ball, he got a big steal late just because he was in the right spot. He’s a pretty good on-the-ball defender but a very good off-the-ball defender."
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