Tom Izzo disagrees with former football coach and current trustee George Perles’ famous quote, “They all count one.” The mantra is something the MSU men’s basketball head coach won’t be thinking tonight when the No. 5 Spartans (17-3, 7-0) travel to Ann Arbor to face Michigan (10-9, 3-4).
To all Spartans fans outraged by the new MSU logo, men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo has a message: Shame on you.
Their work here is done. The MSU men’s basketball team put a final — though potentially discouraging — stamp on a crucial homestand Wednesday night by beating Iowa 70-63 to improve its record to 6-0 in the Big Ten and hold its lead in the conference standings.
This is why you don’t abandon ship when the MSU men’s basketball team loses to unranked Florida in November.
Tom Izzo won’t call Raymar Morgan the next Travis Walton, but the MSU men’s basketball head coach says it should be noted that the senior forward’s defense this season has improved. Given the opportunity for consistent marking in a game, Morgan has the ability to shut down an opponent.
To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. The MSU men’s basketball team made a strong case as the Big Ten’s top dog Saturday, knocking off the last team standing in its way of perching atop of the Big Ten standings outright, hammering Illinois 73-63 on Saturday afternoon in front of an inspired capacity crowd at Breslin Center.
And then there were two. And soon there will be one. The remaining duo of undefeated teams in the Big Ten will meet in a pivotal January matchup Saturday when the Illinois men’s basketball team travels to Breslin Center to meet No. 7 MSU (3:30 p.m., CBS).
Outside, temperatures plummeted to the low teens and a bone-chilling wind chill was enough to keep anyone indoors.
It’s only right that the decade’s best team is well-represented on the All-Decade team. Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson already have had their numbers retired, and Charlie Bell also might get that honor some day, but he gets knocked out of the starting lineup for Alan Anderson — just barely.
The Wofford Terriers came to East Lansing looking to give the MSU men’s basketball team a dogfight. And, for most of the night, they did.
Aside from common articles and pronouns, one word resounded in head coach Tom Izzo’s weekly press conference more than any other: embarrassed.
The MSU men’s basketball team fell to No. 9 in The Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday, while Kansas remained atop the poll for the third straight week.
For the past few seasons, head coach Tom Izzo vehemently has defended the Big Ten, saying the conference is as strong as any in the country.
The No. 2 MSU men’s basketball team split a pair of weekend games at the Legends Classic in Atlantic City, N.J., bouncing back with a convincing win Saturday against Massachusetts after being upset by Florida on Friday.
Tom Izzo became the winningest coach in the history of MSU men’s basketball Saturday as the Spartans routed Massachusetts 106-68 in the third place game of the Legends Classic at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.
Conventional wisdom says a basketball team can’t win a game committing 22 turnovers. Friday night, the No. 2 MSU men’s basketball team did everything it could to buck conventional wisdom – making 53 percent of its shots, out-rebounding Florida by 16 and holding the lead for much of the second half.
The script couldn’t have been drafted more suitably. The day MSU men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo tied his predecessor Jud Heathcote with 340 wins at MSU, the coach who led the Spartans to the 1979 national title was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Mo.
Following Tuesday’s grind-it-out victory against Gonzaga, the No. 2 MSU men’s basketball perhaps showed some signs of let-up in Friday’s 75-62 victory against Toledo.
Junior guard Durrell Summers hit the go-ahead 3-pointer to become the hero. In the waning minutes of the game, junior guard Kalin Lucas stepped up and made an acrobatic layup to extend the lead.
It seemed like it wasn’t meant to be. Every time the No. 2 MSU men’s basketball team tied Gonzaga — or even pulled within a few points — the Bulldogs kept the Spartans nipping at their heels. Then, after all the ties (three), one-point deficits (five) and two-point deficits (four), Durrell Summers took the game into his own hands.