If you have not yet, please check out Tom Izzo’s post-game press conference from Tuesday night. He speaks for the first two minutes and then takes questions. That first question is a great one.
The big
talking point after our third game, the victory over San Jose State, was that MSU eased up in the second half and let the other Spartans back into the game; apparently, Izzo spent more time than usual in the locker room before coming to the media room after that game because he was busy tearing into his team for the way they played in that 2nd half. In the video above, listen to the question at the 6:59 mark and to Tom’s reply to it. After the SJSU game, he warned that if MSU played like that, then Kentucky would kill us. So at halftime at MSG, Coach made sure that the candle under their behinds stay lit.
In his next reply, Izzo says that the practices leading up to the Kentucky game were the best ones of the year. Clearly his response to the San Jose game created a sense of urgency in his team and they carried it all the way through a full forty against the Wildcats. Now, and as some of you quipped in the threads last night, the big test comes in how we look moving forward.
Can this team continue to keep its foot on the gas for full games? Can this team continue to control the boards (MSU is tied for 9th nationally with a +16.7 rebounding margin, and I would bet that none of the teams above us have played two ranked teams already)? And can this team continue to shoot well from deep, maybe not 50% levels of amazingness, but above 35% at least?
I said to a friend that last night’s game reminded me of the win over Baylor in Detroit two seasons ago. Different circumstances as that team already had five losses on the year and we, as fans, were just hoping that that game was going to be our get-right game. But also different in who was leading that team compared to this year’s squad. As Tom said in that press conference, he challenged his captains (“four seniors and juniors”) to keep this team going through the second half, and they met that challenge. Even better, some of the newer guys also stepped up.
Can you imagine if the game that took us from 3-0 to 4-0, and gave us our second win over a ranked team, is our get-right game? I was always optimistic about this team’s prospects for 2025-26. My preseason predictions were not me being a homer.
Now, my expectations are even higher. I think Tom Izzo – along with Kohler, Cooper, Fears, and Carr – will keep last night’s level of play going throughout the season. Coach called his team out after game three, and his team accepted the criticism and made sure their coach would not be able to say that to them again. You could see it in the on-court interview after last night’s game (couldn’t find that on Youtube). That was not just some team happy to get a win; that was a team happy for their coach and proud that they answered his call. From what I have seen so far this season and from what Izzo had to say in his post-game comments, I am thinking this team is hellbent on continuing to answer that call. I think we may be in store for another legendary Izzo season.
