The story of this year for Michigan State basketball has been one of missed opportunities. That was the case again this weekend when the Spartans fell to Rutgers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, a game that was ripe to be won for MSU.
On Monday, Tom Izzo spoke to the media about his team. You can find the key quotes from that session below.
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Coach Tom Izzo calls the Rutgers game a "tough Saturday loss" but said MSU played "pretty well" until the final seven minutes after watching the tape.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) February 6, 2023
Izzo says Malik Hall's health right now "is as good as it's gonna be, and his conditioning is pretty damned good." Biggest thing now is making sure to keep him healthy.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) February 6, 2023
Izzo on A.J. Hoggard says the blame and focus always falls on "the quarterback and the coach." Says when a player tries to do too much, it usually means others aren't doing enough. "And there's a reason he's had to play a lot of minutes – because he's good enough to do it."
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) February 6, 2023
Izzo said the whole point of Sunday's practice was ball movement. He said they almost took dribbling out of it.
— Graham Couch (@Graham_Couch) February 6, 2023
Izzo: "Don't think we're desolate and down and out, because we're not."
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) February 6, 2023
Izzo: I still think we've got a good team. We've been very connected, defensively. … It's been our offensive woes. Some guys just haven't shot the ball as well. If they start shooting the ball better and we get our running game going, I think we can put a run of games together.
— Graham Couch (@Graham_Couch) February 6, 2023
Izzo on having three players averaging over 30 minutes per game: "I have no choice."
Says he doesn't want to play Joey Hauser 30 minutes a game and he believes Tyson Walker is the only one that can consistently do it. Malik Hall could've done it "back in the day" but can't now.
— Sam Sklar (@sklarsam_) February 6, 2023
