Michigan State authored a thoroughly dominating and slightly surprising rout of Kentucky in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. The Spartans came out of the gates red-hot from beyond the arc and stifled a potent Wildcats offense for 40 minutes with suffocating defense. After the 83-66 victory, the outspoken Hall of Fame coach praised his team for its performance and also pointed to a way the program operates differently than most in the transfer portal era.
The first question he fielded from media addressed the idea that not enough attention is paid to continuity with all the player movement. Izzo clearly agreed with that assessment.
"I'm guarded in what I say," he said. "How about 100 freaking percent? I mean, home-grown. People that are playing for the name on the front of their jersey because they know the name on the front of their jersey, people that care about the place they're at and the players they're with."
"I give credit to a lot of people. Everybody does it a different way. But it's funny you'd ask that question because that seems to be the people that are getting the most credit, the transfer portal recruitment is almost bigger than winning games. Not at Michigan State. Some day it could hurt me. I'm going to do what I gotta do. But I'm also—I don't give up on the people I got. That's what we call development, and that's what you call working with players. You stick with them and they stick with you."
Izzo specifically highlighted his point guard Jeremy Fears, a redshirt sophomore, who dished out 13 assists in the win—the most by a MSU player against a ranked team since 1999.
Anyone who has listened to the coach talk over the past few years knows exactly where he stands on the increasingly transactional nature of college sports and how he's committed to continuing to do things his own way.
Coming off a trip to the Elite Eight last season, expectations were much lower for this unit after losing Jase Richardson to the NBA, among other losses. But now with victories over Arkansas and Kentucky on their ledger before Thanksgiving, it may be time to readjust whatever ceiling people had in mind for Izzo's team.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Tom Izzo Outlines Michigan State's Unique Approach After Huge Win vs. Kentucky.
