Tom Izzo expresses belief in Michigan State ahead of NCAA Tournament
Michigan State is synonymous with March as they’ll be making their 26th straight tournament appearance under Tom Izzo. While the Spartans aren’t the highest of seeds this time around, though, he is no less confident in his team’s ability make a run in the madness.
Izzo spoke about his team’s ability in the bracket as a No. 9 seed in the West Region of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. He said that he believes in them just as much now as he did at the start of the season, even if they’ve stumbled along the way.
“In all honesty, I felt good about this team,” said Izzo. “I didn’t like some of the things we did but I felt like the potential to be where it was never changed for me all year long. That’s what was probably frustrating to the media and the fans.”
“I feel better about a lot of things,” Izzo continued. “I really enjoyed the way we were rotating so many guys in there because of foul trouble and every guy answered the bell.”
Michigan State enters the NCAA Tournament with a record of 19-14 overall. It took a lot for the Spartans to make it into the field considering they started the season at 4-5 while also going just 10-10 in the Big Ten after losing four of their final five.
Still, after dropping five of their last seven in total, Michigan State still made it in fairly comfortably as the No. 38 seed overall. That sends them over to Charlotte to play No. 8 Mississippi State on Thursday before, if they were to win, likely facing No. 1 North Carolina in the Round of 32.
The Spartans are a staple in this tournament for a reason and could very well give teams a run depending on how far they advance. Still, to move on, Izzo knows his team has to make more things happen in crucial moments of their games.
“I’m going to say I feel better about my team and yet we’ve got to figure out a way to make some big plays.”
Izzo considers how Big Ten Tournament prepares Michigan State for NCAA Tournament
Tom Izzo saw this year’s Big Ten Tournament as a learning experience for Michigan State ahead of the NCAA Tournament.
Ahead of Selection Sunday, Izzo reflected on the Spartans’ two-game stint in the conference tournament. Michigan State fell 67-62 to top-seeded Purdue in the quarterfinals.
Izzo is an old school guy, saying he was unsure of a long conference tournament before March Madness. It’s great preparation now, though, especially for a more inexperienced team.
“I’m not sure I was for this tournament when it started,” Izzo said. “Jim Delany started it. I remember the meeting with Bob Knight, Gene Keady, Clem Haskins. Not a lot of people were for the tournament. 25 years later, I think it’s proved to be something great, something that rivals some of the great tournaments around the country.
“I thought our guys learned a lot today,” said Izzo.
As a learning experience, Izzo thought it was great for his entire squad. With their performance, it inspires confidence. Now, since the Spartans are dancing, Michigan State could be a very tough out with how Izzo sees it.
“Hopefully, our juniors and seniors will realize that we can play with anybody,” Izzo said. “We’ve shown that all year long. The problem is we haven’t made the plays down the stretch. We’ve got to do a better job of that, nd a lot of that falls on me. This week I’m going to try to do a better job of it. We’ll see if we can make one of those patented Michigan State runs.”
“We’ve now played Arizona, we’ve played Tennessee. We’ve played Purdue twice. Those are potentially all 1 seeds. We’ve played Illinois and Baylor and Duke. So we’ve been battle-tested. And we’ve done something else that we’ve had to rise up from some adversity and some tough times. I think that’s a key in a team making a run. Can it handle that and can it work itself out of it? That’s kind of the job of this week.”