Tom Izzo reflects on Marcus Bingham performance following Wisconsin win

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo credited his team’s will against No. 12 Wisconsin in the second half for why the Spartans were about to knock off the Badgers 69-63 in the quarterfinals of the Big 10 Tournament Friday afternoon. Marcus Bingham Jr. dropped 19 points and 11 rebounds in the matchup — Izzo had nothing but positive things to say about his senior forward after the game.

“It’s the best second half, it’s the best half I’ve seen. I don’t know, I have to think about the game, but I wasn’t really doing somersaults back to the locker room in the first half, but the second half, I thought he was really,” Izzo said. “He started out, we went to him and he did a really good job. He did a pretty good job defensively. He’s not always coming out because he did something wrong. I think one of the biggest problems is conditioning is a problem for him, but I think he played through his second wind.”

The 7-foot Michigan native matched a season-high scoring total against the Badgers, but it was two key defensive rebounds in the final minute that kept the ball out of Wisconsin’s hands and untimely earned Izzo and his Spartans the victory.

Michigan State is currently slated to land as a 7-seed in the NCAA Tournament, according to On3’s latest bracketology, while their semifinal opponent Sunday afternoon, Purdue, is a 3-seed as of Saturday morning. A win could not only give the Spartans a jump in the projections, but a Big 10 Tournament Championship game berth for the first time since 2019 — but Michigan State will need another big performance from Bingham to make that happen.

“I’m proud of him, but I’m happy for him,” Izzo said. “One thing about Marcus that my staff, we always say, he could have left three times and wouldn’t have blamed him, but he just kept coming back for more and I sure would like to see him end his career in a serious, positive note.”

It should be noted that the last time MSU and Purdue battled (back on Feb. 26), the Spartans upset the then-No. 4 Boilermakers 68-65. Bingham came off the bench and played 13 minutes and notched 2 points, 2 assists and 3 rebounds.

Michigan State’s rematch against No. 9 Purdue in the semifinal of the Big 10 Tournament at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS. The winner will face either Iowa and Indiana in the championship game.