The Hoop Feed: Michigan State's Tom Izzo says 'hang on, we're going to win some games'

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo liked most of what he saw from his team in a tough test at No. 10 Illinois on Thursday night, losing 71-68, seeing some fight that he thinks will put the team in good standing if those traits carry on into upcoming games. 

Losing another game and falling to 1-4 in the Big Ten for the first time in his career, and 9-7 overall, is bothering him. The Spartans need to start piling up wins, and Izzo thinks that’s going to happen.

“We’re going to get better,” he said following the loss in Champaign, Ill. “We’re going to grow from here. We’re going to get better.

“Everybody will give up on us and that’s fine with me. I don’t even blame them. I think I know where this team can still get and I plan on getting them there.”

The Spartans were a Top 5 preseason pick, but have missed the range shooting that Joey Hauser gave them from the power forward position. Malik Hall hasn’t harnessed a level of consistency that would have helped against a challenging schedule in the first half of the season.

Meanwhile, development at the center position has been slow, especially with gifted sophomore Jaxon Kohler one week into returning from a lower body injury which sidelined him for the first 15 games of the season. 

Jaden Akins had some early-season struggles, and the entire team shot poorly at times in November.

Tyson Walker had a cold night from long range at Illinois (1-for-7) and AJ Hoggard missed five contested shots at the rim which had a big impact on Illinois building a 10-point lead in the first half. 

“We’re going to get better we just have to get better quickly,” Izzo said. “They (Illinois) are a good team. I thought our effort was 10 times better than it was at Northwestern, which is very critical because that means somebody’s listening. But disappointed in another tough loss.

“If we had played that good, we would have won three or four more games. That doesn’t mean I’m happy with a loss or how we played. I’m just telling you we played a lot better than we’ve been playing.

“We fought. We did everything we needed to do. We didn’t get to the (foul) line. And I am a little upset about that. If I’m going to complain about one thing, I am going to complain about it because I did during the game. At one time it was 12-1 on free throws and it shouldn’t be that way. But there some big plays and they made them, they made more. So they deserve to win. 

“We deserve to say that we answered the ball. We were called out a little bit by the coach and people in the media and deservingly so. What you look for then is: Does your team respond? I thought we responded. Just couldn’t get it done. Good team. They beat us. I’m looking forward to getting back on track. We’re going to win some games so hang on.”

JADEN AKINS FINDING A GROOVE

After a cold start to the season, Akins’ 3-point shooting is now up to .377 for the year. 

Akins is 6-for-13 from 3-point range in the Spartans’ last two games and 20-for-44 over his last eight games – both percentages consistently around .455.

But Akins’ 3-of-7 shooting from 3-point range is the latest sign that the Spartans can begin to rely on his marksmanship from the left wing.

Akins has scored 13, 10, 13 and 13 points in the past four games. If his 3-point shooting remains in the plus-40 category, more shots for Akins would seem like a distinct possibility. 

When asked after the game what he would like to see improve in the near future, Izzo began with Akins. 

“I think Jaden (Akins) has been playing pretty well and had a couple of things tonight, a couple of shot selection things (errors),” Izzo said. “Tyson Walker got in foul trouble and I think he took himself out of the game a little bit and that bothered me because we need Tyson. A.J. continues to play at a very high level. Unfortunately he missed all of those lay-ups but the effort, the things we asked him to do, I thought he was very, very good.

“I thought Coen Carr went in there and did some things. We wanted to give Xavier Booker some chance. I would like to see Malik (Hall) grow to be a consistent player. He was a lot better tonight after having a game when he gave us nothing. I guess a little more consistency out of him. 

“Then we have to get some of those other bigs – either Booker or Jaxon Kohler. These guys are out two-and-a-half months and think they are going to just to be able to razzle and dazzle right off the bat but he didn’t get back (on defense). It’s not his fault. That’s the problem when you have major injuries during the year. But we need him because he can score in there.

“Even though Mady rebounded it, we thought he had some lay-ups that he missed, and that part was frustrating.

“But we just got beat by a damn good team with the free throw discrepancy like it is (22 to 7). I feel good about our performance as far as how hard we played and how well we rebounded against a team that has been kicking everybody’s butt on the boards.”

Illinois came into the game No. 2 in the Big Ten in rebounding at +9.7. Michigan State held a 37-34 edge on the glass against the Illini. Mady Sissoko had a game-high 10 rebounds. Hall had seven. Hoggard (six) and Akins (five) chipped in from the backcourt. 

GAME WITHIN THE GAME

When asked where he would like to see growth in the team, Izzo began with an all-encompassing statement.

“Everybody’s got to improve,” Izzo said. 

That includes the head coach, judging by Izzo’s comment on a late play call.

With :23 seconds left and Michigan State trailing 71-68, the Spartans called time out. Izzo drew up a 1-4 clear-out for Walker at the top of the key. Izzo went to that basic isolation set many times with success when Cassius Winston ran the show. Mateen Cleaves had success with the low 1-4 play call a few times, too, as have a number of Michigan State point guards and lead guards in the final seconds of some of Izzo’s 983 games as head coach. 

This time, Walker faked hard with a dead-leg lefty drive against 6-foot-4 graduate senior Justin Harmon, who played tough defense all night. Harmon didn’t react much to that feint. Harmon seemed to be expecting the step-back three, rather than reacting hard to the drive. 

Walker then went behind his back with the dribble, near the top of the key, which he fumbled a little bit. He recovered and Harmon reloaded on defense, getting out closer into Walker’s grill, at the 3-point line.

Walker gave ground for another step and launched a 3-pointer from three feet beyond the arch. The shot rimmed out.

Illinois cleared the rebound. Illinois’ Luke Goode was fouled with :09 seconds left. Goode missed the front end of a one-and-one, and AJ Hoggard ended up with another 3-point attempt to tie with :02 seconds left, but missed. 

Izzo would have liked to have the chalk back for that final segment. 

“I didn’t think I did a very good job,” Izzo said. “I wanted to get him (Walker) a better shot, maybe with some movement instead of just a one-on-one. Yet he felt comfortable with it. I mean he still shot pretty good (for the game), he just didn’t shoot as well from the three. We had a couple of good looks from the three that just didn’t go.”

One possession prior to Walker’s last miss, Izzo called great play which resulted in a Walker drive for an easy lay-up, cutting the lead to 69-68 with :35 seconds left.

On that play, Michigan State ran fours screens in quick succession at the top of the key with Walker, Hoggard and Sissoko involved.

Away from the ball, it began with a wedge screen by Sissoko for Walker. This gave Walker a half step lead on his man as Walker set a ball screen for Hoggard. 

It’s rare for Michigan State to have the shooting guard (Walker) set a ball screen for the point guard (Hoggard). Michigan State saved this set for the final minute. 

Harmon looked like he hadn’t seen it on film. The wedge screen disrupted Harmon. Then the ballscreen caused Harmon to switch onto Hoggard. 

That screen became a double drag screen with Hoggard using two ball screens from Walker and Sissoko.

And then in an instant, Sissoko set an away screen for Walker. This freed up Walker for a cut to the basket. Hoggard passed the ball to Walker, and Walker had an easy avenue down the lane for a lay-up.

Great play. Great timing for the play call. Great execution by Walker, Sissoko and Hoggard, cutting the lead to 69-68 with :34 seconds left.

From there, Michigan State elected to foul Marcus Domask with :24 seconds left. Domask is an 88-percent free throw shooter.

Michigan State was down to one time out. If the Spartans had two time outs, might Michigan State have used one and applied full-court pressure after Walker’s field goal, and tried to force the ball into a poor free throw shooter’s hands? Maybe so.

Instead, low on time outs, Michigan State hurriedly called out the foul instructions from the sideline. Michigan State fouled Domask without sending a trap at him to get the ball out of his hands or attempt a steal. That was probably a missed opportunity.

Domask, an 88 percent free throw shooter, hit both free throws, setting up MSU’s second-to-last sequence which resulted in Walker missing the 3-pointer on the 1-4 clear-out.

IZZO UNPLUGGED

More excerpts from Izzo’s postgame press conference:

Opening statement:

“I actually thought we did a hell of a job defensively. I think the difference in the game was the free throw line. They do have a tendency to draw fouls but I thought the (foul shooting) discrepancy was a little tough.

“Defensively, the only mistake we made, with the way we wanted to cover, is our bigs didn’t do nothing. To give up 12 points to (Ty) Rodgers early, that was disappointing. The other thing that was frustrating was the number of lay-ups we missed in the first half. A.J. took blame for five of them, he said. You just don’t beat a good team on the road. They’re a good team.

“We out-rebounded them. That’s a big deal. We had seven turnovers. That was a big deal. We did everything but win the game and we lost that at the free throw line.”

On coming back in the second half, what was the difference during your strong stretches?

“We wanted to move the ball a lot more. There was too much dribbling. A couple of times we got down seven and we fought back. I thought a big key was when we fought back before halftime. At Northwestern it went from five to 15. Here, we had a little run at the end of the half and that was good.

“I just thought better ball movement. I thought we ran some good things. I thought defensively we did everything we wanted to do. (Marcus) Domask hit a big shot down around the baseline jumping into us and they hit two big threes – one by (Coleman) Hawkins. I don’t know what happened on that cross match, we just didn’t even guard him. The other one, (Justin) Harmon hit a big three.”

On playing on the road, is this a step in the right direction?

“I think that’s media. It doesn’t bother me to play on the road. We have veterans. The fans were great. Kudos to all of the Illinois people. The students weren’t here and an effort like that in a late night game, I thought was great. But we play the schedule we play so we won’t get intimidated by the crowds and that. We are not losing games because we can’t win on the road. We’re losing games because we didn’t play well enough to win on the road. 

On having your centers guard 6-foot-6 Ty Rodgers, and often putting a guard on 6-foot-10 shooter Coleman Hawkins:

“Yeah, (assistant coach) Doug Wojcik came to me two weeks ago and had an idea. Then all the sudden Purdue did something similar. Our bigs just didn’t cover it. I mean that was inexcusable. No sympathy. You have a job to do, do your job. So that was disappointing.

“Mady did rebound well and did some other things well but giving them 12 points on lay-ups at the beginning of the game was a killer.

“I loved what we did defensively. I give my staff credit on that. I give my players credit for handling something which you said was completely unorthodox. We did everything else pretty good, except fouling. We hold them to 41 (percent from the floor), 33 (from three), out-rebound them.”

On Ty Rodgers, a Grand Blanc native, and his 15-point night:

“I give Rodgers credit. I give Brad credit. He knows what he can do and he knows what he can’t do. In this day and age, every kid is trying to do what they can’t do. He didn’t do that. He did what he could. And we did a terrible job of letting him get to the rim. So I thought he did his job and we didn’t do his job.

“But I love a kid. Everybody is out there trying to shoot threes. He knows what his job is and he knows what he can do. The coach deserves credit for that and the player deserves a lot of credit for that. I’ve always been a Rodgers fan and I thought he had a couple of big plays. The plays he made early really hurt us. Those were almost like gift points, yet he made some nice moves.”

On Illinois without Terrance Shannon:

“I thought we actually did a hell of a job on Domask. I think what’s evolving right now is Harmon is turning into a pretty good player. He can shoot the ball from three. He’s more dangerous in some ways. But you’re not going to replace a guy like Shannon. Of the guys who stepped up, we put a lot into Goode, we put a lot into Domask, and we put some into Guerrier. We knew what Hawkins could do and we tried to cover him accordingly. It’s a tough deal to try to do what Brad is doing in the middle of the year and he’s doing a hell of a job.”

On Coleman Hawkins:

“He shoots the ball so quick that we couldn’t afford to cheat. It puts some pressure on. He hit that big three. But we didn’t do an awful job on him. He goes 4-for-9 but he goes 3-for-5 from the three. And they don’t miss many free throws.”