Tom Izzo issues challenge to his team following Penn State scare: “Be different”

As the final buzzer sounded on Wednesday night’s Michigan State win over Penn State, you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief from the fans at the Breslin Center. The game that seemed to never end was finally over and the Spartans won 90-85. But Tom Izzo wasn’t pleased.

Up to this point in the season, Izzo has been bullish on his team. He’s praised them for being much easier to coach and drama-free. Izzo has mentioned multiple times that he loves the roster he has and he likes where they are.

But Wednesday night lit a fire under the Hall of Famer.

It was no surprise that Izzo lit into his team during the post-game presser, especially if you heard his pre-halftime interview on the broadcast. Izzo said “this is gonna be a fun halftime” after watching his team head into the locker room with a 10-point lead, scoring 46 points.

Izzo did not hold back in the post-game presser, issuing a challenge to his team at the end of it: “Be different.”

Tom Izzo was significantly disappointed in his team’s performance vs. Penn State last night😯

“We cannot handle success right now.”
“We’re not anywhere yet.”
“I’m not resting good on anything. I’m not sleeping good on anything.”
“We’ve got a long, long, LONG way to go.”

🎥… pic.twitter.com/PYfOtq4GkO

— Michigan State Content (@msucontent) January 16, 2025

When you listen to what he has to say, it’s hard to argue. As he would say, his team got “fat and sassy” and really didn’t look like one of the best teams in the country on Wednesday. They played sloppy basketball and the defense left a ton to be desired. For the third straight game, they allowed the opposition to score 40-plus second-half points. Unacceptable.

Izzo is pretty self aware so he knows that a five-point win over a solid Penn State team in conference play is nothing to be upset about. The Nittany Lions have played many teams tough and even beat Purdue earlier in the year. But he doesn’t want his team to be content with just any win. He wants his team to be different.

The Hall of Fame head coach admitted that his teams have had close calls against bad teams over the years and he’ll take the wins, but he doesn’t want that anymore. He wants his team to be different. That’s a challenge that we’re going to see moving forward.

So far this season, Tom Izzo and this team have been different. They’ve been playing clean, stress-free basketball — until Wednesday night. We’ll see just how much he drilled this challenge into his guys on Sunday as the Spartans host Illinois.