Tom Izzo spoke to the media about Michigan State’s current status and the team’s mentality moving forward.
Michigan State basketball is in a dangerous spot where it currently sits. The Spartans are only 10-7 (2-4 Big Ten) and a little too close to the NCAA Tournament bubble for comfort. Outside of the Big Dance, the Spartans also have a difficult path just to compete for the Big Ten regular season title after their rough conference start.
MSU’s play this season hasn’t been up to par with what their internal and external expectations were. The fans, the players, and Tom Izzo all know this.
However, nothing can be changed about the past and MSU can only do better going forward. During his press conference on Tuesday, Tom Izzo discussed his individual and team’s mentality as they go forward this season.
Team mentality
Izzo shared a lot about his team’s mentality going forward, but the one thing that stuck out the most is that they will play the rest of the season with their “backs against the wall.”
The Spartans arguably don’t have any other choice. They are going to have to do something magical if they want to win the Big Ten regular season championship. There also is a lot of work still to be done just to make the NCAA Tournament. Lastly, there are a lot of negative headlines still surrounding this team.
Even if they are somewhat justified, you learn a lot about a team when its back is against the wall. When a lot of people are doubting this team and saying they won’t accomplish what they set out to, you learn who uses that as motivation and who folds under pressure. We all know Izzo is someone who will never fold, but what about his team? We will learn fast how this team adapts to this mentality as the season progresses.
Izzo’s mentality
Izzo knows a thing or two about how to get his team to play their best ball. He’s done it countless times before and I’m sure he will again. But each team presents unique challenges in accomplishing that, and Izzo shared a little bit about what he needs to do on Tuesday.
Izzo stated that, “I’m starting to get a little more critical now, because we have to get some consistency.”
This tells me that Izzo is going to start coaching his team harder. He’s going to start drilling into them and challenging them more, hoping they respond in a positive way.
Izzo’s right, this team needs more consistency. They’ve looked liked one of the best teams in the country at times and also a team that doesn’t look like an NCAA Tournament team. With expectations hanging around the former, they have to start showing that more often. The Spartans need to have more games where they look completely dominant, like the Baylor game, and when they are playing poorly it needs to not be as bad as the Northwestern game.
Consistency is huge for this team right now, and Izzo knows what he has to do to accomplish that. If being more critical of each player is the answer, then I’m excited to see how that works out for this team. Knowing Izzo, I’m sure he’ll get it right once again and Michigan State will be playing some high-level basketball more consistently soon.
