Izzo Channels His Inner RichRod; Says of MSU Fans "Shame on Them"

Submitted by BursleyHall82 on

Izzo was on the radio in Lansing yesterday blasting his own fan base. We all remember how well that went over with our football coach 10 years ago.

"It's amazing some of the things that people would say (on a message board) or yell at you of a personal nature. You almost want to tell them, 'Get a life.’” - Rich Rodriguez, Nov. 17, 2008

“First of all, if fans are upset about four losses, they’re crazy. No insult intended. It’s just crazy. I mean, we lost to Duke early in the year. Yes, we lost to our rival twice, and they deserved to beat us – we didn’t play as well as we should. … I just think that if that’s what people expect, shame on them.” - Tom Izzo, March 7, 2018

Story: https://www.landof10.com/michigan-state/michigan-state-bracketology-nca…

 

SpartyJon

March 8th, 2018 at 9:55 AM ^

Simpson and MAAR have won the battles vs Winston/Langford. Some of it is matchups, but really it boils down to misusing Miles. It almost seems like Izzo made a deal with Miles to let him play the 3 exclusively, instead of having Miles post up his defender and getting to line (90% ft) and getting the opponent into foul trouble. Ward needs to come off the bench. He would do very well vs second team big men where he doesn't need to worry about defending a starter, and can just concentrate on being the primary scorer. Langford and McQuaid could both start and the offense would be more dynamic. Green light whichever of the two are hitting his shots. When, not if, JJJ gets in foul trouble, use Schilling to replace him. Sure, he's an offensive liability (other than ORB/putbacks) but he's solid at defending big men, and better at rebounding than Ward anyway. In short, small tweaks to be more like Beilein's team. If Ward wants to pout and transfer, so be it. Xavier Tilman can take his minutes.

ijohnb

March 8th, 2018 at 10:27 AM ^

has suprised me is that I haven't found any of Michigan State's "Big 3" down low to be worthy of a consistent double team, so there are very few open three point looks that don't come out of transition.   In the BTT, they made a concerted effort to get the ball down low, but neither Wisconsin or Michigan really had any fear that MSU could effectively beat them that way, and the ball went in and never came back out to Winston or McQuaid for good looks. 

Maybe you are right, perhaps it is a matter of Miles down low more.  He has a variety of moves and is a really commanding presense when he does post up. Teams would probably be forced to double him if he posted up regularly,  Michigan did not look to have an answer for him when State started doing that in the second half but the game was effectively over by then.

If I were an MSU fan, seriously my biggest issue right now would be how it is humanly possible for a player to be as ineffective as Josh Langford is.  He looks to have a lot of talent and versatily but is literally invisible in games.  You get almost no production, at all, from that spot.

ak47

March 7th, 2018 at 10:26 PM ^

Izzo is an excuse making turd but both of those statements are compatible. He believes if MSU plays to its best they should beat Michigan, but they didn't play to their best and got beat fair and square by a team playing better. 

If we lose a game in football to msu we tend to say the same things, we deserved to lose but if we had played our best we wouldn't lose that game because our team has the higher ceiling. We can thing he's wrong but the statements are not incompatable.

SpartyJon

March 8th, 2018 at 10:09 AM ^

But I think giving UM basketball the disrespect card to use is a mistake. I think MSU has more talent, but it's silly to ignore the fact that UM relied heavily on their leaders who happen to to be upperclassmen, while Izzo relied almost exclusively on underclassmen. I know it's apples to pears, because MAAR and Wagner also happen to be the most talented players UM has, but there's no excuse for only giving Nairn 10 minutes when UM was beating UM almost exclusively with the dribble drive and perimeter game, both of which Nairn excels at defensively. Will MSU be fine? Probably, at least through the first weekend. But Michigan has definitely given the country the script on how to beat MSU, unless Izzo is able to adjust, which he seems reluctant to do.

Swayze Howell Sheen

March 7th, 2018 at 8:12 PM ^

"we lost to our rival twice"

what's that, Tom? Couldn't hear you.

"we lost to our rival twice!"

Huh? something something rival twice?

"WE LOST TO OUR RIVAL TWICE"

got it. GO BLUE!
 

 

WAR_DAWG'S_RETURN

March 8th, 2018 at 12:44 AM ^

A guy who does'nt care about rapists on his team is not going to care about that. His ego can't take the hit for them losing to Michigan twice and being called out. It's all ego with elf man and Dantonio. Two peas in a pod for sure. When they lose in the tournament the volume will really go up. Keep busing in the rapists Izzo and Dantonio.

mlax27

March 7th, 2018 at 8:18 PM ^

I have to agree with Izzo here. At 29-4 the sky isn’t falling. I think the fans just don’t realize that Michigan is actually good now, and are making it seem worse than it is. Granted they probably aren’t as good as their record, but they can still make a lot of noise in the tourney. This is a team that was ranked number 1 not too long ago.

ijohnb

March 8th, 2018 at 9:29 AM ^

is entirely possible that Michigan State could go on a run.  They have done so on numerous occassions after playing like trash during the BTT.  They have the talent to go deep.  If they put it together at the right time they could.  I don't think that Michigan fans are counting our chickens before they hatch or anything like that because we have already won the BTT and beat State twice.  Michigan already did their talking on the court as it pertains to MSU this season, but it would be foolish to dismiss Michigan State as irrelevant in this tournament.  It would not surprise me if they blew up and lost in the second round.  It would also not surprise me if they are in the Final Four and the favorites to win it.

Squad16

March 8th, 2018 at 11:01 AM ^

You beat them by a hair at home when they were in their roughest stretch (having just lost to OSU). 

 

No way MSU was likely to win in West Lafayette and we all know Michigan got fairly screwed in our home game against them by the refs. The refs didn't make Purdue win per say, but they made sure Michigan lost (without that bad call, the worst case scenario for UM is OT, but losing in regulation would have been exceedingly unlikely). 

SpartyJon

March 8th, 2018 at 1:00 PM ^

week. But that's basketball. You have to be up for every game or you can lose. Is UM playing better right now than MSU? Yes. Will they continue to be a week or 2 or 3 from now? No idea. But it's going to be a great NCAA tournament, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Big Ten gives the middle finger to the committee and gets 3 teams in the final four. (assuming Purdue/UM/MSU get different regions)

wildbackdunesman

March 7th, 2018 at 9:28 PM ^

Title IX Tom has a very talented team that could make a deep run, but his team is only 2-4 against teams projected to make the tourney.  When you consider that he has that much talent on his roster, fans will be upset with 2-4 against tourney teams coupled with their last 3 meetings against Beilein showing 29, 10, and 11 point losses.

TrueBlue2003

March 7th, 2018 at 11:04 PM ^

because a 29-4 record is great.  Their Strength of Record and AP poll ranking is 4th in the country right now, and they have an outright B1G title. So Izzo has a point that it's been a very good season.

But they're headed for a 3 seed after losing their rivals twice by double digits with one of the top two talented teams in the country, so while they've had a good year by most standards, they have underacheived given their talent.