Michigan State’s start to the season has not gone the way they hoped and others expected.
The No. 1-ranked team entering the season, Michigan State promptly lost to Kentucky in their opener. They later lost to Virginia Tech and Duke and entered conference play 5-3.
Since then, the Spartans have won three in a row, beating Rutgers, Oakland and Northwestern. The team beat Northwestern 77-72 on Wednesday night despite turning the ball over 16 times. They were up by as many as 16 but allowed the Wildcats to make it a four-point game late.
That’s probably why head coach Tom Izzo wasn’t exactly celebrating the win, which gave Michigan State a 2-0 start to the conference season.
Izzo: "There will be no rings or banners under the tree for 2-0. It's a nice start. … We've got a long way to go if we're gonna be the team we need to be."
— Matt Charboneau (@mattcharboneau) December 19, 2019
MSU fans cheer Izzo as he makes his way to interview room. “You didn’t see me applauding me. I want to fire me,” Izzo cracked.
— Teddy Greenstein (@TeddyGreenstein) December 19, 2019
Izzo is being hard on himself and hard on his team because he expects much more. He also knows they need to start improving by a lot in order to be where he wants come tournament time.
