Tom Izzo not celebrating Michigan State’s 2-0 Big Ten start

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.