Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans made the NCAA Tournament but are scheduled to play a play-in game against UCLA. His team went 15-12 overall and 9-11 in conference, so making it into the field despite their record was a nice accomplishment. But Izzo thinks that had they done things differently, maybe their seeding would have been better.
Izzo was asked on Sunday if he believes his team did the right thing by playing three games right after going on a break due to COVID tests within the program. They had three games postponed during the absence and lost three straight games upon resuming play. They lost their first game after the break by 30 points to Rutgers. The Spartans made up all three postponed games and went 2-1 in the makeups.
When answering the question, Izzo appeared to take a shot at Michigan.
Izzo questions if he should have played three games right after MSU's COVID break. "It seems like some teams got a tremendous benefit from not playing games.”
— Kyle Austin (@kylebaustin) March 14, 2021
Michigan is a team that appeared to get a benefit from not playing. Every school in the Big Ten played at least 19 conference games this season, except the Wolverines. Michigan had four games postponed due to COVID and only made up one of them. They played just 17 games and were declared the conference champs with a 14-3 record. Illinois finished second at 16-4 and beat Michigan head-to-head.
There have been a lot of questions about whether schools were rewarded or penalized from playing extra games, going back to college football. The debate has not gone away with college basketball.
