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Tom Izzo Talks About What's To Blame For MSU's Loss At Michigan

The Michigan Wolverines (14-9, 5-7 Big Ten) avenged their January loss to the Michigan State Spartans (16-8, 8-5 Big Ten) Saturday afternoon, winning 77-68.

The stats from Saturday's game were straightforward. The Wolverines shot 38 percent from the field, which is eight percentage points fewer than their season average coming into the game (46.3). They did, however, hit 11 of 28 three-point attempts, 39 percent, which is above the team's season average entering the contest.

RELATED: Instant Recap: Livers' Return Sparks Wolverines Win Over MSU

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Michigan State Spartans head coach Tom Izzo's club lost to its biggest rival, Michigan, on Saturday.
Michigan State Spartans head coach Tom Izzo's club lost to its biggest rival, Michigan, on Saturday. (AP Images)
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The Spartans, on the other hand, struggled on the offensive end for much of the game, despite one positive — limiting turnovers. MSU only turned it over seven times in this one, the second lowest mark of its season, and just the third time the club has turned it over fewer than 10 times.

"I think these are just the weirdest stats I’ve ever seen," MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. "I think we had seven turnovers in the first half, five of them in the first five minutes, or six of them, and not one in the second half. Not one in the last 32 minutes.

"I should feel good about that, but we just threw some away again. That bothered me."

Despite the low number of team turnovers, Izzo was frustrated with the way senior point guard Cassius Winston played, specifically with his decision making.

Winston was held in check by U-M's defense, being primarily guarded by junior guard Eli Brooks. He had 20 points, with seven of those coming from the free throw line. He shot just 5-for-18 from the field, but did convert on 3 of 7 threes. He had three turnovers.

"There’s been some plays made that are very un-four-year-ish that kind of get you going," Izzo said of Winston's play.

"Usually, my leader last year was making great decisions, and we’re just not making as good of decisions," he added later.

"We’re trying to understand some of the decision making and help him through it. Fatigue then becomes a factor, and fatigue is sleeping and resting and doing the things that have been more difficult for him to do."

It wasn't just Winston that Izzo wasn't pleased with, but he also didn't feel he got enough from one of his other top leaders, junior big man Xavier Tillman. Tillman missed a few shots in close, something that has become a trend in recent games for the junior forward.

"I think with Xavier, maybe there’s a little confidence thing there," Izzo said. "I’m always going to protect my players, but he knows he’s missed them, you know he's missed them and they’ve been at some critical times, so that brings some pressure."

He also said Tillman was tired at the end of the game, leading to his missed three-pointer down the stretch.

"I really felt bad for Xavier. He couldn’t even walk at the end and we just left him in there, and he took a bad three."

Another thing that bothered Izzo was the fact that U-M out-rebounded MSU 46-40, including 14 U-M offensive rebounds to MSU's 11. The Wolverines seemed to play with an intensity on their home court that allowed them to corral most of the loose balls.

MSU had more second chance points (14) than the Wolverines (13), despite being out-rebounded on the offensive glass.

"The rebounding and the loose balls bothered me," Izzo said. "That’s how they got their threes in the first half.

"Today, I don’t think it was anything else but every loose ball, they got, and they kicked it out. There was no real oddities with points off turnovers. It was about the same. They actually turned the ball over more than they usually do,. Nobody had a lot of assists. It was a lot of loose ball kick outs."

The MSU head coach did not think the return of injured U-M junior forward Isaiah Livers made as much of an impact as many did, despite Livers' 14 points and four rebounds.

Izzo deflected after being asked about what Livers brought back to the U-M lineup.

"Listen, how much different would we be with Josh Langford?" Izzo retorted. "Of course, if one of your two best players is out, you’re going to be different. At the same time, I think today, what we dealt with from other players, you know ... Simpson went 4-for-7 from three. He hasn't done that in three weeks.

"I love Isaiah. I think he’s a very good player, but Isaiah didn’t beat us. Johns has been playing really well, and you’re going to be better, of course, when you’ve got a veteran in there, but our freshmen just aren’t ready. Our big freshmen are just struggling a bit, and that’s going to happen."

Izzo boiled it back down to U-M shooting the ball better than his Spartans, specifically from three-point range.

U-M senior point guard Zavier Simpson finished with 16 points and eight assists, in addition to his efficient 4-for-7 from long range. Simpson came into the game shooting 33.3 percent on threes, which is the fourth best percentage by any Wolverine that has taken more than 50 attempts from deep this season.

"What they did is they shot better from the three," Izzo said. But, maybe their worst three-point shooter goes 4-for-7, so give him credit. He did a hell of a job.

"You know, we had a game plan of what we wanted to do. I wouldn’t change it, because some of those shots were off of kick out threes. He made some shots."

One thing that allowed the Wolverines to hold the Spartans to lower percentages than the last time the two teams played was eliminating fast break points. In the first meeting, MSU had 21 points in transition. Saturday, U-M allowed just six. When asked if U-M did a good job taking away MSU's transition game, Izzo said it was more about his team not executing.

"I’m sure they did [make it an emphasis to take away transition opportunities]," Izzo said. "I noticed Michigan State, the last couple weeks, made a conscious effort not to run. I’m not sure which one it is. I think they did a good job. I take nothing away from them.

"I don’t know if people are taking it away or we’re taking it away, to be honest with you. I think that’s where the fatigue of Winston and Xavier are hurting this team. And then, the freshmen go in there, and they’re just not ready for this yet.

Elaborating on the fatigue factor, Izzo later said that he thinks he may need to keep Winson and Tillman more fresh so the team can increase its effectiveness.

"My two guys, maybe I need to get them more rest," Izzo said. "Maybe sleepovers at my house or something."

After all the questions were finished being asked at Izzo's postgame press conference at Crisler Center, he decided to make some closing remarks.

"I’ll close it by saying, the start was poor, the middle was really good and the end was poor," Izzo said. "And, Michigan played good. Some guys hit some shots that weren’t supposed to, and I think we missed some layups that we were supposed to make. Thank you."

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