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Tom Izzo discusses ‘inept’ performance in lopsided loss to unranked Northwestern

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Michigan State suffered its first defeat of the season in a rather troublesome manner to unranked Northwestern.

Coming into the conference opener, the Spartans were 6-0 on the season and feeling good. Despite not getting to play Virginia early on, key non-conference games against Notre Dame and Duke provided important tuneup performances.

Unfortunately, Northwestern had other ideas for Tom Izzo’s squad on Sunday night. Playing in Evanston, the Wildcats rode a massive career-best performance from Boo Buie to the upset of the No. 4 team in the country.

After the game, Izzo met with the media virtually to discuss the performance. He labeled it as one of the most inept he has seen in his 26 years leading the Spartans. Simply put, it just did not look like a Michigan State team or an Izzo-led performance.

BTN shared Izzo’s remarks:

Among the lowlights was a sluggish start by Joey Hauser and Rocket Watts. The two key players started the game a combined 0-for-10 from the floor and finished with just 4-for-18 for the game.

Besides the shooting struggles that plagued the entire Michigan State lineup, Hauser sustained a knee injury that hampered his performance and availability in the second half. Here’s what Izzo had to say about that:

Hopefully Hauser and the rest of the Spartans are able to rest up and regroup. There is not much time to turnaround and prepare this week before a Christmas Day matchup with No. 12 Wisconsin.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.