Tom Izzo hammers Michigan State's turnover woes vs. UCLA: 'It was BS'
Tom Izzo and Michigan State made their travel to Los Angeles with an undefeated mark in the Big Ten and a surge into the top 10 of the AP Poll nationally. Now, the Spartans are more than glad to get the heck out of LA after back-to-back losses to USC and UCLA dropped MSU a half of a game behind Purdue in the league standings.
For the first half of the B1G season, the story has been MSU’s resurgence after some lackluster regular season performances in recent seasons. However, the hot start in the record overshadowed some lurking issues for the Spartans.
For starters, Michigan State is 3rd-worst in the Big Ten while averaging 12.2 turnovers per game. That mark alone is not a nail in the coffin, but it’s the issue that doomed the team in LA.
Against USC, MSU had 13 turnovers and failed to generate the kind of elite fast break points that has spurred the hot start to the season. In the loss to UCLA, the turnovers ballooned to 16 for the Spartans, and that was compounded by the Bruins only committing 3 against MSU.
The lack of turnovers held Izzo’s group to just 9 fast break points in the 63-61 defeat. And while the Bruins didn’t push the tempo, they feasted in points off turnovers with a 19-to-4 edge.
It was that formula that allowed UCLA to knock off MSU in spite of going -18 in rebounds. And Tom Izzo was fuming about turnovers after the game, admitting he deserves the blame but also pinned some of the issues on his players.
“You’ve heard Mick (Cronin) go off, you’ve heard me go off. This one should be blamed to the coach, because everything is blamed to the coach. It’s always the coach’s fault, but the players should be blamed too,” said Izzo. “Some of those (turnovers) were ridiculous.”
Izzo gave credit to UCLA’s head coach and the Bruins overall for playing a physical game, but he was not pleased by the response of the Spartans to that physicality. He singled out the guard play from the Spartans as particularly worrisome:
“Give them a little credit. I thought it was the most physical game I’ve been in in the Big Ten in a long time, which doesn’t surprise me,” Izzo admitted. “Mick coming from Cincinnati has brought that out here, and I think he’s done a hell of a job.
“It was a physical game both ways, and I’m not sure we handled that from a guard position as well. And some of the turnovers were just — I mean, we should get helmets to some of the people in the first row because the ball was just flying over there. It was BS.”
"We should've given helmets to some of the people in the first row cause the ball was flying over there."
Tom Izzo was frustrated by Michigan State's 16 turnovers and believes both he and the players deserve the blame.
(Courtesy: UCLA) @wilxTV https://t.co/7Sr3Xych56 pic.twitter.com/4ETM9HRHqc
— Owen Oszust (@Owen_Oszust) February 5, 2025
On the flip side of the game, Cronin praised his unit for limiting the miscues. His message to the team?
If you can sustain that amount of turnovers, you’ll be in the mix for a national championship:
Mick Cronin: "We only had three turnovers. I told the guys, ‘We get to the NCAA tournament and we play every game with three turnovers, we’ll cut the nets down.’ "
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) February 5, 2025
On a larger scale, Purdue beat Iowa 90-81 Tuesday night, moving the Boilermakers to the top of the B1G standings at 10-2. Purdue is now +120 at bet365 in the odds to win the B1G with Michigan State (+225) falling behind. Be sure to use our Michigan online sports betting sites for all the latest odds.
With a 2nd loss, Michigan State is now a half game behind the Boilermakers with Michigan (8-2) 1 game behind the league leader. UCLA and Wisconsin are now just 2 games off the league-leading Boilermakers in a tie for 4th place in the standings.