The Wisconsin Badgers fell just a few minutes, a few open three-pointers, and a few timely defensive rebounds away from a defining road win over Michigan State on Sunday. After trailing just 62-60 with four minutes remaining, the Badgers faltered down the stretch, allowing the Spartans to execute a game-deciding 8-0 run en route to a 71-62 victory.
With the result, Wisconsin drops to 22-7 (12-6 Big Ten). It is now tied with Purdue and Maryland for third place in the conference standings, three games behind the first-place Spartans. The two-team race between Michigan State and in-state rival Michigan (one game behind) will likely be decided when the two teams meet on Sunday in East Lansing.
Related: Everything Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said after the Badgers’ loss to Michigan State
Wisconsin still needs a pair of wins over Minnesota and Penn State to clinch a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament. More importantly, it may need a few more solid results to solidify its place as a top-three seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
While the Michigan State loss is disappointing, it was a hard-fought game on the road against one of the best teams in the country. Wisconsin should be just fine in postseason play, as long as it avoids another 5-of-32 shooting performance from three-point range.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo certainly views that shooting performance as an outlier. He praised Greg Gard and his new-look Wisconsin team when he met with the media after the game, predicting NCAA Tournament success. The legendary coach also recognized the significance of his team’s defensive performance against one of the best offensive attacks in the country.
For specifics, here is everything Izzo said about the Badgers postgame.
On Michigan State’s impressive performance
“Kind of a strange game, with [Max] Klesmit out and [Jase] Richardson hardly played for us in the first half. We weren’t very good offensively in the first half. I thought we were pretty good defensively, we had a game plan of what we wanted to do, the coaching staff did an unbelievable job on that. We said we wanted to hold them to eight threes because of the way they shoot it and their bigs hit a couple. But give Jaden Akins credit, not for finding his shot, but he did a pretty good job on [John] Tonje who is a player of the year candidate in our league. The guy is really good. I think [John] Blackwell played really well for them too. He missed some threes, but that kid has improved so much. He’s done such a great job.
And [Greg] Gard is one of the better coaches in our league. They played well most of the way. I don’t know if we wore them out a little bit at the end or not, they played a lot of people, but not as many as we did. We found a way to get a big win down the stretch again…Big win. Crowd was very helpful for us, as they always are…We beat a very, very, very good, very well-coached team. They’ll be making a run in the tournament for sure.”
On defending Wisconsin without Max Klesmit
“There was some things Wisconsin does that we thought we had to take away. I think for the most part we did. Like I said, I really like that team. I don’t make any bones about it, [Max] Klesmit is a hell of a player and not having him there probably affected them some. I do say not having Jase [Richardson] affected us the first half. I think you could see that. We’ve had to play without Jeremy [Fears Jr.]. It’s part of the game, and I’m sure when I talk to [Greg] Gard after, he’s not complaining about that. I know that kid is a good player and those three guards have been dynamite for them. Not that [Kamari] McGee isn’t, but it’s just a different rotation [with Klesmit in the lineup].”
On Michigan State’s dominance on the glass
“[Jaxon] Kohler almost did it by himself with 16 rebounds. You know, when you have some other guys, Jaden Akins gets eight, Jase Richardson doesn’t play that many minutes and gets five, here’s [Carson Cooper] gets four, Frankie Fidler gets six. We gang rebounded and we told them you had to do that. [Wisconsin is] really good at tipping balls back and I thought we did a great job of that. Weird things when you play Wisconsin, you work on different things. We spent 10 minutes of a practice just letting our guys tip the ball back so our guards could pick up rebounds. Like I said, my staff did a good job and our players, for the most part, handled it well.”
On the challenge of facing Greg Gard’s new-look Badgers
“I give Greg Gard a lot of credit. Not only did he adjust his team, and most of those guys are homegrown. But he has also adjusted his style. I mean, they ran us off the court there early. Their fast break really did a good job against us early. And we did a poor job during that time. He deserves a lot of credit, too, for changing something that they’d done there forever.”
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This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: Wisconsin basketball Michigan State Tom Izzo postgame comments praise
