EAST LANSING – T’is the week of March Madness, and inside Michigan State’s house, attention has turned to what Tom Izzo will espouse.
A Big Ten banner hangs in the rafters with care. With hope that, in the next month, the Spartans can add two more up there.
In some ways, Sunday’s coronation of Izzo’s 11th regular-season crown felt like Christmas morning – a gift unwrapped with an emphatic win over No. 6 MSU’s biggest rival, ultimately leading to a fourth Big Ten coach of the year award for 70-year-old program leader on Tuesday.
And just like that, it’s over. One holiday quickly gives way to another. The title celebration is fleeting, and the top-seeded Spartans took one day off Monday to rest and reflect and returned to practice ahead of Friday’s Big Ten tournament debut Tuesday.
The question now: Will the next celebration be a like a rockin’ New Year’s Eve party or another flip of the calendar to next year?
“We’re not satisfied,” redshirt freshman point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. said. “Obviously, this is a big accomplishment for us. But at the moment, this is not something we’re really looking at. Maybe in a couple months, a couple years, we’ll be like, ‘We really did that.’ But right now, we just want to keep winning and keep moving forward as much as we can.
“The goal is a national championship, and that’s a hard thing to do. So we gotta stay hungry and focused the whole time.”
The Spartans (26-5, 17-3 Big Ten) are riding a seven-game win streak into their opener at noon Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (BTN). They will face the winner of Thursday’s game between No. 8 seed Oregon and No. 9 seed Indiana.
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MSU played those two back-to-back in early February at Breslin. The Spartans, after dropping their first two Big Ten games in Los Angeles, beat the Ducks, 86-74. Three days later, they laid an egg with a 71-67 collapse to the Hoosiers, the only loss this season at home.
After that defeat, and facing a gauntlet home stretch, Izzo took ownership and vowed his team would be prepared moving forward. All MSU did from there was beat seven Quad 1 opponents, including road wins at Illinois, Michigan, Maryland and Iowa, and took out Purdue, Wisconsin and the Wolverines at home to claim the fifth outright championship in Izzo’s 30 seasons.
“I think they’re excited to get back at it,” Izzo said Tuesday. “I know that whoever we play is going to be a challenge. I mean, if you look at it, Indiana beat us, and Oregon has had us down 14. So those two teams are two of the teams that were picked in the top three the beginning of the year.
“Oregon is maybe the hottest team right now in the league, they’ve won seven straight. And Indiana has done a great job down the stretch. … We’ve won our share. So we know we’ll have our work cut out.”
Izzo already owns the most Big Ten tournament titles with six, his last coming in 2019. He’s the only person to have coached in every one since its inception in 1998, his third season. That team won the first of four straight regular-season titles and had the No. 1 seed and a bye but lost its first game of the postseason tourney to Minnesota, which advanced with a win over Northwestern a day earlier.
With all of his experience in the one-and-done conference tournament – he owns a 35-20 record all-time – that scenario still weighs on Izzo.
“It doesn’t matter which one of the opponents is the opponent. The first day always worries me,” Izzo said. “I think there is an advantage for the team that plays the day before, the first day, then the advantage goes away because then fatigue and that sets in. I’ve seen a lot of teams, and I don’t think these would be considered upsets anymore.
“To me, top to bottom, this might be the one of the best tournaments that I’ve been involved with.”
Now on Jaden, on Jaxon. On Tre and Richardson. On Cooper and Zapala, on Fears, Fidler, Booker and Coen. Merry Madness to all, and to all, play good ball.
It’s the difference between a diamond and a lump of coal come this time of year.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball’s March Madness wish list: win 2 more titles
