Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast: New Year, Same Success
Michigan State fans have had a lot to cheer about this winter as men's basketball and hockey have been on a roll.
Tom Izzo's squad just earned its seventh straight win in a grueling victory over Ohio State in Columbus on Friday. After going up 14 at one point in the second half, the Spartans gave up the late lead but were able to dig deep and find a way to take back it back and hold onto it the rest of the way.
The win put Michigan State at 12-2 on the year and 3-0 in Big Ten play.
Spartan hockey comes off a come-from-behind win over Wisconsin and will meet the Badgers again in The Frozen Confines at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Saturday.
Our Aidan Champion discusses the two programs on this episode of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast. You can watch below:
Below is a partial transcript of Michigan State hockey coach Adam Nightingale's postgame press conference from his team's victory over Wisconsin on Thursday:
Opening statement:
Nightingale: "Well, that was a big-time comeback. I mean, that doesn't happen often, right? ... I really liked us for the first 15 minutes; I thought we got into our game. And then, I thought the next 5 of the first, they were the better hockey team, and then, I thought a lot of the second, they were. And we had to get back to being us. And we thought we wanted things to be a little bit easy, and they're a hard team to play against, but again, this group has shown they do a great job of just making it about their next shift and what's in the past is in the past, [what] you can control moving forward. And obviously, I thought that was big-time. It was great for -- a great crowd and they were into it. And so, looking forward to -- we'll get on the road, and we'll have a practice down there in Chicago and get ready to roll."
Q: You've preached the idea of next shift; at what point do you trust it just being engrained?
Nightingale: "Yeah, I mean, we got some really good leadership in our room, right? And I think the buy-in has been great on that. And I think it helps, too, is, again, we're trying not to judge our guys on the results, right? You can play really good hockey and lose a hockey game, and so just really making sure our guys understand that we're not into stealing games, we're not into not playing our best; that's what it's always about. So, even in practice, right? It's just about the next rep, the next -- whether in the weight room or whatever. So, it's been pretty much the message for two-and-a-half years here, and the guys have done a heck of a job buying into it."
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