BREAKING: Michigan State Moves Up in Rankings
Michigan State men's basketball earned its ninth and 10th wins of the season this past week, defeating Oakland at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday and Florida Atlantic at home on Saturday.
While they weren't the Spartans' best performances of the season, the team still managed to pull away for 15-plus-point victories.
Michigan State has continued to receive recognition.
The Spartans are ranked 18th in this week's Associated Press Top 25, moving up two spots from last week.
They also moved up one spot in the USA Today Coaches Poll (19th to 18th).
Michigan State is the second-highest ranked Big Ten teams in both polls, trailing only Oregon, which ranks ninth in both.
Below is a partial transcript from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's opening statement of his postgame press conference that followed his team's win over FAU on Saturday:
Izzo: "Man, nothing's easy. I really like that team. We said it on film. We actually did a pretty good job on a couple guys. [Baba] Miller, one. The big kid inside got in some foul trouble, did a decent job with him. I thought Jeremy [Fears Jr. ] did a hell of a job on [Leland] Walker. I really like Walker, too. But Miller is a good player. We did not do a good job on [Tre] Carroll. He was really good. And I think he is really good. I think that team has a chance to win a lot of games. This will probably be a good test for us. It wasn't good when you're going home for Christmas, because there was a couple sleepless nights on these guys. I told some of you I thought they were good. And yet, we started out the second half 4-of-17. Missed a gazillion layups -- putbacks for Szymon [Zapala] and Jax [Jaxon Kohler], of all people. And they really -- 4-of-17, I don't know how we. I'm trying to figure out how we scored 86 points. But again, we shot pretty well from the free throw line. We offensive rebounded, we didn't turn it over too much. I mean, it was a good win for us; I didn't like the way it was played at all the time. I thought we got stagnant with the ball. But I was really impressed with Jeremy. And Coen [Carr] will probably never shoot another 3, so he can leave the history of Michigan State -- it will be 100%. ... I appreciate our fans appreciating him. And you saw our players. Last time I saw an eruption like that was when Steven [Izzo] hit a shot. That was pretty cool. I think that tells you a lot about how they feel about each other. And that was really important to me and, I think, to our coaching staff. So, Coen, no doubt, was the star of the game. Jaden came around the second half and did some good things."
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