Tom Izzo's Honest Thoughts on Loss to Kansas, the Good and the Bad

Coach Tom Izzo reflected on the way his team played in its loss to No. 1 Kansas.

Starr Portice, Michigan State Spartans on SI

The Michigan State Spartans dropped a close back-and-forth battle to Kansas on Tuesday, which saw a more competitive second half than the first for Tom Izzo and the rest of the Spartans.

Going into halftime, the Spartans were down after no competitive moves on the court. Starting their game with five turnovers in the first 5 minutes, Izzo was not happy with how his team performed in situations early.

"Our key guys didn't play very well, some of that has got to be their defense," Izzo said after the 77-69 loss. "I thought we both had open shots, but I was really disappointed to get out-rebounded because that's what we do here."

There were opportunities where Izzo felt his team would be able to walk away victorious if it weren't for certain aspects, like rebounds, guarding and shooting were not too strong. Izzo did keep his head up, though, listing what he believed his team did do well.

"There's some positives that come out of this, we played a very good team, and we're right in the game most of the way," Izzo said. "Now we have to figure out how to make some shots."

While the outcome was not what MSU wanted, Izzo has not lost any confidence in his team, or any one of his players.

"I have confidence, I mean, we held them to 30 points in the first half, they only shot 40 and 29," Izzo said. "I think that's a pretty talented team. But I think Bill [Self] agrees with me, and I agree with him, offensively we both sucked, to put it bluntly."

A torn in the side for MSU was Hunter Dickinson. Dickinson dropped 28 points in 35 minutes played on the court, with 12 rebounds and an assist. Coach Izzo, though, wasn't turned away from how he wanted to approach Dickinson.

"We weren't going to double Dickinson, not many people I've seen have doubled Dickinson," Izzo said. "We did everything we wanted to do in the scouting report. We wanted to keep the ball out of KJ Adams's hands. Dickinson, of course, hurt us, but you pick your poison sometimes. Give him credit, he made some of those shots and made that big three. We still had our chances to win the game, I'm not sure I would change that."

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