Michigan State basketball news: Tom Izzo gets brutally honest on what doomed Spartans vs. UNC

24/03/2024 05:14

The Sparty has ended for Michigan State basketball, as the Spartans just couldn’t muster enough strength to overcome the North Carolina Tar Heels in the second round of the 2024 March Madness. Michigan State, which defeated Mississippi State in a mild 69-51 upset victory in the first round, fell prey to the Tar Heels on Sunday, 85-69.

Michigan State’s 2024 March Madness run ends in loss to North Carolina

The Spartans tried, but they simply were outclassed by a much better team in their second-round matchup against North Carolina. Michigan State basketball. Tyson Walker and Malik Hall led the Spartans with 24 and 17 points, respectively, on an efficient combined 15-for-26 shooting from the field.

However, it was not the case for the other Spartans, with A.J. Hoggard and Jaden Akins misfiring all game long. Hoggard had three points on a salty 1-for-10 shooting from the floor, while Akins was 4-for-12 for 11 points. North Carolina big man Armando Bacot also proved to be too much to handle for Michigan State, with the Tar Heels star pounding out 18 points and seven rebounds while going 8-for-10 from the foul line.

Tom Izzo speaks up about loss to Tar Heels

After the game, Izzo spoke about a big factor that led to Michigan State basketball’s downfall against North Carolina, particularly in the second half.

“You know, I thought at the eight-minute mark of the first half, they wanted that big run and we just kind of quit moving the ball offensively. I thought we did a poor job of that and then came out the second half and really get it started,” Izzo told Allie LaForce.

Michigan State basketball was among the nation’s best when it comes to moving the ball around during the regular season. The Spartans were 22nd nationally with 16.2 assists per game and 18th with 0.598 field goals made per assist, but that did not manifest in the North Carolina game. Michigan State only had six assists in the entire ball game, while going 26-for-59 from the field. Izzo also rued his team’s poor ball security.

“We get it down to two and give Trimble credit. He had two big blocks, right to the rim, both of them blocks. And then we had two bad turnovers and then they banked in a three. I mean it’s happened to us a few times this year so you know that was the game and we just didn’t bounce back,” Izzo added.

Spartans fail to surpass 2023 NCAA Tournament finish

Despite the loss to the Tar Heels, Izzo was proud of how the Spartans fought against North Carolina.

“My final words were a lot of teams would have quit, you know, teams that quit and give up, and we hung in there, man. We battled, we battled, We were aligned back home, and rightfully so, if you want the truth, but, you know, we went on some good runs, 17 or 14 to 3 run, meaning one time, and then we had those two tough losses at home and that kind of rattled us again, but we picked ourselves up off the ground and in all honesty, got a lot out of them.”

It came down to the little things that did not go Michigan State’s way, things that they could have controlled instead of making Izzo rue about them after the game.

“Do I feel we underachieved a little? I think I did it as a coach, but at the same time, we played so well for parts of that game and we still outrebounded them. That was a big thing. We don’t have a ton of turnovers, we shot decent, you know, we just did not make the plays at the right time and we did give them credit.”

The loss to the Tar Heels meant that Michigan State basketball had a shorter stint in the 2024 NCAA Tournament than it had in 2023 when the Spartans collected three wins and made it all the way to the Sweet 16 round.

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