Why Tom Izzo was encouraged after MSU’s scrimmage vs. Tennessee
EAST LANSING – “Take me to another place, take me to another land. Make me forget all that hurts me. Let me understand your plan.”
Tennessee? Tennessee.
The words of early-1990s hip hop group Arrested Development fit perfectly with the things Tom Izzo wanted to discover about his Michigan State basketball team in its closed scrimmage against the Volunteers on Sunday in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Can the Spartans get to another plateau and compete for a Big Ten title this season? Will there be growing pains with a limited roster? What exactly is Izzo’s plan for his 28th season as MSU’s head coach?
“I’m nervous to say that the last couple of weeks, I think my team has really made some progress,” Izzo said after practice Thursday, five days before Tuesday’s exhibition opener with Division II Grand Valley State. “In Tennessee, I thought we played very well. They are very good, very well-coached, very big, very good-shooting team. And yet we held our own and did the things that we think we have to do.”
No stats were released from the so-called “secret” scrimmage, per NCAA verbiage. The Vols are ranked No. 11 in the preseason USA TODAY Coaches Poll — “a big-time team,” Izzo assessed — while the Spartans are the fifth team receiving votes outside of the top 25.
Some of the tidbits Izzo provided were that MSU “shot very well” from 3-point range, had issues with turnovers, “rebounded pretty well” in the game but didn’t get the ball inside enough on offense.
“I think just the little things that we preach, we didn’t do a good job of. Just little things,” junior point guard A.J. Hoggard said. “It wasn’t nothing in our play. … It showed us that we’re ready. It’s just things that we know building up to those games that we gotta work on to correct, just the little things.”
Izzo said his players also made just under 75% of their free throws and got to the line a lot, including 13 times alone by Malik Hall.
“But we missed some critical free throws,” he said, adding the Spartans also had a “a couple of missed cutouts on free throws” that let Tennessee get rebounds.
Izzo said he went “about seven or eight deep” with his rotation against the Vols because he has only 10 scholarship players on MSU’s roster this season, three fewer than the NCAA-allowable limit. There will be a bit of an adjustment period for him to working with fewer bodies, particularly dealing in case of potential foul problems. And particularly with his longtime former assistant coach Dwayne Stephens who previously handled substitution patterns now the head coach at Western Michigan.
“There’s not as many people to sub,” Izzo said. “Especially in an exhibition game or a game where maybe you normally would play
12 or 13 guys, we didn’t do that.”
There may be benefits to a smaller playing group. “Just being a competitor, when do you ever really want to come out?” Hoggard said. One of them those positives is using fewer players means less integration of others, something sophomore Pierre Brooks II felt the Spartans showed in Tennessee.
“I feel that the scrimmage showed us that we have a lot of chemistry,” he said. “We played great together. We moved the ball a lot.”
After Tuesday’s exhibition game with Grand Valley State, MSU hosts Northern Arizona on Nov. 7 to open the regular season. It quickly ramps up from there with at least four straight ranked opponents — No. 2 Gonzaga on Nov. 11 in the Armed Forces Classic in San Diego; No. 4 Kentucky on Nov. 15 in the Champions Classic in Indianapolis; No. 16 Villanova on Nov. 18 as part of the Gavitt Games; and opening the three-game Phil Knight Invitational against No. 19 Alabama on Nov. 24 in a difficult bracket that includes No. 1 North Carolina, No. 21 Oregon and potentially a rematch with Villanova.
Hoggard said Sunday’s scrimmage with Tennessee provided the Spartans with confidence going into that gauntlet.
“I think we showed that we can play with anybody in the country,” he said. “With them guys being listed in the top team in the country in a lot of the polls, I feel like we’re just going to be ready for the schedule we have at hand.”
Akins mending
Jaden Akins continues to progress from left foot surgery he underwent Sept. 10, though the sophomore has not yet returned to practicing with the team.
“I mean, one guy makes a difference in the rotation right now,” Izzo said about playing Tennessee without Akins.
Akins is no longer wearing a walking boot on the foot in which he developed a stress reaction, and he has been working on drills by himself and at practice Thursday showed his leaping ability is returning.
However, the 6-foot-4, 190-pound combo guard won’t play Tuesday and appears like he will miss a few games after the regular season opens Nov. 7 against Northern Arizona. Izzo said “there’s a chance” Akins, who is completing his seventh week of rehab, will be back in the first few games.
“I do think that he wants to get back,” Izzo said. “My trainer, our doctor, the doctor who did surgery on him, Jaden and his dad and myself are gonna sit down . ... We’re not going to take any chances with Jaden. Do I think he has a chance to play? Yeah. The problem is those games come so fast and furious, we’re gonna have to figure out just how he is.
“He’ll be in good shape. That’s the one thing that’s been good about it, he’s worked his tail off so far.”