MSU looking to start new winning streak at Crisler
EAST LANSING – From the 1999-2001 stretch, when Michigan State fans took over the arena and Tom Izzo’s teams won there by an average of 21 points a game, to recent years of Michigan fans roaring for Michigan wins, Izzo has seen it all in Crisler Center.
On Saturday, he will see if he can make it a Crisler Center “winning streak” for the first time in several years, while continuing MSU’s Big Ten-best road performance since the start of league play in 2009.
“I always say you’ve got be tougher on the road,” Izzo said of MSU’s 42-26 record in Big Ten road games since then. “I will stick with the staple of this program: Players play, tough players win. To win on the road on any consistent level, I just think you’ve got to be mentally, physically tough. You’ve got to be able to take a crowd. You’ve got to be able to take a couple calls. You’ve got to be able to take somebody’s best shot and you’ve got to take the adrenaline they’re playing with. Because not only in a rivalry game where you’re playing your rival, but over the last 10-15 years, any other team that’s played us, we’ve been one of the prominent teams in the league, so you’re going to get everybody’s best shot.
“I think those would be some factors and I think the No. 1 reason would be what I preach every single year. You’ve just got to be tougher, and that’s why I coach this way. That’s why I harp on it that way. That’s why I live that way here.”
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Wisconsin (38-29) and Ohio State (37-31) are the next-best in Big Ten road games during the same stretch.
No. 10 MSU (19-4, 6-4 Big Ten) will go for its second straight win at U-M after losing four straight there from 2011-14. That was preceded by consecutive wins there in 2009 and 2010.
Izzo is 8-10 all-time at Crisler Center, which has been renovated and revived as a raucous environment under U-M coach John Beilein.
“It’s a good place to play,” Izzo said. “I think the fixing up of it has done something, but the inner workings of the place, as far as the stands go, are pretty much the same as they have always been. I just think better teams, better interest and that’s what has helped them.”