MSU travels to No. 4 Duke to close out tough November slate
EAST LANSING – Tom Izzo knows the record.
He’s is just 1-9 against Mike Krzyzewski and Duke. He’s never won at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Izzo admits that it’s one of his “bucket list” items.
“Well it’s not another game,” Michigan State’s 22nd-year coach said. “It’s our chance to measure ourselves.”
The Spartans, who fell out of both the USA Today Coaches Poll and Associated Press rankings, must do so in one of the toughest places in the nation to play, against one of the best teams in the nation. MSU and No. 4 Duke tip off at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge (ESPN), another difficult test to close out a first-month gauntlet of travel and competition.
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“We learned that we got some fighters on our team. We got some guys that can persevere,” senior guard Eron Harris said. “That’s our main thing right now. We just want to go everywhere and fight and execute our game plan.”
The Spartans (4-3) are coming off three games in three days in the Bahamas, with a second-half stumble in a loss to Baylor sandwiched around wins over St. John’s and Wichita State. Izzo said he challenged his player after the Baylor game to respond, and he believes they did.
They returned to East Lansing over the weekend, then went through what Izzo called “the longest and best practice that I have had in three years” on Sunday.
That lack of prep time during the eight-game, 22-day stretch with more than 13,000 travel miles that wraps up Tuesday in Durham, N.C., has been one of the most difficult things to endure according to Izzo.
“What I learned about the scheduling that everybody – or some people – took wrong, I would not change who I scheduled,” Izzo said. “The amount of time in between and the amount of distance I would change because I think it created three issues. No practice time, no film time and very little rest time. For a young team that’s not healthy. …
“Has there been some lumps? Yeah, there has been. Has there been some tough times? Yes, there has been. But it’s been exciting to see a team bounce back too. We really did bounce back down in the Bahamas.”
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Before the Spartans enter a December stretch with its next five games at home, they have to finish out the back leg of the November gauntlet with their first true road test of the season.
“We learned a lot about ourselves,” junior guard Tum Tum Nairn said. “First of all, the things that we can’t do if we want to win. Turning over the ball, that’s really something we gotta do a better job of. But we’ve also seen how good we can be at times in stretches with how well we run and how well we execute and we can play.”
Next comes the task of doing it against Krzyzewski’s talented bunch that features a freshman class that was one of two ranked higher than Izzo’s group. However, the 37th-season Duke coach said after Saturday’s win over Appalachian State that three of those rookies – Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum and Marques Bolden – are not expected to play against MSU. And the Blue Devils also may be without junior guard Grayson Allen, who aggravated a toe injury Saturday and has been battling leg issues as well this season.
Allen had nine points and five rebounds off the bench against the Spartans in Duke’s 81-61 win in the 2015 Final Four, and Izzo called him a “missile” when he’s healthy. The junior averages 16.1 points and 5.6 rebounds this season. Sophomore Luke Kennard leads the Blue Devils with 17.1 points, while graduate student forward Amile Jefferson averages 13.6 points and 9.4 rebounds and senior guard Matt Jones scores 11.6 a game.
Izzo thinks it could be one of Krzyzewski’s best teams.
“It won’t be just another game,” Izzo said. “Win or lose the game, you have to move forward and it’s over. In that respect, it’s another game. But if guys aren’t a little more excited, a little more nervous, a little more pumped, then there’s something wrong with you.”
Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.
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