Couch: Izzo's mass substitution costly at Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Tom Izzo stuck to the plan and to his principles with his early game substitutions Sunday at Ohio State.

It was a stubborn, formulaic, big-picture approach. Perhaps the right thing to do in a macro sense. Perhaps.

But if the object was to win the Big Ten road game in front of him, his wholesale lineup changes after 3 minutes and 9 seconds played a role in the Spartans’ 72-67 defeat.

MSU held a 12-5 lead, had hit its first five shots and had a Buckeyes team with better talent than its record on its heels.

“I asked (my) coaches, ‘Are they going to miss a shot today?’” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. “Because they were on fire.”

Even if the script called for a complete line change, if winning is the goal, you play the situation. You’re on the road in league play with a chance to get to 5-1 and deliver a knock-out blow to a team you don’t want hanging around. Call the subs back from the scorer’s table, see if a 12-5 lead can become 17-5, if the crowd might turn on a home team yet to win a conference game.

Instead, Miles Bridges, Joshua Langford, Eron Harris and Nick Ward went to the bench, replaced by Matt McQuaid, Kenny Goins, Matt Van Dyk and Alvin Ellis. That’s 46.8 points per game replaced by 17.3, joining a point guard, Tum Tum Nairn, who averages 4.3. If Izzo was trying to set a tone after a complacent start masked by hot shooting, he set one alright. MSU scored only three points over the next five minutes — even as the starters worked their way back in — and trailed as early as 16-15, the quick start wasted.

Matta wasn’t surprised by the mass substitution.

“That’s what they do,” he said.

Izzo’s hindsight explanation: “Yeah, I did question that a little bit. We’re still always trying to make sure we get Miles (Bridges) three and four minutes (of playing time) and out (coming back from injury). We were not real happy with one of our players. So that was one.

“Yeah, it was a good run. I’ll take all the blame for the substitution, but there’s some of it that there’s a reason and some of it is what we do.”

Again, this is part of who Izzo is as a coach and what he’s done. And anytime he explains a decision as “what we do,” criticism should be calibrated knowing “what we do” has resulted in 19 straight NCAA tournaments, seven Final Fours and seven Big Ten championships.

“We’re about more than winning games,” Izzo said Sunday.

Izzo has earned the right to say that. Maybe the lessons from the first few minutes Sunday — you don’t play if you don’t rebound and defend — and the spared wear and tear on Bridges will pay off at some point.

It’s also fair to say the Spartans lost this game, in part, because they weren’t given the chance to run away with it early.

MSU changed its lineup 30 times in 40 minutes Sunday. By comparison, Matta changed his 21 times. MSU played 11 guys, Ohio State eight.

Izzo is clearly still playing with combinations as his team further morphs into Bridges’ team. That’s an adjustment after the Spartans formed a different identity — around Ward and Winston — during Bridges’ seven-game absence. The freshman star was almost as good as ever Sunday, scoring 24 points, making 9 of 12 shots, in 32 minutes. He nearly took over the game late. At some point soon he probably will.

Who is best to play around him and off of him, though, isn’t entirely clear.

Some of the substitutions Sunday were simply Izzo and his staff shuffling Ward and Goins in and out, seemingly unhappy with either. Ward started. Goins entered after 1:18. But the other four starters who played the initial 3:09 — Bridges, Langford, Harris and Nairn — played only 4:51 together the rest of the way, over four different stints, three of them fewer than 50 seconds. They were never again hot like that. The moment was gone.

It is easy to disparage a coach for substitution decisions in basketball. Like pitching changes in baseball, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. Just because they do or don’t doesn’t always make it the right or wrong call.

But when your team makes its first five shots and is up seven on the road in the first few minutes, don’t overthink it.

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.