Tom Izzo puts onus on himself to impart 'sense of urgency'

EAST LANSING — Anyone who has spent time around Tom Izzo usually gets questioned by him.

His players. His coaches. Media who cover him. Opposing coaches, too.

Most often, it is not confrontational. Michigan State’s Hall of Fame coach uses the back-and-forth as both therapy and enlightenment.

“As time goes on, you try to adjust to the times a little bit and realize you can’t be as demanding of my own kids or on them,” Izzo said Tuesday. “When I get slapped in the face, I say, ‘Yes, you can if you’re trying to accomplish the ultimate.’”

This is what makes the Spartans’ recent three-game stretch such a pivotal moment for his team. And for Izzo.

Few times during his 23-year career has Izzo managed such a young roster, and perhaps not one with as much depth and talent as this group. That made Saturday’s 82-72 home loss to Michigan — MSU’s second last week, with an overtime escape against Rutgers in between — so frustrating.

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Izzo found some answers Sunday and Monday. Run the fast-break better. Commit fewer turnovers. Grab more offensive rebounds. Stay in front of your man on defense. All physical improvements.

But perhaps the most perplexing challenge for him is how to get a roster full of (by all accounts) cordial and nice guys to develop a meaner mentality and tougher texture when on the court.

Like their recent opponents have shown.

“I think they’re prepared to play the game," Izzo said. "I don’t know that they’re prepared to handle the bull’s-eye and all the off-the-court things that go with that kind of ranking.That’s part of the growth problem. That’s part of growing up. … I think complacency without egos is maybe a better way I’d say it with our team. I just don’t think we’re playing with the same sense of urgency, and I don’t think it’s anything that we think we’re better than we are.”

Trying to make that attitude adjustment is new, not simply dealing with youth. Knowing this group likely has a much smaller window than those before them, with the NCAA’s one-and-done conundrum, is something different.

Twenty years ago, when Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson were sophomores, Antonio Smith a junior and Charlie Bell a freshman, the Spartans finally cracked the NCAA tournament in Izzo’s third season and made it to the Sweet 16.

Three Final Fours and one national title later, in 2001-02, the Spartans had a group with only Adam Ballinger as a junior and two walk-ons as upperclassmen. They went 19-12 and ended with a first-round NCAA loss.

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 year later — with Kelvin Torbert, Allan Anderson and Tim Bograkos as sophomores and a talented freshman group of Maurice Ager, Paul Davis and Chris Hill — MSU was back in the Elite Eight. It would take two more years, until 2005, before Izzo returned to the Final Four, but only after another near-tournament miss and first-round exit in 2004.

Those two groups predominantly spent three or four years together developing. This one — with sophomore Miles Bridges likely to leave for the NBA after this season, and with Jaren Jackson Jr. and potentially Nick Ward facing a similar decision —likely will not.

Previous groups also did not deal with the glut of knee-jerk fandom in their Twitter mentions. Fans have presented all sorts of coaching answers for Izzo — though, because he eschews social media and mostly avoids email, these critiques somehow ended up in my inbox. En masse since Saturday afternoon.

Among them: 

• “If u have to berate, demean, get in yourplayers faces every time they come off the floor, you haven't prepared them! Do u c any other coach worth his salt do this? Izzo's the problem!”

• “Hey try this once Tom, let the kids play and score quit looking for reasons to pull kids because of defense.”

• “Tom is getting soft! Time may be passing him by.”

• “There is only one person on the team that needs look in the mirror. Tommy no zone...”

And so on.

To wit, Izzo said this Tuesday: “I reassess things all the time. And I do blame myself for a lot of things. I look in that mirror and not only do I dislike what I see a lot of times, but I want to change what I see. … I think I’ve evolved and learned how to. I don’t think I like it. I don’t think I like to do that.

“But when I went in the Hall of Fame, it didn’t say, ‘Are you more patient?’ ‘You’re in the Hall of Fame because you’re soft.’ Those things. It’s very hard to tell parents, media, parents, my wife, it’s very hard to tell people that times change. But to be successful at the level you want to be successful, whether you’re in your job or my job, things don’t change a lot.”

Izzo admits it starts and ends with him. Teaching his players how to better handle the adversity now in front of them. Making them understand the pressure of high rankings. Preparing them for being the hunted.

And to maximize their time together, because it could be fleeting.

“That falls on me,” he said, “and I’m excited to take that challenge, to be honest with you.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Download our Spartans Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!