With Michigan State and Duke entering undefeated, the showdown guaranteed someone’s perfect record would fall. So, after Duke handed the Spartans their first loss, the Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo didn’t hesitate to point out exactly where the blame belonged.

A visibly frustrated Izzo didn’t dance around the issue in his postgame press conference. Instead, he turned the spotlight directly on himself after the Spartans’ 8–0 run came to an end due to mental lapses and breakdowns in areas Michigan State typically prides itself on.

“My team has played their tail off for all nine games, and I don’t feel very good about what happened today,” Izzo said. “I didn’t like the way we did some things that are staples of our program. We’ve gone a year without missing a free-throw cutout. We had

See Full Page