Tom Izzo after Sweet 16 loss: 'It'll go down as one of the great years'

Michigan State posted a thriller of an overtime matchup against Kansas State on Thursday night in the Eastern Regional semifinal game at Madison Square Garden, but could not find the baskets in the final stretch as the Spartans lost to the Wildcats by a final score of 98-93.

At times during the Sweet 16 matchup, it seemed like Kansas State just couldn't miss, ending the night 11-of-24 from 3-point range.

"I give a lot of credit to Kansas State," Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo said after the game. "They made some big plays down the stretch."

He went on to add "those two shot clock threes they hit, one was a bank in from almost on the ground," likely citing the trey by KSU's Markquis Nowell with 12:42 left in the game.

Despite the seeming inability to miss at times by the Wildcats, this game was one of runs more than anything. MSU and KSU had a total of 16 lead changes and were tied 14 times.

"The game is a game of runs," Michigan State guard Tyson Walker said after the contest. "People make shots. Just got to respond. It wasn't the first time we seen people make shots. We came down and made shots. It wasn't like we didn't shoot it well today. We shot it really well."

In fact, five separate Spartans scored in double figures, led by point guard A.J. Hoggard's 25 points, a career-high for him. Forward Joey Hauser scored 18, while Walker scored 16, and Malik Hall added 13 points as well. For Hall, it was his highest scoring total since scoring 16 at Iowa on Feb. 25. However, the balanced scoring for the Spartans just wasn't enough at the end of the night.

"This time of year, it's about who's going to make the plays at the right time," Hoggard made clear. "We didn't get the stops when we needed them, and they capitalized off them."

Hauser had similar thoughts.

"Yeah, both teams made plays", Hauser added. "They just happened to make a couple more at the end of the game."

In fact, Michigan State had the ball with 12 seconds left and a chance to force a second overtime. After passing on an open look, it was eventually stripped away and Kansas State's Nowell hit the buzzer beater as time expired for the exclamation point.

"They knew we needed a three to tie the game up, and they just played it really well," Walker explained about the play after the game. "They switched, and they just guarded the three-point line well. He made a good play, and none of us could get a clean look, and they got a stop."

It wasn't just those missed shots by Michigan State at the end of the game, but turnovers also hurt the Spartans, including on MSU's final offensive play. While the Spartans finished five shy of the team's most this season — 18 set against Kentucky back in November in the Champions Classic — MSU had 13 turnovers that KSU converted for 16 points.

"Yet, credit goes to Kansas State, so I don't want to take any credit away from them," Izzo said after the game. "They made bigger shots, tougher shots, big plays. They've been turning it over 15 times and had five, we've been turning it over 10 times and had 13. But it's those points off turnovers. I call them turnovers for touchdowns and we had too many of those, and that's why their shooting percentage was so high. So we've got to live with it. You've got to own it."

That was something that was noted in the Kansas State media session after the game as well. KSU head coach Jerome Tang praised his team's ability to force turnovers.

"We've caused a lot of turnovers all year long," Tang boasted. "And Michigan State is a low-turnover team, and we really just wanted to turn it into a one-on-one game because Coach Izzo runs such great actions. Our guys happened to make some plays. They have really good guards, and we have really good guards, and it showed tonight."

Kansas State guard Keyontae Johnson also mentioned the Wildcats' success with Nowell feeding Johnson under the basket to make many of those play against MSU's defense.

"Michigan State, they do a lot of ball watching" Johnson explained. "[Markquis] has always told when he drives, just keep cutting. [Nowell's] going to look for me. And the IQ, the feel that we have for each other, it just showed today."

Michigan State's exit means the Big Ten is officially out of the race for a national title this year, extending the drought yet another season since MSU's last championship for the league in 2000. The talking heads and fans on social media are quick to mock the league's performance, mostly buoyed by Purdue's first round exit. However, Izzo was defiant to that point.

"No matter what anybody says, top to bottom, I have no problem standing up and saying we have the best league in the country" Izzo said about the Big Ten. "When you have that number of teams beating the hell out of each other every day, I don't think we're worn out from it. I just think you get a bad seed from it. So we had all these teams with seven, eight, and nine seeds.

"I'm not saying that was wrong, but that's what happens when — I'd like to see some teams come in and survive this league and the places we play. I'm proud of my team, but I'm proud of the league, too. Disappointments is disappointments, but I think as a seven-seed, maybe we showed how good our league was instead of, like some people, the other way around."

It's another offseason now for Michigan State with the loss to Kansas State on Thursday. There were plenty of impressive milestones for the program and Izzo, but next year's team will be different with departing seniors and incoming players next season. Despite falling short of a deeper run, this one was a great one according to Izzo.

"You know, when you look back on everything ... the injuries — everybody has injuries, but to have two main guys out when we didn't go fishing [in the transfer portal] — it was probably, it'll go down as one of the great years for me, not a good year," Izzo insisted. "It'll go down as one of the great years, because we had our issues during the year and watching guys grow at the end and just kind of buy in. That's what happens. When you buy in and you trust the coach and coach trusts the players, some cool things can happen."

It's time for another offseason to prep for the next March run, and figure out the roster to see who will be growing and leading next year for that signature Izzo inspired late-season run in 2024.

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