Michigan State basketball is back in East Lansing after a dominant 62-41 road win over Ohio State on Sunday.

Head coach Tom Izzo spoke to the media on Monday about the victory over the Buckeyes and and MSU’s upcoming opponent in Minnesota.

“Any time we get a win on the road right now, it’s valuable,” Izzo said to the media members in attendance. “I thought in a lot of ways, we played really well.”

The victory in Columbus marked MSU’s first road win since Jan. 10 (at Wisconsin). The Spartans held OSU to 41 points, which is tied for the lowest score by either team in this series since 1950.

“I thought we did a phenomenal job defensively,” Izzo said. “I’m still not totally pleased with our offense. I think we're taking tough shots sometimes too early in the shot clock.”

MSU put up 59 field goals and shot 45.8% from the field on Sunday. The Spartans held the Buckeyes to just 28.3% shooting.

Izzo said that the defense was “stifling at times” and was happy with the number of shots the Spartans attempted.

Early in the second half, the Buckeyes cut the lead all the way down to five points, but MSU answered right back with an 11-2 run. Izzo was “pleased” with the response of the team while facing adversity during the OSU run.

Even after a 21-point win, Izzo still saw room for improvement in a variety of different aspects, mostly on the offensive side of the ball.

“I think we gotta do a better job of feeding the post,” Izzo said. “We gotta speed things up a little bit. Our running game was average. We scored some on it, but even when we get to the half-court, we’re walking around a little more than I’d like to."

Izzo also thought that offensive rebounding was an area that needs to be worked on even after the Spartans grabbed 12 board off the offensive glass against the Buckeyes.

“Offensive rebounding did a better job in this game,” Izzo said. “We still think that’s something we gotta work on.”

Free throws have come at a premium this season for MSU. The Spartans average just 13.9 free throw attempts per game, tied for 337th in Division I, but only shot one free throw against Ohio State. However, when MSU gets to the line, the Spartans shoot really well as a team (74.14% this season, tied for 80th in Division I).

“How ironic that this is one of my best free-throw shooting teams and we never get there (to the foul line),” Izzo said.

After the first five minutes of Sunday’s game, MSU missed four 3-point shots out of four attempts. Izzo wasn’t too thrilled with the shot selection.

“They weren’t necessarily great threes,” Izzo said. “They weren’t inside-out threes, so we gotta get better at that."

Creating inside-out 3-pointers starts with getting the ball inside. Izzo wants to see less fadeaway shots and more attacking the rim.

“We didn’t get the ball inside enough and when we did get it in there to Joey (Hauser) and Malik (Hall), we’re shooting fadeaways in there instead of going right up on them,” Izzo said.

As mentioned, MSU’s next game will be against Minnesota at the Breslin Center on Wednesday night. The Golden Gophers are last in the Big Ten standings, but that doesn’t mean the Spartans are taking them lightly.

“We’ve got some work to do to get ready for Minnesota at home,” Izzo said.

Despite the 1-12 conference record, Minnesota has competed with some of the better Big Ten teams right until the end. The Golden Gophers had a three-point lead over Indiana late in the second half on Jan. 25. Minnesota also had in competitive games at Michigan on Jan. 22 and at Wisconsin on Jan 3.

Minnesota has also had its fair share of injury issues. Sophomore forward Dawson Garcia, Minnesota’s leading scorer and rebounder, has missed the last five games with an ankle injury and freshman guard Braeden Carrington has been out for the last seven games with a leg injury.

“The hard part for us is we don’t know who’s playing,” Izzo said about Minnesota.

Izzo also noted that Minnesota is a “different team” with Garcia on the floor.

MSU will take on Minnesota from East Lansing on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. The game will be broadcasted on Big Ten Network.

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