Saturday's clash against Bowling Green was a hard game to coach for Tom Izzo. Sure, he was frustrated with the officials throughout the first half and the Falcons kept it tight with Michigan State for a majority of the basketball game, but it was hard for a different reason.

One of Izzo’s former players was sitting on the bench on the other side of the court. Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn Jr. played under Izzo for four years from 2014 until 2018. He began his coaching career in 2021 and has worked his way up to being the associate head coach for BGSU.

“It’s hard enough to coach against your former assistants, but it’s really hard to coach against your former players,” Izzo said after the game.

Nairn sent a text message to Izzo on Saturday morning before the game.

“As much as he was excited, he didn’t like the day because it’s hard to go against someone you respect,” Izzo said about Nairn’s text. “I felt the same exact way.”

Izzo takes a lot of pride in being the head man of a program that has players come back to visit. It’s a true testament to what he has built in East Lansing. Nairn is just one example of many alumni who routinely visit and know the current players, despite coaching for another Division I team.

“Tum comes up for football games, he comes up for alumni events, so he knows all the players and it is unique,” Izzo said. “People around here should realize how unique it is … The beat goes on, which makes me the luckiest coach in America because it happens without me asking. They just come back.”

As for Saturday's game, the Spartans won 86-72 over Bowling Green, but the score didn’t do it justice.

“We were down 10 (points) and we came back,” Izzo said about the game against the Falcons. “We were down in the second half and we found a way to go on a run and hold them scoreless for over seven minutes. Maybe that was part them, but I think it was part us. That was the hardest double-digit win I’ve had in a long, long time because it wasn’t a double-digit (win). It’s kind of sad for them. That should’ve been a four-point game, maybe, because they played us that well."

BGSU started the game off shooting well. The Falcons made their first five shots and were shooting 75% from the field at the six-minute mark in the first half.

While Bowling Green was going on its incredible run of shooting, Izzo never called a timeout.

“I didn’t call any timeouts because the shots they were making, I did not think they could keep making them,” he said. “And they kept making them for a while. I do want to see this team, how they’re gonna respond, what they’re gonna do.”

At the four-minute mark of the first half, Bowling Green had its largest lead of the game – 40-28 (12 points). Michigan State was hindered by turnovers from point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. (who ended the game with five turnovers).

“You've got to give them a lot of credit,” Izzo said about Bowling Green. “If they can make shots like that (in the first half), they’re winning that league. I thought they did a phenomenal job. I thought we did a very poor job. Jeremy (Fears) started out with three, four turnovers. When your head of the snake is that way, as I always say, when the head dies, the body dies with it.”

Izzo didn’t think that the Spartans had the “same energy” as they’ve had in previous games this season. He even admitted that they played better on Tuesday in a losing effort against Kansas than they did on Saturday against Bowling Green.

However, Izzo did think that Michigan State’s depth was evident against the Falcons. The Spartans ended the game with 37 bench points. Three bench players scored in double-digits – center Carson Cooper (12 points), guard Tre Holloman (11), and forward Coen Carr (11).

“It’s amazing what we’ve done off our bench in different ways,” Izzo said. “I thought we had a lot of guys that delivered in different ways.”

As for Cooper, he put up a career-high 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting. It was a pleasant sight for a guy who primarily contributes on the defensive end.

“He’s my best defending big man by far, but over the couple years, he hasn’t shot free throws very well,” Izzo said about Cooper. “Not as good of an offensive player as those other (bigs), but he’s starting to get better. He made that little hook shot. He made a nice move on the baseline, but he’s my most cerebral guy.

"He understands it most. He helps the best. But, there’s times we’ll play him, there’s times we need shooters, (so) we’ll play (Xavier Booker). Right now, until somebody steps up in all categories, we’re going to play them by numbers and thank God we can do that.”

Izzo made a lineup change for Saturday’s game -- forward Jaxon Kohler made his first career start in place of forward Xavier Booker.

Booker has struggled to begin the season. He scored zero points against KU on Nov. 12, and missed all five of his shot attempts. Against BGSU on Saturday, Booker had just three points on 1-for-3 shooting. He is averaging 3.5 points and 2.8 rebounds per game through four games on the 2024-2025 season.

“I’m trying to help Book,” Izzo explained about Booker. “He’s had a couple of really good practices. I told him three days ago that I probably would do this. There’s reasons you do it, too. Some guys are better coming off the bench. Some guys aren’t. You gotta figure that out.”

The Spartans, now 3-1, will be back on the court on Tuesday when they host Samford. Tuesday’s game will stream exclusively on Peacock and tipoff is set for approximately 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

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