Tom Izzo’s Effort To Make Holiday Season Better In Vain, Loses To Nephew

Following Monday’s 79-76 loss to James Madison in East Lansing, Michigan State, ranked fourth, coach Tom Izzo hinted that he would make adjustments that might affect his starting lineup.

James Madison was a plus-16.5 point underdog going into the overtime match, per ESPN BET.

Tom Izzo’s Effort To Make Holiday Season Better In Vain, Loses To Nephew

The upset over JMU in the season opener for Tom Izzo’s Michigan State basketball team sent shockwaves through the sports world. As it happened, the head coach of the Spartans had a little “good deed” backfire, which may make the holidays difficult.

Izzo had his nephew working for him when he secured the James Madison match. He probably didn’t think the family favour would go south.

Izzo’s sister, Mary, is the mother of Bucklin. Izzo’s nephew’s position on the squad contributed to his decision to reserve James Madison for the team’s opening game.

Ever since Kentucky fell at home to Western Kentucky in 2001, Michigan State is the first team in the Associated Press top-5 to lose their home opener against an unranked opponent. Additionally, according to Michigan State, Izzo had a 21-7 record in season openers going into Monday’s match.

“I don’t have a good answer why three juniors and seniors played like they played, but I also don’t care, because I’ll play some freshmen then,” said Izzo, who welcomed a top 10 recruiting class this season, according to ESPN rankings. “Let the controversy begin.”

Izzo could perhaps find the holidays a little difficult in the wake of this setback. According to ESPN Stats & Information, his nephew Matt Bucklin is an assistant at James Madison, a Sun Belt school that has won only once against a ranked opponent after dropping 42 of its previous 43 games.

James Madison faced ranked opponents with a 42–43 record coming into the game. Since 1970, Michigan State had not dropped a home opener.

That ought to highlight the extent of the upset on its own.

The Spartans’ poor shooting performance, especially from three-point range, was the cause of their loss. MSU made only 1-of-20 shots from beyond the arc and only 62% of their 37 attempts at free throws.

Although the Spartans put up a good fight and tried to force OT, they were finally defeated.

Izzo noted that the night before each game, he had his squad practice free throw shooting. According to him, the Spartans made 90% of their shots on Sunday night from the charity stripe. However, the team only managed to connect on 62% of their tries after a mere 24 hours.

“I give [James Madison] a lot of credit,” Izzo said. “They came in here and they played harder than us. They played stronger than us. Made some good plays. We got into foul trouble early. That hurt us. We missed all those free throws early. That hurt us. You go 1-for-20 from the [3-point line]. How do you go 23-of-37 from the free throw line?”

 

 

 

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