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What Tom Izzo said after Michigan State's win over Indiana

Michigan State basketball went into Assembly Hall on Sunday afternoon and controlled the Hoosiers from start to finish, earning a 77-64 victory. The win goes a long way in almost virtually confirming that the Spartans will have a triple-bye in the Big Ten Tournament, while also bolstering the Spartans case to get a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

For the second straight outing in the state of Indiana, MSU head coach Tom Izzo came away pleased with his group, and expressed that to the media:

  • "Well, to be honest with you, for once, we got off to a good start. We haven't been doing that. We decided to try to go inside, Kohler (had) been struggling, we thought we'd try to get him going. We get that 10-point lead and it kind of stayed that way.
  • "We did not do a great job of building on it, it's because they're a good team. Everybody asks me, 'Are they good enough to be in the tournament?' Read my lips: hell yes. It's just that somebody's got to lose some of these games. The league is so good."
  • "I'm proud of my guys, because coming back from that Thursday-Sunday deal, both on the road, I thought they showed a lot of character. I'm proud of my staff, those preps are not easy at this time of year. Kur came off the bench and really sparked us after making more than a few mistakes."
  • "What I appreciated about the game is I thought Jeremy took over. Everything we asked him to run early, to go into Jaxon, he did a great job of. I thought Kur, who's a sophomore now, took a big step forward after not playing very well the 5 minutes he was in there early and falling down and giving up 3s, and then he bounced back. That's kind of what you've gotta do."
  • "We did it a little different way. We said this will be kind of like the NCAA Tournament where you've got a one- or two-day prep, one-day prep, so I think it was good for us. I'm really proud of them, but I don't want to be proud of them until I'm done playing."
  • "All in all, guys, we're in spring break, which means you can practice like 100 times, and nobody arrests you or anything. But our guys deserve some time off and we'll get some things done tomorrow. "

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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: What Tom Izzo said after Michigan State's win over Indiana

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