michigan State men’s basketball has had a solid start to its 2024-25 season, but some may view its nine-day break as an inconvenience, a halt to the team’s momentum, if you will.
The Spartans have won their last three games — an upset over then-No. 12 North Carolina in the Maui Invitational and two blowout wins in their first two games of conference play.
And after finally being ranked for the first time in over a year, Michigan State did not have the luxury of taking the court to defend that status.
On the other hand, sometimes a break is preferred over a multi-game week.
Whatever the case may be, Spartans coach Tom Izzo doesn’t want “excuses.”
“There’s always concerns,” Izzo said when he addressed the media on Friday. “We’ve played well three games in a row, but that’s when you want to play a lot more games in a row than that. But then, when you have a break, I mean, it’s a good reason to use an excuse. I tell my guys we just can’t have any excuses this year. We’ve just got to play in practice to get better every day and not worry about it if it’s a three-game stretch or a five-game stretch.
“And then I look at the season, and there’s going to be so many strange things with the new league and that and where we travel to and what goes on, and we’ve just got to be ready to play every time we get a chance to play.”
Ultimately, this break could prove to be beneficial. Already nearly through the first third of their regular season, the Spartans will need to be ready to go from the frying pan to the fire when Big Ten play resumes in January.
“God, I hope we’re at a place where people aren’t going to get burnt out by having a little stress on them because this is what it’s all about,” Izzo said. “But it is hard to maintain through 31 games. The season is long. And we’ve played some very good people. I mean, a couple of our non-conference games were demanding. I don’t mean just in Maui or Kansas, but that Samford game was a demanding game.
“So, there’s been a lot of prep time put in; that’s why I thought this [the nine-day break] was good, but the other plus we got [is] if somebody is a little fried in the brain here because finals or that, we’ve got bodies right now — knock on wood that we have no injuries — but we do have some bodies and guys have enjoyed playing with each other, and I think we’re a little fresher, in general, which I think will help us down the stretch.”
Michigan State’s meeting with Oakland at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday is set for 7 p.m.
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