Spartans look to clinch Big Ten championship vs. Michigan

Izzo promises team will display different effort than Thursday against Penn State

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With just one regular season game remaining, MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo seems to have had it.

Following his team’s two-point victory over conference bottomfeeder Penn State on Thursday, Izzo said he was going to change the way his team practices and subsequently could make dramatic changes to the lineup.

“We’ve fought it all year and we’re going to fight it another game, only we’re going to maybe fight it in a different way,” Izzo said. “This will be a fun couple days. I’m really looking forward to it to be honest with you.”

When asked what the practices leading to Sunday’s 4 p.m. game against Michigan (14-15 overall, 7-10 Big Ten) – where a win would clinch the No. 11 Spartans (23-7, 13-4) a share of their second straight Big Ten championship – would entail, Izzo would only say the team would practice like his former teams did.

“You wouldn’t make it through it, no insult intended,” Izzo said to a reporter. “It’s going to be fun. We’re going to have some fun. I’m going to have some fun like they used to have some fun.”

Izzo has been known in the past for running his trademark War Drill with the players wearing football pads. The team ran War Drills in the week leading up to its Feb. 28 victory against Purdue, but Izzo said they didn’t break out the pads then.

“At the end of it, there’s going to be some people standing and playing their tail off and there will be some people not playing,” he said. “So I’m excited about it, I really am. I told the team that.”

Izzo has expressed his frustration with the team’s the lack of leadership, chemistry and intangibles all season. With one more regular-season game remaining, Izzo said he is determined to make his team play the “right way.”

“There’s one thing I do know. I sat my team under those banners that were hanging (in Breslin Center). There’s 11 of them hanging up, I’m part of six of them,” Izzo said. “I know how to get it done, there’s a right way and a wrong way to get it done. We’re going to do it the right way.

“If it’s enough, we’re going to get it done. If it’s not, we’re still going to do it the right way. It’ll be different than the way it’s been.”

The last time the Spartans and Wolverines met, a jumpshot by junior guard Kalin Lucas with 3.5 seconds left was the difference, as MSU defeated U-M 57-56 on Jan. 26 in Ann Arbor.

The Wolverines haven’t won at Breslin Center since 1997 and despite a season that hasn’t lived up to expectations, Izzo is making sure he doesn’t overlook U-M.

“They were a top-15 team (in the preseason),” Izzo said. “When you shoot a lot of (3-point shots), a team that should make them, they can beat anybody on any given night.”

With his team struggling to meet preseason expectations and a berth in the NCAA Tournament out of the question, U-M head coach John Beilein said he has continued to stay positive with his team.

“Because we’ve been so close, our biggest thing has just been to practice well, practice hard and practice with a positive note every day,” Beilein said in a teleconference. “The only way we’re going to fight though this stuff is through practice. We’ve got fairly grounded kids that we don’t’ have to do a lot of maintenance with than making them feel good about themselves.”

MSU sophomore forward Draymond Green said Sunday’s game will be completely different than the last meeting between these two teams and it won’t come down to game plans.

“We’re going to have to watch film and tweak the things that need to be tweaked and (U-M is) going to come in and play hard,” Green said. “It’s probably not going to come down to Xs and Os, it’s going to come down to who wants the game more.”

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