MSU head coach Tom Izzo has gone on the record in the past saying the regular season title (which he has six of in 15 years, one of only six Big Ten coaches to do so) means more than the postseason tournament title.

At his weekly press conference Monday, he reflected on that perspective.

“There shouldn’t be a reason you go 10 years without really getting to where you need to be and there’s been different reasons in this tournament,” Izzo said. “But that does bother me.”

The No. 3 seed Spartans will open Big Ten Tournament play in Indianapolis on Friday at about 9 p.m. (Big Ten Network) against the winner of No. 6 Minnesota and No. 11 Penn State. The Spartans swept season series against both foes.

MSU is 13-10 in Big Ten Tournament history, including 5-5 in Indianapolis. The tournament falls in one of the most profitable times for Izzo, who is 56-21 in March since the 1998-99 season.

Izzo said he has placed emphasis on winning the conference tournament, but there have been years when he felt teams were exhausted from the finale of regular season play or that Spartan teams simply haven’t been good enough to win three or four straight games in a weekend.

“I think some of the times, when we were really pretty good, we still had to fight in the Big Ten,” he said. “It’s not like we won a lot in seven of those 10 years. I think some of those years, we were really worn out from the season.”

The Spartans wrapped up their second straight Big Ten title Sunday with a convincing 64-48 win against Michigan, their fifth victory in their last six games.

They finished the regular season with a plus-8.7 rebounding margin, more than six boards better than the second-best team, and have committed 10 or fewer turnovers in five of the last seven games.

Still, championship hopes are up against an 11-team conference that has had eight teams ranked in the Top 25 this season.

“I think the true colors of the conference are starting to show,” Izzo said. “I think the tournament is wide open. If I had to predict who’s playing the best right now, I’d say maybe Wisconsin. Ohio State is playing pretty well too. And yet, there’s always been a sleeper team or two and unfortunately, they could be in our bracket with Penn State and Minnesota.”

Injury update

After a monster first half Sunday, sophomore center Delvon Roe played limited minutes in the second half and said his right knee tightened up at the break. He said he’s been playing through pain and Izzo said the staff is examining ways to work around the issue without losing Roe.

“I’m probably going to have to learn a lesson that we’re probably going to have to play him a lot in the first half,” Izzo said. “When he sits too long, we’re going to try some things at half time like riding a bike like the football guys do behind the bench.”

Meanwhile, Izzo said junior guard Kalin Lucas is dealing with a case of athlete’s foot that turned into an infection. The team’s leading scorer had 10 points in 30 minutes Sunday, but Izzo said lately he’s been held out of a lot of practice.

“We’ll hold him out today and hopefully, now with all the whatever they gave him, it’s really starting to take place and starting to get better,” Izzo said. “But we want to make sure he’s 100 percent.”

Izzo on expansion

When asked about potential NCAA Tournament expansion, Izzo had this to say:

“I think I’m more for it than against it. I have mixed feelings both ways. I do not want to dilute and water down something that’s great. It’s not broke, why fix it. I question that.

“But I’ve come up with two-to-three reasons why I want expansion.

“One, I think there are better teams across the country. I think people have put more into basketball. I think there are a lot of good teams.

“Number two, I think people are judged, hired and fired accordingly, which I don’t think is fair. So, from a coaching perspective, I struggle with that. With football, there’s such a larger number, the percent that get a chance to play in a bowl game and usually that saves jobs, unfortunately.

“Number three is my biggest one and that’s that I believe we would all schedule better if you didn’t have to get to this magical number, which now is getting up to 21 or 22 wins. That does not leave a lot for margin of error. When you add two more games like in our league, the Big Ten schedule, its tough enough. I like to play a lot of tough preseason games and sometimes it’s almost hurt us. I see some teams in our league, even this year, schedule a lot tougher and it might hurt them.

“I don’t believe in the RPI, I don’t believe in some of those things. I believe that you have to have a certain amount of wins. I think it would let us schedule tougher games in the nonconference, which would be more exciting for (media), for us, December basketball could get rolling a little earlier. For those reasons, I think it would be better.

“I do not know the TV reasons, financial reasons. I’ve not dealt with any of that to know whether that would be a positive or negative. I’m just strictly going on those three criteria.

“I’m not sure it has to be 96 (teams). One time, I heard 68 or 69 too and I don’t think it should be that. I think it should be a significant amount higher, but 96 might be too many. Finding the right number in there I don’t have the answer for.

“But are there more better teams today than there were 15 years ago? To me, a lot more. And would you be able to schedule people and really make the season fun? To me, you would. Would some not do that and make it the other way where the regular season wouldn’t count as much? Maybe.”