Tom Izzo has seen some of his Michigan State Spartans underachieve, overachieve and everything in between. Often in the same season. One of the few reasons he’s earned the nickname “Mr. March” is because his teams often struggle in midseason and/or start slowly. Last year’s Spartans had an 18-1 start to the season, the best in school history. They looked like a national champion.
However, Sparty then had a brutal 5-7 stretch over from January 25th to March 9th. February was not kind.
(Related: Tom Izzo gives a PHENOMENAL speech at special invite only event. (Podcast. Full audio of the speech here)
The 2013-14 Spartans didn’t gel again until the Big Ten Tournament; when they indeed put on an impressive clinic.
Why the major issues during mid-season? Injuries; and bizarre fluky ones at that. For a two month period, they never had everyone healthy and playing together. At Big Ten Media Day Tom Izzo listed out all the players who suffered from non-basketball related ailments, and missed significant time because of it.
(note: this was during the 1-on-1 sessions, not from the period when Tom Izzo was on dais)
“Gary (Harris) got injured raising his arm. It was freakish.”
“(Tom) Costello gets mono. Quit kissing girls on campus, I don’t know. You know, that’s not basketball related.”
“(Adreian) Payne gets plantar fasciitis. I get that. You get that. Anyone can get that. It’s not really an athletic injury, and it really hurt him.”
“(Branden) Then Dawson punches a table, what do you learn from that? Be a little smarter. Punch a pillow you know. I don’t know.”
“Those were some strange injuries. Probably the only one that was legit was (Keith) Appling falls on his wrist.”
“We missed two sometimes three of our best players on a regular basis, and I learned I don’t want to go through that again.”
Also, Tom Izzo gave a PHENOMENAL speech at an exclusive meet-and-great the night before this event. He talked about his buddy Nick Saban and his recent press conference outbursts during his remarks. Full audio of the speech here)
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2