Michigan State basketball working to carry 2025 mindset into new year

EAST LANSING — The “easy” part of Tom Izzo’s schedule is never easy. In a masochistic way, the coach loves to challenge himself and Michigan State basketball every year, then laments the roster he created before Big Ten play began in earnest.

Of course, when that non-conference schedule includes three marquee wins and a 12-1 record, it’s a lot harder for Izzo to complain about his smile.

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“I hate to admit it, but every coach probably sets their schedule and they look at the best-case scenario and the worst-case scenario,” Izzo said after beating Cornell, 114-97, on Monday, Dec. 29. “My best case scenario probably would have been 11-2. My worst case scenario probably would have been 9-4, 10-3. I’m really excited about where we are, and I think we played pretty well against some good teams….

“I like my guys. I don’t like my team yet. I told you what we were – I think we’re a good team. I try to be a good team, and then you go to the next level, and that’s kind of where we are. We’re probably a really good team right now.”

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The Big Ten race — offering the chance to repeat as champion and give Izzo a 12th regular-season league title — resumes Friday night (9 p.m., Peacock) when No. 9 MSU heads to No. 13 Nebraska (13-0).

“This preseason we had a lot of tough games, we played a lot of good teams,” senior captain Jaxon Kohler said Monday. “In some of those games, we didn’t play as well as we should have, to put that aside. Either we had a great first half, or we had a great second half, and the other wasn’t as good. And that’s something we always try to get into our heads, to have a good all-around game.

“But we played some really good teams. And I feel like some of those wins and losses made us a lot closer as a group. And honestly, overall, that’s one of the most important things you can have.”

The Spartans opened Big Ten play with two distinctly different December games. On Dec. 2 at the Breslin Center, they put together a strong 71-52 opening statement against an Iowa team that is now 11-2 and ranked No. 23 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll. Then on the road on Dec. 13 against pedestrian Penn State, MSU struggled before recovering for a 76-72 victory.

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Those two conference games came amid a non-conference schedule that was highlighted by wins over No. 18 Arkansas at home, over Kentucky in the Champions Classic in New York and over No. 12 North Carolina in Fort Myers, Florida. With their only loss, a four-point home loss to No. 5 Duke, the Spartans posted their best calendar year-end record since a 15-1 start to the 2017-18 season. And this year’s team did it by playing opponents with different playing styles and an intentional frequency of games with quick turnarounds, a process used by Izzo and scheduling guru Kevin Pauga to simulate what MSU might experience in the NCAA Tournament.

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“It gets you ready for March,” third-year point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. said after the Spartans’ frenetic win over Cornell. “You never know – you see all types of teams, different teams. It’s a good opportunity to see it now versus March, where it’s once it’s over and you can’t play another game (with a loss).”

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MSU was 11-2 at this point last season en route to an 18-2 mark and a 9-0 start to Big Ten play. The Spartans ultimately won Izzo’s 11th league title in three games, at 17-3 in league play, and finished 30-7, making it his 11th Elite Eight in 30 seasons.

“(People) ranked us as middle to bottom (of the Big Ten) or whatever. So, yeah, keep doing that. And then we’d go out there and we’d prove people wrong, and then we’d keep going and going,” Kohler said. “We had that last year, and it led us to a number of wins against really good teams. And this year we had to double down on that mindset in the preseason. We had to tell all the (new) guys, ‘This is the mindset we had, this is how we do things, this is what got us to a Final Four game.’

“We just had to try harder with that mindset. We found what works for us.”

After the quick trip to Nebraska, MSU will play its next three home games, with a Monday visit from USC (8:30 p.m., FS1) followed by Northwestern on Jan. 8 and Indiana on Jan. 13. Three of the Spartans’ final four January games are on the road, however, with a grueling stretch including a two-game West Coast trip to Washington (Jan. 17) and Oregon (Jan. 20) followed by an East Coast trek to Rutgers (Jan. 27). Between those is a Jan. 24 visit to Breslin by way of Maryland.

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The core of Izzo’s team has been tested since last season and since the start of this year. Heading into a perennially tough Nebraska environment against a surging Cornhuskers team that’s off to their best start in nearly 100 years — their first undefeated non-conference schedule since 1928-29 — won’t make the new year any easier.

And Izzo is honing his mental strength to prepare for the routine of the next three months.

“I think everyone makes a big deal mentally. I mean, mentally, go play,” he said. “Let’s go play, and I’m really looking forward to the chance to go out there and play. And it’s not like we didn’t have tests, because we did. And we answered the call.

“We’ll see if we answer it this week. It’s not a midterm exam. It’s a final exam, so we’ll see how we do on the final exam.”

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Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball is working to carry the 2025 mindset into the new year.