Michigan State basketball: Tom Izzo takes blame for Zach Edey’s domination

Two games. Seventy points. That’s exactly what Zach Edey gave Michigan State basketball this season.

The Purdue big man was unstoppable for the second straight game against the Spartans, scoring 38 on Sunday afternoon less than two weeks after dropping 32 in East Lansing.

Scoring 70 points with 30 rebounds in two games is unheard of.

And Tom Izzo is taking full responsibility for the Edey dominance.

This is what you want to hear from a coach after a player dominates his team for a second time. At some point, we’re going to have to stop blaming guys like Mady Sissoko, Jaxon Kohler, and Carson Cooper. These guys aren’t containing guys like Edey, but the game plan has not been great against him.

Sure, you can let him try to beat Michigan State by himself, but he’s done that twice now. He’s shown he can put the team on his back.

Good on Izzo for taking the blame here.

Michigan State basketball needs better game plans

Izzo admitted that the 70 points Edey has scored this year are on him. That’s not coachspeak, that’s what he truly believes. He didn’t game plan better for the best big man in the nation.

There’s only so much Sissoko, Cooper, and Kohler can do on the 7-foot-4 behemoth 1-on-1. Sometimes you have to risk giving up open shots to double a guy who can score at will. He didn’t do much of that in two meetings.

Izzo will have to be better moving forward as the Spartans just need to stay above water in order to make the NCAA Tournament, but a huge bounce-back against Rutgers on Thursday would be massive.