Michigan State basketball: Was Iowa the worst loss of the Tom Izzo era?

I’m struggling to find the words to describe Michigan State basketball’s loss to Iowa on Saturday afternoon.

Heartbreaking. Disastrous. Inexplicable. Unacceptable. Infuriating.

Those are just a handful that come to mind but I feel like I have so much more to say. What we just witnessed in Iowa City was one of the biggest disasters I have seen in my 31 years of being a basketball fan. I simply cannot believe what my eyes just saw.

If I was an Iowa fan, I would be celebrating in the streets right now. I’d be four cocktails deep and looking to stretch this celebration deep into the night. Sadly, Michigan State was on the opposite end of one of the most insane comebacks you will ever see.

Up 13 with 1:30 left in the game, Michigan State ended up in overtime with the Hawkeyes before losing by six. The Spartans were out-scored 23-10 in the final 1:30 of regulation.

Heck, they were up 10 with 40 seconds left.

This is up there with one of the worst losses in the Tom Izzo era.

Where does this rank in terms of Tom Izzo era losses?

Man, disregarding some other doozies (Northwestern earlier this year comes to mind), I’d have to say this would probably be No. 1. I honestly can’t think of a worse loss in the Izzo tenure.

Sure, he’s lost games to Texas Southern or Wright State, but leading by 13 points with just over a minute left should be a guaranteed win. There should have been no worries about surrendering a lead that big. Dominating for 39 minutes should never lead to a loss. Scoring 106 points in a game and 101 in regulation should never lead to a loss. Allowing a team that was red-hot from three to attempt a game-tying three instead of fouling should never happen.

I could name some bad losses like the national title loss in 2009 when the Spartans were run out of Ford Field by North Carolina or the Butler loss in the Final Four or even close your eyes and point to any blowout loss at Mackey Arena. Or Middle Tennessee or Syracuse (we won’t get into those).

I’ve never seen a worse Big Ten loss under Izzo.

This was poor coaching, poor execution, poor rebounding, poor defense, poor inbounding. Everything went wrong in the final minute.

And Izzo deserves a lot of the blame.

This will go down as Izzo’s worst Big Ten loss ever.