Michigan State basketball: Tom Izzo needs to join the “foul up 3” movement

Tom Izzo is old school. The Michigan State basketball coach is the definition of that term and his coaching style often reflects it.

He’s come a long way, however, and I think that all turned a corner in the 2015-16 season when he let his team play freely and they had one of the best offenses in program history before that massive upset against Middle Tennessee.

But his old-school mentality has burned him a few times. The most recent was on Saturday against Iowa.

The Spartans were up 13 with 1:34 left in the game and then Iowa started hitting the most ridiculous shots and drawing closer and closer despite MSU going 10-for-12 from the line. It wasn’t free throw misses or turnovers that burned the Spartans, it was Iowa’s sharp-shooting and five straight made threes to end regulation.

But that never should have happened.

Michigan State basketball needs to join the “foul up three” movement

Up 101-98 with 10 seconds left after a missed AJ Hoggard free throw, Connor McCaffery took the ball up the floor, handed the ball off to Payton Sandfort while setting a pick and the Iowa sharpshooter made the tying bucket with three seconds left.

There shouldn’t have even been an opportunity to hit a tying three.

In that scenario, Michigan State should have fouled McCaffery to send him to the line instead of allowing a fifth straight three to drop. Trading twos for threes is just not the way to go and when a team is unconscious from deep, you don’t give them the opportunity to tie it with a three with under 10 seconds left, you foul. You send them to the line to try and hit two pressure-packed free throws and then inbound the ball and trade two for two.

Heck, Izzo should have started fouling Iowa when the threes started to drop with about 30 seconds left. Trading twos for threes is what killed Michigan State.

While he said he didn’t consider fouling while up three in the final seconds, he needs to start doing so. It would have secured a Michigan State win, more than likely. It would have forced Iowa into a halfcourt heave after two Michigan State free throws.

We saw the ‘not fouling up three’ decision hurt another Big Ten team over the weekend as Wisconsin was up 64-61 at Michigan with a couple of seconds left and the Badgers let the Wolverines inbound the ball and hit a tying three at the buzzer.

Izzo, it’s time to change that mindset. It’s time to join the ‘foul up three’ movement.