Tom Izzo admits he'll keep opponents guessing with "foul up 3" strategy

Sunday's game against Illinois was the biggest of the season for Michigan State and the Spartans were able to overcome a 10-point deficit in the first half to beat the Illini, 80-78.

This was one of the best games of the season and there's a reason Andy Katz ranked it his No. 1 matchup of the week. It lived up to the billing even though Illinois' best player missed most of the game because of foul trouble. To be fair, Kasparas Jakucionis averages over four fouls per game in the month of January so this is a recurring problem for him.

When the game was coming down to the final seconds, Michigan State found itself up 80-77 and there were less than 10 seconds on the clock. Tom Izzo was faced with a tough decision: would he let it play out and allow Illinois to jack up a three or would he foul like the analytics tell him to do?

For the first time potentially ever, Izzo opted to foul up three, putting the Illini at the line with about two seconds left and Kylan Boswell made the first and missed the second free throw on purpose.

Boswell got the rebound and turned it over by attempting a shot over the backboard. It was a close call because who would have expected Illinois would've gotten the rebound, but it ended up leading to a win in regulation. Technically, the "foul up three" method worked.

Thanks to a question from Spartans Illustrated's Jacob Cotsonika, we now know what Izzo's strategy will be moving forward. That strategy? Keep the opponent on its toes.

So, according to Izzo, moving forward, there's no set strategy, but he's going to kind of play it by the situation. If the Spartans are up three, don't expect the foul to come next time because Izzo will likely try to see if his usual strategy still works. Either way, the opponent will have no idea what's coming.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.