How worried can a coach truly be about his team that’s playing in the Sweet 16? When you’re Tom Izzo, you can always find something to be worried or critical of, and he has his gripes with this year’s 27-7 Sweet 16 team, too. No Michigan State team is safe.
Izzo isn’t worried about a ton regarding this team, but he knows that the Spartans aren’t perfect.
Approaching a matchup with Dan Hurley and UConn, there are going to be a lot of areas of focus in practice, but there’s one issue that’s worrying Izzo the most entering Friday night.
Turnovers.
Izzo went on the Rich Eisen Show to talk some NCAA Tournament hoops, and he
"Lately we've turned the ball over too much and that's my one worry. ... Hopefully we can straighten that out in these three, four days here." 💯
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 24, 2026
Michigan State HC Tom Izzo joined the @richeisenshow to talk the NCAA tournament and his matchup against Dan Hurley and UConn 🏀 pic.twitter.com/sapRwFuswi
Eisen asked him what is the one through line of success throughout the tournament — or the common denominator that all successful teams have — and Izzo answered that his team has two main components that every contender has: defense and rebounding. He also admitted that his one worry about this team is its turnover problem lately.
Turnovers haven’t been a main issue all season, but it feels like the Spartans are getting a little too casual and sloppy with the ball in recent weeks. And a lot of these turnovers are unforced.
Gearing up to face a really good UConn team, it’s fair to be worried about this turnover problem.
Michigan State has easily correctable issues
The bad news? Michigan State has some shortcomings in terms of perimeter defense and turnovers. The good news? Those issues are easily fixable.
Michigan State just needs to be more sound on picks and switches defensively and make sure to get out on shooters before they’re already in their motion. As for the turnovers, just making better decisions and not trying to force too much would be a great start. Jeremy Fears Jr. is usually one of the smartest guards in the country with the ball in his hands, but he had five turnovers against Louisville, and most were unforced.
Playing more sound offensively and defensively is not a huge ask, but it’s something that could make the difference between a Sweet 16 exit and a Final Four berth.
Fortunately, Izzo will have had five days to work on these issues before facing UConn.