Red flag for Izzo’s Spartans or much ado about nothing?

Last night the #8 Michigan St. Spartans were shocked by D2 school Grand Valley St. 85-82 in double overtime. According to Coach Izzo, some players weren’t bringing it:

“The effort (was) the most disappointing,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said.

“I think the freshmen had a little more tenacity than some of the upperclassmen. Drew Neitzel played pretty hard and Travis played OK, but after that the freshmen definitely played with more tenacity.”

While Izzo took most of blame because of juggled lineups and calling the timeout late in the first overtime, Neitzel also said that the effort shown by the Spartans was not up to MSU standards.

“I think some guys played their butts off and some guys didn’t,” he said. “To play at this level, to wear this uniform, it’s unacceptable not to give 110 percent every time you step on the court. I think some guys take for granted where they’re at, so we have to work some things out and make guys realize how fortunate they are to be in a program like this and perform every night.”

We’ve been wondering why many pundits selected Michigan St. to win the Big 10 this year, and this loss supports that concern. Keep in mind that we put MSU at #14 in our blogpoll ballot (they’re #8 overall). We have issues with why people believe this is a top ten team after they were a fairly mediocre 8-8 Big Ten squad last season. Of course, losing an exhibition game means nothing long-term, but we can’t remember a situation where a team lost an exhibition game early and that team then went on to a great season. Does anyone know of such an example?

Highlights (or lowlights?) here:

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