With Michigan State and Duke entering undefeated, the showdown guaranteed someone’s perfect record would fall. So, after Duke handed the Spartans their first loss, the Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo didn’t hesitate to point out exactly where the blame belonged.

A visibly frustrated Izzo didn’t dance around the issue in his postgame press conference. Instead, he turned the spotlight directly on himself after the Spartans’ 8–0 run came to an end due to mental lapses and breakdowns in areas Michigan State typically prides itself on.

“My team has played their tail off for all nine games, and I don’t feel very good about what happened today,” Izzo said. “I didn’t like the way we did some things that are staples of our program. We’ve gone a year without missing a free-throw cutout. We had four of them today. And one led to a three. Two others led to baskets.”

For most of the afternoon, it looked like the Spartans were on their way to another nonconference win. However, that was only until their offense went ice-cold. After staying ahead on the scoreboard for most of the game, MSU only managed to score nine points in the final nine minutes of the matchup, giving Duke the very chance they needed to close the narrow gap.

A major part of the collapse came at the hands of Duke’s disruptive 3-2 zone defense, a look that completely stalled Michigan State’s interior-heavy attack. Coen Carr was taken out of rhythm, Jaxon Kohler’s touches were limited, and the Spartans’ spacing broke down as Duke forced them into late-clock, low-quality shots.

With no answer for their defense, the Spartans only went 32% from the field. So, Tom Izzo went even deeper and criticized himself before anyone else could.

“I don’t care if parents are mad at me, I don’t care if media is mad at me, I don’t care if my wife’s mad at me,” he said. “The worst part is I’m mad at me because I didn’t get that done, and it cost us.”

Well, Izzo has a reason to feel so dejected. This marked the first time the two teams met since 2023, and Izzo had the date circled even before the season began. To handle Duke, practices got tougher, and film sessions got longer.

The HC was determined to turn around his 4–15 career record against Duke instead of letting it slip even further. After all, Duke had already won both previous meetings at Michigan State—72–50 in 2003 and 87–75 in 2019. In matchups where both teams entered as top-10 programs, Duke also held a 113–82 (.579) advantage overall, with a 6–2 lead over MSU.

Still, despite the disappointment, Izzo went out of his way to credit Jon Scheyer, whose team continues to stay undefeated in the season with ten back-to-back wins.

“Give them credit, though. I sound like I’m not giving them credit. The job Jon’s done — I’m in awe of,” coach Tom Izzo said.

Still, one loss isn’t enough to judge a team, or its coach, as Michigan State has already shown the basketball world that they belong in the top tier as they finished one of the nation’s toughest nonconference stretches gloriously, after winning games against Arkansas, Kentucky, and UNC.

What’s next for the Tom Izzo-led Spartans?

With an 8-1 record in the 2025-26 NCAA so far, the Spartans currently sit at the 7th position nationally and at 2nd in the Big Ten. With one loss under their belt, the team will face the Penn State Nittany Lions (9th in the Big Ten) for their next game on December 12th at the Bryce Jordan Center, which, according to ESPN Analytics, is 77.9% in favor of the Spartans.

The good news is that Tom Izzo knows where his team lacks, and when you have a coach who is as experienced as Izzo, you know he will not waste a minute to make his team come out of this loss as better than ever.

“My point guard is getting better and better every day. Coop (Carson Cooper) had a monster game as far as a lot of those things. Jaxon (Kohler) played pretty well. One of our freshmen really played better. I mean, I think we got a chance to be really good. We just, our margin for error, and this is what we’ve said all along, our margin for error is slim. So, you can’t miss free-throw cutouts,” he said further in the interview.

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After their game on Dec. 12th, the Spartans will play:

• Against the Toledo Rockets on December 16th
• Against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies on December 20th
• Against the Cornell Big Red on December 29th

If they execute their game plans well and limit their mistakes, the Spartans are well-positioned to continue their climb in the Big Ten and remain in the national conversation as one of college basketball’s top teams heading into the new year.