Tom Izzo on Michigan State’s loss to UCLA: ‘I was really disappointed’

No. 8 Michigan State had its way with UCLA in East Lansing last month, but that wasn’t the case Friday night as the Bruins got the better of the Spartans in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. What happened to Tom Izzo’s team? “I was really disappointed with the way we played,” Izzo said of Michigan State, the third seed in the Big Ten tournament, during his postgame news conference Friday night following the Spartans’ 88-84 loss to the Bruins. “But I give UCLA a lot of credit. We beat them by 23.” [points] with us, and [UCLA head coach] Mike [Cronin]as he should, prepared his team, and they played harder and harder, and this doesn’t happen very often to my team, but for some reason we didn’t answer the bell. We missed a few shots, but they probably missed a play or two, so they definitely kicked us from start to finish and deserved to win the game. “We almost made a valiant comeback, but it would have been too little, too late with the way we played, and I think they made us play that way. They came at us. They punched us in the mouth and we didn’t respond. That doesn’t happen very often. We’ll find out why and then we move on.” UCLA led by 11 points at halftime and led by as many as 15 points with 15:12 left in the second half. Michigan State pulled within two points with 43 seconds left, but Trent Perry’s six free throws in the final 40 seconds helped the Bruins put the game away and advance to the Big Ten semifinal, where they will face the No. 18-ranked Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET). The Bruins had the game’s leading scorers and No. 2, as Donovan Dent totaled 23 points, 12 assists, six rebounds and four steals and the aforementioned Perry finished with 22 points. Elsewhere for UCLA, Eric Dailey had 14 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and two blocks, while Skyy Clark had 15 points. For Michigan State, Jeremy Fears Jr. had 21 points and 13 assists. Of course, the last time these two teams met (February 17), chaos ensued for UCLA. First, Cronin ejected his own player, Steven Jamerson II, after committing a serious foul. Afterward, Cronin told the press that he didn’t give a damn about the Michigan State student section chanting for Bruins forward Xavier Booker, who transferred to UCLA after playing two seasons at Michigan State. Friday night’s loss dropped Michigan State to 25-7 overall (15-5 in Big Ten play). Prior to Friday’s Big Ten slate of games, FOX Sports forecaster Mike DeCourcy had the Spartans as the No. 2 seed in the West region of the 2026 NCAA men’s basketball tournament and the Bruins (23-10, 13-7) as the No. 7 seed in the East region.