Blowout Win a Tune-up for Texas

EAST LANSING – Winning by 40 points just isn’t good enough for Tom Izzo.

Michigan State’s head coach said his team would have lost if it were Texas (the Spartans’ next opponent) and not San Jose State who showed up at Breslin Wednesday night.

Instead, the green-and-white blew out an overmatched SJSU(3-5) squad 85-45 to improve to 10-1 on the season. The west coast Spartans failed to match the intensity of MSU.

Perhaps the most intense Spartan on the floor was Travis Walton. The junior guard dished 10 assists to one turnover and swarmed San Jose State with relentless defense, snatching four steals.

“Travis did some things almost single handedly, and that was a positive,” Izzo said.

But the play of some of the big men disappointed the head coach, who is looking for more effort.

“Standing around and watching them get four or five offensive rebounds in a row, you know, isn’t gonna get it done,” Izzo said.

Despite his dour mood, Izzo will likely perk up after a closer inspection of the stat sheet where he’ll see a team effort: Five players scored in double figures, led by Durrell Summers and Goran Suton with 16 each; seven players shot the ball at least six times; five players grabbed at least five rebounds; two Spartans recorded four blocked shots; and two players also finished with four steals.

Summers, who shot 7-14 from the field, scored 8 straight points and 12 of his 16 in a four-minute stretch midway through the second half.

“There was some bad and some good,” Summers said. After watching film, Summers hopes to take the bad and “tweak it out and get ready for the big game (against Texas) coming up Saturday.”

While Izzo indicated the play of Walton, Drew Neitzel (14 points, seven assists) and the rest of the guards was a positive, he’s eager to hit the gym and prepare for Texas and the upcoming Big Ten slate.

“I’d just as soon get back to work because I didn’t think there were a lot of other positives,” he said.