The Michigan State Spartans were embarrassed at home by the Duke Blue Devils during Tuesday night’s loss at Breslin Center.
And that’s how they put it – mincing no words.
“We got embarrassed at home,” Xavier Tillman said after Tuesday’s loss to the Blue Devils in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. “That’s something that, in my whole career of playing basketball, I’ve never gotten embarrassed playing. And this is one off the times I could feel it.”
The Blue Devils took advantage of several Spartans miscues, including turnovers and missed free throws en route to a 87-65 win.
Spartans head coach Tom Izzo, who is now 2-12 all-time against Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, had a simple explanation as to why his team was bested.
“Outcoached, outplayed, outworked,” he explained at the opening of his post-game presser.
“Let’s get something straight, there is no mystique,” Izzo continued. “They’ve beaten our ass. We found a way to win a game or two here or there. … Different players, same coach. So the coach has gotta take responsibility for that.”
For Coach K, it was simply a matter of outplaying their opposition.
“We just played so hard,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “And we needed to to beat them.”
“It sucks. You want to win these games. But can’t do nothing about it now but learn from it and get better,” Cassius Winston said. “It’s still early in the year. We hope to be our best team at the end of the year. And we get a chance to get back in there and start the Big Ten off with a bang and hopefully win another Big Ten championship.”
The Spartans will look to rebound against Rutgers on Sunday when Big Ten play begins.
