Tom Izzo describes how close win over Rutgers can help Spartans

The Michigan State Spartans beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Tuesday night, but it took them overtime to do it.

The Spartans are now 19-2 (9-1 Big Ten), and they're ranked No. 7 in the country. Rutgers is now 9-12. Even though this was a road game for MSU, it should never have been close.

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo clearly felt the same way after the game. He gave credit to Steve Pikiell's team in the postgame.

“Believe it or not, it’s hard to be as excited as I should be because I lost to a guy that I have a great respect for,” Izzo told the media (h/t On3). “And they out-coached us and out-played us 90 percent of that game… I hope the better team won, but the better team didn’t win tonight, if that makes any sense. I think we got a pretty good team, but tonight they deserve to beat us.”

It was a stinker for Michigan State, until it wasn't. The Spartans allowed junior guard Tariq Francis to go off for 23 points, and he had a shot at the buzzer that would have won it for the Scarlet Knights, but it didn't go in.

Michigan State had its first lead in the game early in the first half while being up 9-8. They didn't have the lead again until Jaxon Kohler made two free throws 10 seconds into the overtime period.

As Izzo said, it was a game MSU should have probably lost. Sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. scored 27 of his career-high 29 points in the second half and overtime. If it wasn't for him, the Spartans would have been toast.

They weren't, though, and they did enough to get the overtime win.

Tom Izzo knows that sometimes you just have to keep your head above water in college basketball 

Ultimately, when looking back at this 2025-26 season, that's all that will matter. This game against Rutgers will go down as a notch in the win column.

More important for Izzo as a coach, though, is that his team found a way to battle through a tough night. It's easy to be a championship-level team when things are going well, but each season that he's been a coach — and he's been doing this for a long time — Izzo revealed that he has found that sometimes you just have to figure out how to survive.

“Whether it be my championship years, other years, there’s always a game or two in the season that you have to win when you don’t play as well or the opponent plays really well,” Izzo said. “And that’s how you stay above water."

Izzo knows a thing or two about staying above that water line. He's 756-304 all-time at Michigan State since 1995-96.