EAST LANSING – Jaxon Kohler was only minutes removed from stuffing a box score.
The Michigan State senior forward posted 17 points and a career-high 18 rebounds in Thursday’s 79-60 win against San Jose State. While he was working up a new sweat during a postgame lift, coach Tom Izzo brushed aside standout numbers with criticism of the veteran.”
After catching his breath, Kohler was more brutal in evaluating his individual performance despite posting a second double-double in three games to start the season as No. 17 MSU (3-0) remained unbeaten.
“I agree with him,” Kohler said of Izzo. “I (expletive) sucked. … I’m glad coach gives me that (expletive) because that (expletive) really pushes me to become better.”
A few minutes later on the other side of the locker room, center Carson Cooper settled into a chair. He scored a career-high 17 points on 6 -for-7 shooting from the floor with seven rebounds and four steals but missed five free throws and had defensive lapses. After one clang from the line, Izzo slammed his hand on a scorer’s table in frustration before lighting into him at the bench.
“I appreciate the high standards that he holds us to,” Cooper said, “so just because the stats say you had this or that, that (doesn’t mean) you played good.”
Kohler and Cooper are both seniors who have been with the program their whole careers. They’re also two of four team captains Izzo expects more from than combining for 34 points and 25 boards.
“It’s good but if anybody wants to come up and watch the film with me until 4 in the morning tonight,” Izzo said of their performances, “I’ll show you where it wasn’t very good. That was disappointing.”
Izzo didn’t like how his primary bigs defended in the second half and thought Kohler missed easy shots. He also swiped at Coen Carr while admitting the junior forward accepted a lot of blame in second-half huddles.
“I had three key guys and all of them had good games for (the media), for their fans, for their mommies, for their daddies, for their agents, for everybody else,” Izzo said. “They didn’t have good games for me.”
For all the shots Izzo took at himself and his team, Michigan State dominated the first half by taking a 46-23 lead into the break and it remained a double-digit advantage the rest of the way. There were 25 assists on 28 made field goals and huge advantages in rebounds (45-26) and points both off the bench (20-0) and on the break (24-8).
“Those are five or six really impressive things that they’ll get credit for,” Izzo said, “it just won’t be tonight.”
No. 17 Michigan State (3-0) was coming off its first ranked win of the season by topping Arkansas last week and there’s a date against No. 9 Kentucky on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden in New York. What Izzo called a trap game resulted in a dominant first half for the home team before getting a bit sideways in the final 20 minutes.
“I really was looking forward to seeing how my team would respond with a little bit of success,” Izzo said, “and let’s get this straight because I get sick of people acting like we’ve accomplished something because we win a game against a good team. Big deal.”
Izzo’s ire was directed mostly at three of four team captains with point guard Jeremy Fears the exception. The redshirt sophomore notched a career-high 15 points with nine assists and five rebounds.
“Jeremy Fears played the best,” Izzo said. “He did everything I asked him to do.”
The delay between when the buzzer sounded and Izzo arrived for the postgame press conference seemed to indicate his mood and what was said in the locker room. With a huge halftime lead, MSU had a chance to bury the visitor but balked before fending off the late rally.
“It’s my job to figure out which button to push to fix that,” Izzo said, “and I promise you that’ll get worked on.”
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