It wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of exuberance for Michigan State basketball ringing in the new year with a victory.
“You know what? We won our first game,” coach Tom Izzo deadpanned Saturday night. “We’re 1-0 in 2021. That’s how I’m gonna have to look at it.”
It was easy to see reasons for Izzo’s optimism and causes for his immediate frustrations in the 18th-ranked Spartans’ an 84-77 road escape against Nebraska at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Aaron Henry delivered “the best game of his life here” at MSU, Izzo said, with a career-high 27 points.