EAST LANSING >> After Indiana’s zone defense flustered Michigan State’s offense in a 71-67 loss Tuesday night, Tom Izzo stood at his press conference and put his hand up first. It was his fault, he felt, that his players weren’t prepared enough. And given a couple of days to process, Izzo’s opinion didn’t change Thursday.

Don’t conflate taking the blame with Izzo thinking Michigan State (19-5, 10-3 Big Ten) has a problem cracking zone defenses as a whole. In fact, he feels much the opposite. As his Spartans look to shake off three losses in the past four games with a visit to Illinois at 8 p.m. Saturday, Izzo says bring it on.

“Am I worried about zone?” Izzo said between Thursday’s two practices. “I hope we get zone 40 minutes on Saturday. That’s how worried I am.”

There are reasons Indiana’s zone played so well against the Spartans. First, the big men put themselves in foul trouble early, with Jaxon Kohler and Szymon Zapala racking up two each by halftime and Carson Cooper hitting three in the first half before fouling out in the final frame. This led to mix-and-match lineups that didn’t attack the zone well.

Second, its season-long shooting struggles reared their ugly head once more, with Michigan State shooting 4-for-23 from deep. Those guards didn’t penetrate the zone much, either.

“That wasn’t the game plan,” forward Frankie Fidler said Tuesday. “We’re supposed to try to attack the gaps, get in the middle, inside-out threes. So, yeah, we gotta do a better job of executing that. And at the end of the day, we just can’t let a zone disrupt our rhythm.”

Why did the zone prove so disruptive? In part, Indiana did the unexpected. Whereas the scouting report showed Indiana played 4% zone all season, they played 90% according to Izzo after Michigan State took a 20-8 lead. In practice sessions, the Spartans spent their usual five minutes on zone defense only to see it more often on the court. They didn’t see it coming.

“They adjusted, we adjusted, but we didn’t adjust good enough,” Izzo said, “and that falls on me.”

Even while figuring out the zone on the fly, Izzo feels his Spartans held up alright in the circumstances. Rest assured, he plans to prepare his team better for zones in the future.

“We still knew what we were doing,” Izzo said. “We missed some good shots, and I didn’t think we did a good job getting the ball where we needed to. We were in enormous foul trouble, we had people all in different positions. Call them excuses, call them the truth. I don’t really give a damn what anybody thinks, I’m just telling you I’ve already owned up to that.”

So was it an off game or the sign of a real weakness? Izzo’s impression is the former. But opponents are going to see that Indiana film when scouting out Michigan State, and one could expect them to employ that zone defense given its success.

That doesn’t worry Izzo in the slightest. In fact, he welcomes it.

“If we play Syracuse and (retired coach Jim) Boeheim comes out of his tunnel, yeah we’re gonna get zoned,” Izzo said. “Other than that, nobody’s gonna zone us because of one game or something like that — and if they do, bring it on.”

Michigan State doesn’t play Syracuse, and Boeheim is too busy enjoying his retirement anyway. But the Spartans do face a gauntlet in the coming weeks. Saturday’s game at Illinois gives way to facing No. 7 Purdue at home, the Boilermakers tied with MSU for second in the Big Ten. Then it’s on to the first of two meetings with Big Ten leader Michigan in Ann Arbor. A visit to Maryland and a home game against Wisconsin — both ranked — come next.