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Ugh. That’s about all I have to say after watching Michigan State’s 75-64 loss to Michigan in the Big Ten tournament at Madison Square Garden.
Let me start by saying this: I’m a homer. I’m a Michigan State fan, through and through. I love my Spartans, I love MSU athletics, I love coaches Mark Dantonio and Tom Izzo. But this basketball team is one of the most underachieving teams I’ve ever seen in my years of watching basketball, on any level.
I know, I know what you’re probably saying to yourself: But they’re 29-4, just won an outright Big Ten title, and just went on a 13-game winning streak? Well, it runs a lot deeper than that.
I’ve been saying it all year: This team is incredibly underachieving. Most folks don’t understand what I’ve meant by that, given their record. But when you actually sit down and watch them play, it’s pretty alarming.
Michigan State has two NBA lottery picks on their team; sophomore Miles Bridges and freshman Jaren Jackson Jr. They have probably the best sophomore class in all of college basketball, with Bridges leading the way. That class includes point guard Cassius Winston, forward Nick Ward, and forward Joshua Langford. Their bench depth is unreal. Matt McQuaid, Tum Tum Nairn, Xavier Tillman, and Kenny Goins headline a bench that is probably good enough to be a starting five for some other teams inside the Big Ten. Tom Izzo is a Hall of Fame coach with a reputation for being one of the best Big Ten coaches of all-time.
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And yet here we are. Today, they lost to arch-rival Michigan for the second time this year. A Michigan team that is far less talented, far less athletic, and not as good against the same competition MSU has seen this year. This is a rivalry game, and to top things off, the Wolverines already beat the Spartans the first time this year in East Lansing. Now to be fair, Michigan is a really good team, perhaps underrated. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them end up in the Final Four this year. They get up for this game, kind of like Michigan State does in football.
You would think revenge would have been on the mind of the Spartans today, right? Wrong. If I hadn’t watched the first game, I would have bet that Michigan was the team out for revenge today. The Wolverines played with more heart, more fire, more toughness, ran a better offense, and played harder on defense- for the second straight time. You would think after losing the first time the Spartans would have learned their lesson. But today’s game looked like a carbon-copy of the first meeting. They always say: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That’s what happened today.
Now let’s dive into why this took place. Miles Bridges, for as talented as he is, doesn’t seem to want any part of playing down low. This guy is a flat-out freak of nature. Listed at 6-7 and 225 pounds, Bridges seems rather content to hang out on the perimeter and hoist threes. To be fair, he’s a pretty good shooter. But he’s not a great shooter and would be so much better off to spend more time driving to the basket and posting up. He would be a match-up nightmare. Yet, Izzo doesn’t want to change that part of Bridges’ game or make any adjustments.
Then you have Cassius Winston. Against any other team, Winston is really good. But against Zavier Simpson, he looks like a below-average point guard. He can’t stay in front of his man, can’t get any separation on offense, and doesn’t match the intensity and leadership of the freshman Michigan guard. That’s a problem.
You know what else is a problem? Can somebody please explain to me why Nick Ward and Jaren Jackson spent as much time on the bench as on the floor in the second half? Playing against Michigan, you have to get Moritz Wagner in foul trouble. At the very least, you have to make him work on defense. Michigan State did neither, for the entire game. It’s mind-boggling. And I don’t need to explain what happened in the first game- because the exact same thing took place. Izzo clearly didn’t prepare for this game any differently or make any adjustments. Give John Beilein credit, he out-coached Izzo yet again.
But these problems for Michigan State have appeared to a lot more often than just against Michigan- that’s just where these problems get exposed. Even when the Spartans were on their 13-game winning streak, I was mostly unimpressed. Making a habit out of playing close games against teams like Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Indiana, Maryland, and Rutgers won’t translate well in March. I know there have been many distractions off the court, so give the team credit for fighting through that. But the actual play on the court hasn’t been as special as you’ve been led to believe.
Can this Spartans’ team get things turned around in the next two weeks before the NCAA tournament? Maybe, but don’t get your hopes up. They’ve had a whole season to play up to the potential their talent would indicate, but yet it still hasn’t happened. I know Izzo is known for success in March, but what was today again? Oh yeah, that’s right, March 3. Things are going to have to change in a big way for this MSU team to make a run at a National Championship. It’s possible, of course, it’s possible. There’s too much talent on this roster for it not to be possible.
Michigan State has lost four games this year- once to Duke, once to Ohio State, and now twice to Michigan. I said coming into today’s game that this game would be telling, and it was. It turns out the Spartans really haven’t improved that much since their January 13 loss to Michigan at the Breslin Center.
Maybe I’m being too hard on them, too harsh. But great talent comes with great expectations, and right now this team is not living up to those expectations. The ultimate goal is the National Championship so their biggest games of the season are still ahead of them. They just might figure it out and win it all, like you’ll hear many experts predict them to.
But don’t bet on it.
