CHICAGO – Tom Izzo stood in the Michigan State basketball locker room, his glasses off, holding a stat sheet in his hand, staring at his players, searching for clues.
Izzo had a look of complete frustration after UCLA upset MSU, 88-84, in the Big Ten Tournament at United Center on Friday, March 13. As his players started talking to the media, Izzo watched them, while moving quietly around the room.
“It was kind of embarrassing,” said Jeremy Fears Jr., a captain who led the Spartans with 21 points and 13 assists. “They just outrebounded us, out physical-ed us. Made the winning plays.”
Izzo walked over to a player and had a brief conversation. Then he moved to another. Still coaching. Still searching for answers.
What went wrong?
How did this team that had some great practices all week come out so flat and get their butts kicked?
HOW IT HAPPENED: Michigan State vs UCLA in Big Ten quarters
“When you lose like this, everybody has to take some blame,” Izzo said. “I’ve got no problem taking a lot of it. It’s my job to get my team ready to play, and they were not ready to play. I never seen so many dropped looks early in the game. I don’t know why. We played the best schedule. We played some of the best teams.”
But it hardly mattered on this night.
One thing is certain: MSU – No. 8 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll and the No. 3 seed in the Big Ten Tournament – won’t get very far in the NCAA Tournament if the Spartans keep playing like this.
If they keep defending like this – a problem Izzo has sensed for several games.
“Slippage,” Izzo bemoaned.
Now, remember: UCLA is a team that MSU absolutely crushed, 82-59, on Feb. 17.
But the 6-seed Bruins took that loss and learned from it, winning five of six. And Izzo was quick to credit UCLA coach Mick Cronin.
“I thought Mick had his guys ready to – yeah, desperate,” Izzo said with complete admiration. “That’s the best word I can come up with, and we did not look desperate.”
No. The Spartans looked out of sync.
“Tremendous effort by our players,” Cronin said. “We matched their physicality and played an unbelievable first half. Guys never flinched, kept knocking in big shots.”
And the Spartans kept flinching. Kept missing shots.
Trouble on the horizon
This wasn’t a loss that snuck up on the Spartans.
They were out of it all night. They were losing, 26-20, when Izzo did an in-game interview with Big Ten Network.
“Well, we aren’t guarding anybody,” Izzo said on the broadcast. “Everything’s gotta be fixed, including the coaching.”
So, the problem was obvious. But the solution remained out of reach.
The Spartans could do little to stop guard Donovan Dent, who transferred to UCLA in the summer after three years at New Mexico. He finished with 23 points and 12 assists.
“We have a whole different mindset on our team,” Dent said. “We changed our mindset on the defensive side, and we were able to showcase that tonight. The first game they lit us up from every aspect. Like we were turning the ball over unreasonably. Today we got to show the chance of our real defense, and we did a good job of that tonight.”
Trent Perry, another guard, scored 22 points that included six straight free throws in the final 36 seconds to clinch it.
“Just staying calm and trusting the work and having the trust in my teammates,” Perry said. “Even Coach, we’re in the huddle, they’re saying you’re going to knock these down. We’re going on the other end.”
The Bruins shot 17-for-27 – 63% – in the first half while the Spartans struggled at 9-for-28: 32.1%. UCLA had seven steals, MSU had two. And the Bruins dominated in the paint, outscoring MSU there, 14-8.
So, the numbers were ugly. But Izzo described it far more succinctly: “They punched us in the mouth, and we didn’t respond. That doesn’t happen very often. We’ll figure out why, and then we’ll move forward.”
At halftime, a voice came through the loudspeaker.
“MSU, are you in the building?” a man shouted, trying to get the crowd fired up. “MSU? Are you in the building?”
He was talking about the fans.
But it was an apt question for the team, too.
How to bounce back from this
Now, let’s go back in the locker room. To try to look ahead.
Because there’s one thing that matters now, right? All that matters is the NCAA Tournament.
“Something got to change,” Fears said.
“What?” a reporter asked.
“Everything,” he said. “You can’t come out here and, you know, get outrebounded and, you know, miss layups and open shots.”
To be fair, MSU actually outrebounded UCLA, 34-26. But it didn’t seem that way.
“We got to guard somebody,” Fears said. “They hit every big shot. They got to the basket whenever they wanted. So, yeah, we got to guard. We got to change. We got to make some changes.”
You could hope this is a learning moment for this team.
You can hope these players can learn from UCLA. From how they turned everything around.
“We got one more game guaranteed,” Fears said. “After that, season’s over, so, so just making sure that we do everything we can and to turn it around.”
Maybe, UCLA holds the answer.
It’s desperation.
That’s what the Spartans lacked against UCLA.
And that’s what they will need in the NCAA Tournament.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What was Michigan State basketball lacking against UCLA? Desperation
Reporting by Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
