As Draymond Green’s attempted tip-in at the buzzer fell just short on Tuesday night, it likely didn’t take long for this fact to sink in for Michigan State fans: Your team has now been beaten by Michigan 3 times in a row.
The Spartans fell to the Wolverines 60-59, and no matter how any MSU fan tries to spin it, for any true fan, this one has to sting. Although the blow is softened a little bit by the current 4-game winning streak MSU holds over UM in football, basketball has always been kind of like MSU’s baby. No matter what happened in October and November between the two programs on the gridiron, they knew Izzo would settle the score in a packed arena (or not so packed, depending on how far south you were) that following Winter. John Beilein is certainly making progress towards changing a culture much in the same way Mark Dantonio has done for the Spartans in their football rivalry with Michigan.
Rewind back to January 14 at approximately 2:58 p.m. Eastern Time. Spartans fans were set to watch their team inevitably dominate a Northwestern squad they’ve historically had their way with, also while reveling in the fact that the Wolverines had just been dominated by a team the Spartans beat by 44 points, that being Iowa. Less than 4 days later, 3 consecutive halves of bad defensive basketball combined with turnover problems that had seemingly died with last year’s team have made the Spartans victims of two consecutive B1G losses that they probably should have won.
In saying that I take nothing away from the Michigan Wolverines. They’re a strong inside game short of being a serious Final Four contender, something that may come next year with recruit Mitch McGary. In a game where he had to be, when Tim Hardaway Jr. looked like he wanted no part of the intense rivalry game this was, freshman point guard Trey Burke played like a senior, and was absolutely the best player on the floor for most of the game, finishing with 20 points at an impressive 8-11 from the field.
Despite Burke showing much of the nation just how good of a talent he is, Michigan State still controlled most of the second half. After their tough defense had abandoned them for 3 halves of basketball, it returned during the second half in Ann Arbor. Michigan players were forced into tough jump shots, and really couldn’t do anything to get by the tough perimeter defense Michigan State was playing.
In the end, the Spartans slow start was what doomed them. These two teams meet again on February 5 and if you’re a Spartans fan you have to hope that Izzo and the team will try to make their size advantage over UM a bigger part of the game. Guys like Zack Novak, Stu Douglass, and Tim Hardaway Jr. were consistently matched up against guys like Derrick Nix, Adreian Payne, and Draymond Green in the post yet little was done to exploit it. You hate to a question a coach as successful as Tom Izzo, but the Spartans probably should have been taking advantage of those mismatches a bit more.
The Wolverines got their signature win of the year to this point in beating the Spartans. The win also keeps them in the B1G Regular Season Championship race and of course gives their fans bragging rights until at least February 5. It’ll be interesting to see how MSU responds, they host Purdue on Saturday in a must win game. Michigan has an interesting next few games in which they could potentially end the criticisms of them not being able to win on the road. The team first travels to Arkansas to take on the Razorbacks in a non-conference match-up, then things get interesting for the Wolverines as they travel to Purdue and then to Ohio State. Although things look good for Michigan right now, they should learn from the Spartans mistakes and know that perceptions and standing can change very quickly. They could easily lose their next 5 games(@ARK, @PU, @OSU, IU, @MSU) and not one would be a huge surprise.
As for Michigan State, they just can’t lose focus. Have to take care of business at home against Purdue and Minnesota. After that, they travel to Illinois and Assembly Hall, a place that Spartans have historically struggled. From there, they will meet the Wolverines again in what right now is projected to be another tough game between two ranked two teams, but as the Spartans have proved in the last few days, very little goes as expected.