MSU ‘hungry’ to meet lofty expectations of season’s start
EAST LANSING — It is the fourth straight year with 13 losses for Michigan State basketball. And there likely will be at least one or two more unless Tom Izzo’s team can put together a magical run over the next month.
Of course, the Spartans’ margin for error entirely has been erased — to the point where a loss in their opening game of the Big Ten tournament to Minnesota could further erode their NCAA tournament résumé. And they all realize Izzo’s record streak of 25 straight appearances could be in jeopardy if they don’t at least beat the Gophers on Thursday.
“I wouldn’t say we’re comfortable, but I feel like we’re hungry,” junior guard Jaden Akins said of MSU’s quest for an NCAA berth. “And we just want to make a statement. I feel like we got a chance to do that starting Thursday. So that’s all we’re looking forward to.”
The mission for Izzo is to get his players dialed in to doing the little things needed, starting Thursday against Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament at noon in Minneapolis.
That’s just a few miles from Minnesota’s Williams Arena, where a little more than a month ago, the Spartans watched a nine-point lead vanish in the second half after senior guard Tyson Walker left the game briefly with an aggravated groin issue.
It wasn’t just Walker’s injury, though he labored through the final nine-plus minutes. MSU missed layups all night, made just 7-of-17 at the free-throw line and went 2-for-10 from 3-point range in the second half. It all led to a 59-56 loss.
“We’ve been talking about that every day,” Akins said. “I mean, even before some of the games that we had those close losses by, we know going in we can’t afford to have to any mistakes really and just try to play as close to a perfect game as possible. Everything counts, everything matter. We know that.”
The last visit to Minneapolis typified many of the late-game issues Izzo’s team has failed to conquer.
Of the Spartans’ 13 losses, five have been by one possession. Five others have been by fewer than 10 points.
“I’m trying to tell them, in reality, you’re not as bad as everybody thinks you are,” Izzo said. “You’re at a (school) where it’s illegal to lose
this many games, and rightfully so. And that’s what you signed up for. We gotta own up to it and play better. That’s the bottom line.”
Only five of the Spartans’ victories have been by single-digits, and only one — a twopoint win at Maryland – has been decided by a single possession. They also won by four at home over the Wildcats on March 6 and beat Horizon League champ Oakland by 17 and Missouri Valley Conference runner-up Indiana State by 12.
“If we win four more games, everybody would think we’re great but have the exact same problems, the exact same issues,” Izzo said Tuesday. “I’m not looking at the cup half full or half empty, I’m looking at it in reality. And trust me, since Sunday night, I’ve watched film on just about every game we played — and
every loss, for sure — and know exactly where we are and what we got to fix. And fixing it is an issue, but it’s not unfixable.
“And it’s not like we’re that far off. When you have a year that you lose some close games, usually you say but you won some games you should have lost. You’d have trouble coming up with many of those kind of games. You can look at five or six games that we were an eyelash away from winning, and you can look at maybe one or two that you could say we should have lost. And I’m not even sure of one or two.”
In a season filled with those kind of “rock fights,” as Izzo calls them, Minnesota gave MSU perhaps its two toughest and most physical challenges of the winter.
The Spartans survived the Gophers Jan. 18 in East Lansing, with Walker scoring 12 of his 21
points in the final 3:46 of a back-and-forth battle for a 76-66 victory. But the Gophers delivered a blueprint for how to bump, push and knock Walker off his rhythm that other opponents would copy. That ultimately wearing down the 6-foot-1, 185-pound guard, and he developed a nagging groin injury that bothered him since the end of January and was an issue in the loss across Minneapolis last month.
Dawson Garcia, an All-Big Ten third-team selection, leads the Gophers with 17.7 points and 6.7 rebounds. The 6-11, 230-pound junior and one-time North Carolina transfer posted 22 points and nine rebounds against MSU in the first meeting but went just 6-for-17. He hit a critical late 3-pointer in the Gophers’ win over the Spartans but had just 10 points on 4-for-10 shooting and two rebounds in the second meeting.
Freshman guard Cam Christie, the younger brother of former MSU guard Max, had 19 points against MSU in the Feb. 6 meeting after scoring just eight points while fouling out of the first game. The 6-6 swingman averages 11.3 points, while guard Mike Mitchell Jr. scores 10.5 a game. Pharrel Payne, a 6-9 sophomore forward, is posting 9.7 points and 6.1 rebounds.
“They’re a good team. They’re a wellcoached team. They got talent,” Akins said. “And I feel like we got the same thing — we got talent, we’re a well-coached team. It’s been a good matchup so far, and I feel like it’s gonna be a good matchup on Thursday . ... Whoever comes out there the toughest and has that intensity and energy, I think, will win the game.”