Following Sunday’s 68-60 loss to No. 18 Ohio State (20-7 overall, 10-5 Big Ten), Izzo said the Spartans (22-6, 11-4) have become hampered by their own success, causing them to drop back-to-back games for the first time this season.

“I am disappointed that we haven’t shown the grit we showed in the last two games, which normally happens when you get fat and sassy and I think we’ve gotten a little bit of that,” Izzo said. “I take no credit away from Ohio State — they played an OK first half and a very good second half – and they deserved to win the game.”

The second loss in a week significantly hinders the Spartans’ Big Ten title chances. With a loss to the Buckeyes, the Spartans fall two games behind Indiana in the Big Ten standings with just three games to play including dates with Michigan and Wisconsin.

“It’s difficult,” junior center Adreian Payne said. “We put ourselves in a corner where we need to win games, and we need to win all the games. It’s tough, but it’s something we have to work with.”
The one major area of praise after the game came from the performance of Payne in a return to his home state.

The Dayton, Ohio, native recorded his fifth double-double of the season, putting up 12 points and 15 rebounds. The Spartans outrebounded Ohio State, 33-26, but were unable to recover from a lengthy second half surge to fall on the road.

Starting with a 3-pointer by Buckeye forward Deshaun Thomas, OSU strung together a 24-5 run to open the second half, stretching to lead to 51-41 and forcing the Spartans to dig deep.

A major catalyst of the run was Buckeye guard Aaron Craft, who had 17 of his 21 points in the second half. Much of Craft’s success came with layups in the lane, which he said was opened up because of the success in the team’s perimeter shooting.

“We saw some things during the first game this season that we thought we could take advantage of tonight,” Craft said. “When guys make shots from outside, that opens up the lane and we were able to capitalize on that tonight and make layups.”

With MSU threatening down the stretch, the Buckeyes continued to pour it on while holding the Spartans without a field goal for the final 2:41 of the game.

More than the team’s offense, freshman guard Gary Harris said much of that struggle being felt by the Spartans boils down to defense.

“We haven’t played the same defense as we have,” Harris said. “I mean, we played the best defense we have all year against Michigan and we have to play at that level (to win).”

The Spartans now have a week before the team travels to Ann Arbor for a highly-anticipated rematch with the Wolverines (4 p.m., CBS). Moving on from an upset loss in Columbus, Payne said the Spartans need to get back to the basics to find success again.

“As a team, we have gotten fat and sassy,” Payne said. “We just gotta gather ourselves and stop worrying about what other people are saying and just play basketball.”