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MSU looks to avenge its loss in Iowa City Thursday at Breslin Center

January 14, 2016
Head coach Tom Izzo reacts to a play during the second half of the game against Illinois on Jan. 7, 2016 at Breslin Center. The Spartans defeated the Illini 79-54.
Head coach Tom Izzo reacts to a play during the second half of the game against Illinois on Jan. 7, 2016 at Breslin Center. The Spartans defeated the Illini 79-54. —
Photo by Emily Elconin | and Emily Elconin The State News

When the two teams met on Dec. 29, 2015, an 83-70 win for Iowa, MSU star senior Denzel Valentine was missing his second consecutive game after having a small procedure on his left knee. Meanwhile, Iowa star senior Jarrod Uthoff was unable to find his rhythm offensively, scoring just 10 points on 4-of-11 shooting, while turning the ball over eight times and playing most of the game in foul trouble.

While these two stars are poised to have much larger impacts in Thursday night’s contest, the message was clear from MSU coach Tom Izzo: the loss to Iowa was not because Valentine didn’t play.

“We did not play with the energy and effort that should be expected by you, me or our fans,” Izzo said. “We just didn’t do the little things that it takes to win. I think we’ve changed some, but I also think the level of competition has changed a little bit.”

One of the changes Izzo might have been referring to could be the emergence of junior forward Gavin Schilling, who played only 11 minutes in the two teams first game, scoring only one point and grabbing only one rebound.

“He gives a dimension (that) I think is very important,” Izzo said.

“He gives us a dimension where, at 6’9, he can guard guards and he’s got great lateral foot speed. And as he lets his offense, slows himself down a little bit: Gavin, if he was an engine, the RPMs would be off the charts. Like everything else you’ve go to slow down a little bit.”

Schilling had his best game of the season last Sunday against Penn State, scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds while committing just two fouls in a season high 19 minutes.

“His defense and starting to understand it is starting to get top notch,” Izzo said. “And when that happens we’re going to be a better team because we can come in with a smaller guy like Marvin who can maybe make some threes, we can play him and Deyonta together a little bit more, and that’s going to help us and help Deyonta a little bit.”

Izzo wasn’t the only one to notice the lack of energy in the first matchup with Iowa. Junior guard Eron Harris said he thought MSU didn’t play “MSU basketball” and needs to protect the ball better in the rematch on Thursday.

“Just focusing in on the little things like taking care of the ball,” Harris said. “When we get the ball in our hands we’ve got to hold onto the ball. They’re going to be scrappy, we saw that in the first game, they were pretty scrappy.”

Valentine agreed. He said watching the tape of the game and watching the game from the bench, he didn’t think it looked like a normal MSU team out on the court that night. Valentine said losing the way MSU lost to Iowa could be a good thing in the long run.

“Maybe we just needed a game like that to wake us up a little bit, but it happened, we’re moving on, but at the same time we’re not ever going to let that happen again,” Valentine said.

Senior guard Bryn Forbes had one of his worst games of the season in the first matchup against Iowa, shooting just 1-of-5 from the floor scoring three points and battling foul trouble the entire game. Forbes said he thinks Valentine being back will be a huge boost in the rematch with Iowa.

“I think one, we’re not going to play that bad of a game again,” Forbes said. “And two, I mean, Denzel is one of the best players I’ve ever played with, so obviously he’s going to make a big impact on the game. Every game he’s in he makes a huge impact. He does a little bit of everything, or a lot of everything, he’s leading us in a lot of statistics, so I mean obviously he’s going to have a huge impact.”

Valentine said it was hard to watch MSU’s loss to Iowa from the bench, but gave him a hunger to get back on the court to make his mark in the rematch.

“It hurt not being able to play and see those guys do good against ours,” Valentine said. “But at the same time, I don’t think our team played to their capabilities either because we’re so much better than the way we played that game and I think that was a fluke game to me, the way we played. Michigan State never goes out and gets out hustled, gets out efforted, out rebounded, things like that. So we’re not going to let that happen ever again.”

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