Michigan State men's basketball headed to Chicago for the Big Ten Tournament with the goal of staying until Sunday night and bringing home a trophy. But after MSU’s “out of sorts” loss, according to head coach Tom Izzo, the Spartans will be heading home without the hardware they had envisioned.
On Sunday, the NCAA Tournament bracket will be announced, and the season’s continual grind will culminate in a single game at a time, each under the constant pressure of elimination. In MSU’s 88-84 loss to UCLA on Friday, the Spartans were never consistent, only finding a glimpse of momentum — too little, too late.
Little mistakes and mental errors have become the undoing of MSU’s season. At times, such as when facing Illinois at home, the Spartans played savvy basketball and earned a win. However, like tonight, MSU showed once again that it doesn’t have the pure talent on its roster to overcome these shortcomings.
After the game, Izzo spoke to the challenges of guarding a UCLA team that made 13 threes and shot 55% from the field. Hitting six of their final seven field goals, the Spartans wanted to win, but they weren’t “desperate” like UCLA was, Izzo said.
“We almost made a valid comeback, but that would’ve been too little too late, the way we played,” Izzo said. “They came at us, they punched us in the mouth, and we didn't respond.”
MSU shot 50% from three in their attempt at a comeback in the second half. Out of nowhere, there was a spark ignited by Kur Teng, Jeremy Fears Jr. and Trey Fort, who shot a combined 5-for-8 from deep in the final 20 minutes. MSU kept firing, but UCLA always had an answer, assisted by poor turnovers and ill-calculated fouls in the waning minutes.
With twelve seconds left in the game, Carson Cooper spun past his defender, grabbed MSU’s 16th offensive rebound, and put the ball through the hoop to cut UCLA’s lead to two. As UCLA advanced up the court, Jordan Scott chose not to fall back on defense. A defensive stop would have given MSU a chance to tie in the final seconds, but instead, the freshman guard fouled the Bruins’ best free-throw shooter, Trent Perry, who sank both shots.
After the makes from the charity stripe, MSU capped off its trip to Chicago with what became a constant, nagging theme: another turnover.
“Freshmen are going to make freshmen mistakes, that's why they're freshmen,” Izzo said. “There is a process, and the process means that you learn from it. You get better if it matters enough, and I think to my freshmen, it matters.”
MSU’s opponents have scored 87 or more points in each of the team’s last three games and have averaged 75 points per game since the last time MSU faced UCLA in February, nearly a month ago. In the Spartans’ first 20 games, they allowed 70 points or more just twice; now, it’s becoming a recurring pattern.
