Maybe Alaska was the wrong place to heat up the MSU men's basketball season.
The No. 9 Spartans (2-2) sparked the Great Alaska Shootout tournament with a 80-60 Thanksgiving Day defeat of Montana, but fell in subsequent games to unranked opponents Villanova, 81-73, and Oklahoma State, 64-61.
Following Saturday's early exit from Anchorage, Ala., at the hands of the Cowboys, basketball head coach Tom Izzo labeled the weekend as an exercise in poor play from MSU guards and lagging defense.
"We don't have very good guard play right now," Izzo said, "and we're not very good defensively. Those were things that I thought would be better, and I realize that right now we don't have those things."
The weekend began promising enough for the Spartans, who never trailed in their sound defeat of Montana. Sophomore guard Chris Hill scored 23 points to lead all scorers.
The tight defense that held Montana scoreless over a nine minute span disappeared into the Alaskan night for the weekend's future contests, leaving Izzo in the dark.
"We are not playing very well and that should fall on me," Izzo said. "This team is not competing defensively like teams we've had here.
"I've been here eight years as head coach, and we were bad my first two years, but we checked people," he added.
Saturday night was doubly frustrating for senior forward Al Anagonye. The Southfield native had a career night with 21 points and eight boards, but saw room for the team's improvement after the loss against Oklahoma State.
"My goal is to win games, and I'm frustrated that we didn't do that," Anagonye said. "As coach said, we aren't very good defensively, and we need everyone to play better than they are."
Izzo emphasized limiting turnovers and stopping penetration off the dribble as problems to work on in time for Wednesday's meeting against Virginia in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at Breslin Center.
"We are all going to shoulder the blame a little bit, and we are going to try to get better," Izzo said. "Because it doesn't get any easier with Virginia on Wednesday."
