Iowa City - Throughout the 2002-03 season, the MSU men's basketball team has been consistently inconsistent.
Those inconsistencies were highlighted Saturday afternoon as the No. 25 Spartans were upset by Iowa, 68-64, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
First, there was free-throw shooting, a disease MSU (9-5 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) seemed to rid of in its Thursday contest against Ohio State. The Spartans couldn't miss from the free-throw line, sinking their first 26 free-throw attempts and finishing 29-for-30 from the charity stripe.
But the virus returned Saturday, when MSU shot a dismal 43 percent from the line (6-for-14). The sickening shooting proved to be the difference maker when the final buzzer sounded.
"Last year, we were fifth in the country and late in the game we had our two best free throw shooters on the line," MSU head coach Tom Izzo said of sophomore forward Alan Anderson and sophomore guard Kelvin Torbert. "When they go 1-for-4 in the last minute, that definitely hurts you."
Iowa head coach Steve Alford was shocked yet content with MSU's free-throw woes.
"They didn't shoot the percentage they wanted to shoot, but then again we didn't shoot the percentage we wanted to shoot," Alford said of Iowa's 18-for-28 free-throw performance.
"Obviously, I think the difference was we got there two more times and that gave us more opportunities to score and we beat them 18 to six at the foul line."
One of the big reasons for only taking 14 shots from the line was the Spartans rarely moved the ball in the post. Rarely during the game did any Spartan call for the ball when they were in the post.
Occasionally, freshman center Erazem Lorbek took charge, but even he only mustered six points. However, only four of those came from the field.
That production is nowhere near the dominating 16, 12 and nine point performances he recorded against the likes of Cleveland State, Loyola and South Florida in December.
Even freshman phenom Paul Davis struggled against the Hawkeyes (10-3, 2-0). But it looks like the center is just being introduced to Big Ten basketball the hard way.
After Oklahoma's head coach Kelvin Sampson called him a "gem" after dropping in eight points and recording nine boards, the 6-foot-11 big man has been invisible thus far in conference play.
His line Saturday: Two points on 1-for-5 shooting from the field and three rebounds to go along with three fouls. That performance comes after Davis laid a goose egg on the scoreboard in MSU's victory over the Buckeyes.
As Izzo has preached for the past couple of seasons, freshmen shouldn't be expected to carry a team. That is where senior forward Aloysius Anagonye is supposed to pick up the slack. But he has been struggling, too.
Anagonye only scored one point Saturday and it didn't even come from the field. That's not surprising, seeing as he only took one shot - a jump hook early in the first half.
Some people suggested Anagonye and his teammates are becoming too timid down low, but he slammed the door on that assumption.
"What player doesn't want the ball," he said.
"We just have to pick our times to call for it and we aren't making the right choices. And because Purdue is dangerous, we know we have to solve this problem."
