The MSU men's basketball team may have fallen from the national rankings following Saturday's 68-64 loss to Iowa, but head coach Tom Izzo said he's far from alarmed.
"We don't think we're in any panic mode," Izzo said. "I'm just disappointed in having opportunities to win games (and losing them)."
The Spartans (9-5 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) are aiming to make the most of those opportunities. MSU has lost three of its last four games, prompting Izzo to identify turnovers and free-throw shooting as some "common denominators" contributing to his squad's recent skid.
"What we try to do as a staff is look at what we're doing well and what we're not doing well - what our common denominators to the losses are," he said. "We really believe that the couple areas that have been common are the turnovers and the free-throw shooting.
"One of them we think is very controllable. The other one may be not quite as controllable on the turnovers because I think it has been a problem all year long with us."
MSU countered last Thursday's 29-for-30 free-throw shooting clinic against Ohio State with a lowly 6-for-14 effort against the Hawkeyes and turned the ball over 18 times.
MSU's chance to rebound from inconsistency comes against Purdue at 7 p.m. today at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind.
Improvement is expected to be hard fought because the Boilermakers (9-3, 1-0) are riding a four-game winning streak and boast what Izzo calls one of the most improved defenses in the Big Ten.
"They have some good offensive players," Izzo said. "But their team is 9-3 because they're so much better defensively than they were a year ago."
Aside from cracking an aggressive Purdue defense, MSU will be challenged by Purdue's All-American candidate guard Willie Deane.
The senior, who considered entering last year's NBA Draft, leads the Boilermakers in scoring, averaging 16.2 points per game.
Freshman guard Maurice Ager said he anticipates a test from Deane, however, he looked forward to defending Purdue's prolific scorer.
"I know he's a pretty good player, he could've been in the draft last year," Ager said. "So this will be a tough challenge for us to stop him but I think we're up to it."
Ager should have ample opportunity to do so.
After sitting out the first six games of the season with a stress fracture and two games following Christmas after fainting in practice, the Detroit native has steadily worked his way into the Spartan limelight.
Ager scored a career-high 15 points against Ohio State and 14 against Iowa.
Izzo said Ager has impressed him, despite having to limit his minutes.
"I could see him maybe stepping up, because if I look at where he started at and where he's at now, the guy's made incredible progress," Izzo said. "He's been a treat to coach."
Gene Keady, Purdue's venerable head coach, said the home-court advantage at Mackey Arena is capable of producing a win by itself.
"We're very aware of the fact that any Big Ten team can beat anyone in the country on their home court," he said.
