Freshman forward Raymar Morgan turned in one of his worst performances of the year on Saturday, finishing with two points on 1-of-8 shooting in 33 minutes of action.
The Spartans fell to Ohio State, 63-54.
"He had good practices," MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. "He's young, and he struggled. There's no fault, no blame, no 'we're not ready to play.' Raymar is a kind of kid who doesn't play with a lot of emotion yet, and that's what he needs to learn to do. It's hard to just glide around, and he does that sometimes.
"Maybe it was the way he got checked. Maybe it was nervousness. I really don't know."
It was Morgan's lowest scoring output of the season.
His previous career low of three points came in a 73-51 loss to Indiana on Jan. 7 — his first game back from a stress reaction that sidelined the 6-foot-7, 220-pound swingman for more than a month.
Morgan said the poor performance wasn't a result of Ohio State's defense. He blamed himself.
"It was just me, what I wasn't doing," Morgan said. "We're a young team, and we've got to keep fighting and get better each day."
The loss was MSU's third in a row. Morgan, an Ohio native, said it's important for the Spartans to stay positive as they try to get back to their winning ways.
"It's not the end of the world," Morgan said. "It's always tough when you lose a game — any game. It's always tough when you lose. We just have to get better in practice and keep fighting."
Second time is the charm
Izzo was pleased with the way the Spartans defended Ohio State center Greg Oden when the teams first met on Jan. 27.
Oden scored 19 points in the game but was 4-of-10 from the field, with all four field goals coming in the first half.
Izzo was particularly happy the Spartans kept Oden from dunking the ball.
So you can imagine his displeasure after Oden flushed the ball twice in the opening minutes of Saturday's game.
Oden finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, including seven boards on the offensive end.
"We knew Oden would come out and come at us," Izzo said. "You've got to give Greg credit — he's patient down there."
Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said Oden had a little extra motivation going into the game.
"(The media) helped us out with the dunks by talking about that in the papers yesterday," Matta said. "He took that to heart and said he was going to give me a couple today."
