When it was all said and done, many Spartans fans hung their heads in disbelief — the MSU men’s basketball team’s fate ended in Houston. There would be no San Antonio, no Final Four and most importantly, no more basketball. But when it’s all packaged together, the impressive statistics outweigh the unfortunate end against Memphis — a team headed to the Final Four after an impressive showing against Texas.
The numbers game
To say the Spartans cleaned the glass with an industrial-sized bottle of Windex would be an understatement.
MSU was outrebounded just five times in 36 games — by UCLA, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Memphis. And in all but one of those contests, the Spartans lost.
The Green and White racked up its rebounding average to 36.9 a game compared to its opponents’ 30.2 statistic.
MSU didn’t waste time, grabbing a season-high 50 rebounds in its second game against Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 14 — 14 of which Morgan latched onto, giving him his second straight double-double.
Free throw attempts
It’s no secret — Izzo was less than encouraging to certain referees about the whistle blowing against his team during the last third of the season.
In the season’s first 21 of 25 games, the Spartans either shot more or the same amount of free throws than its opponent, never allowing freebies to get too out of hand.
But in the final 11 games, MSU only outshot its opponent from the charity stripe one time — hitting 16-of-22 against Ohio State on March 14 at the Big Ten Tournament.
In the end, the Spartans shot just six more free throws than the opposition at 661 and a 73.7 percentage overall. Morgan led in the attempts department with 180 — 85 more than freshman guard Kalin Lucas.
Rankings
In the beginning, it was all about building a reputation and climbing the ladder to the top of the national rankings — obtaining a 15-1 record and settling into a No. 6 spot.
But once the Spartans attempted to invade Iowa City on Jan. 12, they would never break the top six again, getting as close as No. 8 and falling to as low as No. 19, never falling lower than the top 20.
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Izzo said he expects the media to choose MSU to compete for a Big Ten title once again next season, closely battling Purdue and Wisconsin.
But the addition of the freshmen guard trio allowed MSU to up its point total from last season, scoring 71.2 points a game compared to last year’s 65 point average.
Shooting percentage
Izzo is never impressed by much, but something has snuck up on him and even got his attention — MSU’s field-goal percentage the past five years.
The Spartans have been atop the category for half a decade and defended its title with a 48 percent game-average this season — 1.7 percent ahead of Indiana.
“We had a lot more quality depth to score and we’ll have even more exceptional depth next year,” Izzo said.
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The high percentage shots will only continue.
Turnovers
The Spartans averaged 13.6 turnovers on the season — the seventh most in the Big Ten. It was an issue head coach Tom Izzo constantly reiterated to his squad, saying they absolutely had to improve to do great things.
At certain times, it got ugly with numerous 20-turnover outings.
“I feel better about the future of this team,” he said. “My players are starting to understand that it takes a little more to win championships.”
In the final six regular-season games, the Spartans averaged 9.83 turnovers — including a season-low five turnovers against Iowa on Feb. 23 at Breslin Center.
