Although the Spartans (11-5 overall, 3-1 Big Ten) were winning by only one point with what seemed like an eternity to play, Izzo — and the thousands of screaming fans who didn’t leave when their team was down nine late in regulation — had just watched MSU play its best basketball of the year, come together as a team and possibly save what was starting to look like a lost season.

Plenty of reason to smile, if you ask me.

Three minutes later, the comeback win was official, and the rest of the Spartans joined their head coach with smiles of their own.

Tuesday’s 64-61 overtime win against the No. 20 Badgers (12-4, 2-2) wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t perfectly executed — instead rather sloppy at times — and for most of the game, it looked as if MSU was about to drop its second-consecutive game.

But in the end, it was exactly what the Spartans, unranked for the first time since 2007, needed.
If the loss to Penn State on Saturday was a wake-up call, the dramatic win against Wisconsin was MSU letting everybody know that it got the message.

Izzo said after the game he had told his players beforehand that it would be a “character check” for the Spartans. Although it wasn’t always noticeable during the game, especially the first 37 minutes, Izzo said he got what he was looking for out of his team.

In every huddle, even when down almost double-digits, Izzo said his guys thought they could win.
Perhaps more importantly than thinking they could win, the MSU players played like they wanted to win, and for the last 2:30 of regulation and all of overtime, they weren’t going to let anybody stop them.

Junior forward Draymond Green, who scored eight of the Spartans’ 11 overtime points on his way to a career-high 26, said at a press conference Monday he thinks MSU should win every game.

Tuesday, Green and the rest of his teammates showed that when they really want to, they very well could.

From Green down to senior guard Mike Kebler, who played less than a minute, every Spartan who played contributed to the win. And on a night when senior guards Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers shot a combined 5-for-23, every bit of help was needed.

More than just contributing on the court, Izzo said his players grew together as a unit. When it looked as if MSU’s season was a lost cause, Izzo said everything changed.

“You watch our huddles and our locker room right now, and it was amazing how many guys had a feel for another guy,” Izzo said.

The win came at just right the time. With road games at No. 16 Illinois and No. 8 Purdue looming next week, Tuesday’s game against Wisconsin was about as must-win as a game in mid-January can be.

Izzo admitted that MSU made “strides” Tuesday night, but has a long way to go when it comes to fixing all the problems that have kept this season from going the way everyone expected.

“Like I told my guys, this is what life’s like, there will be people smacking you all the time,” Izzo said.

“You can do one of two things: Get up and smack them, or die.

“Tonight, we hung in there.”

Jeremy Warnemuende is a State News sports reporter. He can be reached at warnemu3@msu.edu