“I told Durrell at halftime, ‘If you don’t guard better, your playing days might be done here,’” Izzo said.

“And you know what? That kid had his best half of defense that he’s played since he’s been here.”
Moore scored seven points in the second half, five of which came from the free-throw line.

In a season that seemingly has had more lows than highs, Summers’ defensive turnaround was representative of a team that has been getting better, even after a week with two losses.

“We’re getting better, I know you’re sick of hearing it, I’m sick of saying it, but I see it every day in the film,” Izzo said.

“We are getting better in areas. We have to make sure now … that we don’t drop in the areas we’re getting better in and improve in the area we’ve got (room) to improve in, which I think is a little bit of our shooting and a little bit of our defense.”

The Spartans are turning the ball over 11 times per game in Big Ten play, which is down from the 16 per game they averaged in the nonconference season.

The Spartans have outrebounded 12 of their last 15 opponents, which would seem normal for an Izzo-coached team.

Lucious’ lows
Junior guard Korie Lucious has continued to struggle shooting the ball.

He shot 2-for-7 against Purdue and those two field goals came in the waning minutes of the game.

In the last four games, Lucious is 4-for-26 from the floor and has scored a total of 15 points.
“I don’t think they’ve been as many bad shots, that’s what’s disturbing to me,” Izzo said.

“If there were a lot of bad shots, I’d feel almost better because I could correct him taking bad shots, but I don’t want to correct him taking good shots and missing them.”

To Lucious’ credit, he has 17 assists in the last four games. But Izzo said he needs to make shots if the Spartans are to succeed.

“I think there’s some truth he can find different ways (to help the team), but when you’re a shooting guard, more or less, you have to be able to do what you do,” Izzo said. “If you’re a guy that could be great defensively and a great rebounder and great in a lot of categories, you can substitute it, but there’s no question we need him to shoot better than he’s been shooting, and he’s capable and he’s done it in the past.

“So that is one major thing that is affecting this team right now, is he not only made shots, but he made big shots and he did it since his freshman year.”

Big Ten race
With the loss Saturday, the Spartans fell to 4-3 in the Big Ten, three games behind 7-0 and No. 1-ranked Ohio State. But Izzo reminded the media of MSU’s 9-0 start in the conference last season.

“We had to beat Purdue down there in the second-to-last game of the season to share a Big Ten title,” he said. “Everybody was ready to give it to us, and I said, ‘Wait a minute,’ the schedule was kind of in our favor last year.

“The schedule has been in Ohio State’s favor, I don’t think anybody would argue that. … Up until (Saturday’s game at Illinois), the schedule was definitely in their favor.”