The men’s basketball team will take on Notre Dame in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge Wednesday, and both players and coaches view the game as an opportunity to bounce back from a perhaps needless loss against No. 11 Kansas on Sunday.
After falling to the No. 11 Jayhawks in the Orlando Classic championship game, the consensus amongst the No. 19 men’s basketball team is that they let one slip away.
MSU’s offense was anemic in the second half against the Jayhawks, converting just eight-of-33 shot attempts. They shot just 37 percent overall for the game. The Spartans missed several transition layups and dunks that could have kept the game close down the stretch, and foul trouble limited MSU’s bigs throughout the game.
“We lost six, seven late (opportunities),” head coach Tom Izzo said. “You’re going to shoot 37 percent. I think because of the personnel we had in there, I think both (senior guard Travis Trice) and (junior guard Denzel Valentine) took bad shots. And we took a lot of bad shots. (Kansas) had something to do with it but, we had a lot to do with it ourselves.”
Trice and Valentine each logged more than 30 minutes in the contest, compensating for injuries to sophomore guard Alvin Ellis III and freshman guard Javon Bess .
Ellis practiced Monday for the first time since spraining his ankle in the season opener against Navy and likely will return to the lineup against Notre Dame — certainly good news for Valentine and Trice, who have played heavy minutes in his absence.
“I’m hoping we can use him if we have to, but it’ll be minimal use because we get through this week and now we have a week off. ... But I was surprised how much he did (in practice), to be honest,” Izzo said.
Izzo added that because players are still recovering from health issues— including senior forward Branden Dawson who ran a temperature of 103 degrees last week with the flu and junior guard Bryn Forbes who still has a brace on his hand — he isn’t putting as much importance on Wednesday’s game as he normally would.
MSU has looked impressive at times during its 5-2 start, but with injuries to several key players and disappointing losses against Duke and Kansas, it’s apparent that this is still a team in progress.
“I think what’s important is we play hard and play well, but (Notre Dame is) playing well right now, if you watch them on film,” Izzo said. “It’s going to be a big game down there.
“I think we gotta keep moving forward, but like I said, I don’t know where we’re at because of the situation, and I don’t know, that’s why I don’t know how much (importance) to put on this.”
