He sent hard double-teams and forced the ball out of Winston’s hands. 

“We did a better job I thought being way more aggressive on the ball,” Miller said. “At the end of the day, the guy with the ball, he needs to be dealt with.”

The Spartans struggled offensively down the stretch, being held scoreless for the final 4:13 of the game. Without injured starters Joshua Langford and Nick Ward, the Spartan offense and Winston have been synonymous. 

The challenge for MSU coach Tom Izzo is how to create offense from anybody besides his junior point guard.

“They wanna sell out and double, we had some good shots, we just missed them,” Izzo said. “I’ll come up with some magic tricks. Maybe bring (former Spartan guard) Shawn Respert back, I don’t know.”

Senior forward Kenny Goins said that while the other players need to step up, Winston’s importance to the team will not change.

“We rely on him heavy all year, and relied on him a lot this game,” Goins said. “He played a lot, and it’s hard to sustain that for 39, 40 minutes, whatever we played. We as a team gotta start to relieve some pressure off him, whether it may be taking the ball from him, setting better screens. There’s a variety of ways to do it, but we need to start doing that.”

One player who may have increased responsibility is freshman forward Aaron Henry. He hit his first three since Jan. 17 on Saturday, and will have to continue to make plays offensively. He said, however, he’s concerned about whether he’s making the right plays.

“Overthinking turns into indecisiveness, and not knowing what I’m gonna do,” Henry said. “I shouldn’t be taking over, maybe that’s where my turnovers are from. Maybe I gotta look for my shot less, that’s something I gotta talk to coach about.”

The loss all but ends MSU’s hopes of repeating as outright Big Ten champions, and deals a serious blow to its chances of sharing the championship at all. The Spartans are now one game back of Purdue with two to play. They need to win their two home games against Nebraska Tuesday night, and Michigan Saturday night, and hope Purdue slips up at either Minnesota Tuesday night or Northwestern Saturday afternoon.

“I don’t give a s---. I don’t care,” Izzo said. “I’m gonna worry about my team. If somebody helps us, they help us. If somebody don’t, they don’t. We had destiny in our hands, and we didn’t answer the bell.”