“Anger,” Izzo said when asked to describe his mood. “I’m angry with the way we played. ... I’m not real happy with how we played defensively. I am not happy with our leadership right now, and we gotta find a way to regroup.”

The anger was visibly showing from Izzo all night, who sat for most of the second half with his head in his hands. He was at a loss for words to try to lift MSU out of yet another slow start and poor effort on the defensive end. 

It was another game in which Michigan State looked sluggish out of the gate, a problem that has killed the team’s chances almost immediately in the last three losses. Ohio State started the game on a 13-0 run and never took their foot off MSU’s throat on the way to a comfortable wire-to-wire victory.

Senior center Joey Brunk led the way for the Buckeyes with 18 points and six rebounds, while stars E.J. Liddell and Malaki Branham added 19 and 22 points, respectively. The trio faced little resistance from MSU’s once-stout defense, which has looked like a shell of itself recently. 

The defense on Brunk, who senior forward Gabe Brown said wasn’t even on the scouting report, was especially irking to Izzo.

“I guess you could say it’s my fault for not doubling him, but, boy, if you have to double him ... I think he averaged 1.1 points,” Izzo said. “Shame on our guys.”

The players committed a litany of cardinal sins for a Michigan State basketball team, and lack of effort was, yet again, at the top of the list. MSU was slow in transition defense and on closeouts, allowing Ohio State to fill it up from behind the arc in the first half (8-13), building a lead the Spartans could not overcome due to lack of firepower on offense. 

The slow start is nothing new for MSU. Brown, visibly angry, said the slow starts and low effort levels in the first half have become this team’s M.O. down the stretch. 

And Brown is correct in that assessment. In the last three losses against Iowa, Michigan and now Ohio State, Michigan State has been outscored by 40 points in the first half, which has completely wiped away any winning chances. 

“I mean, those things are inexcusable,” Izzo said. “So yeah, the frustration level is there, but I’ve been frustrated before.”

Izzo had a lot of people to blame for another lackluster and underwhelming performance, but he said the person who shoulders most of the blame is himself.

“I think I’ve got to do a better job, to be honest with you,” Izzo said. “We don’t look like a very well-coached team.”

Izzo’s announcement the struggles have been a result of his own coaching failures stands in contradiction to one of his core tenets as MSU’s coach. Throughout his tenure, Izzo has preached that the best teams are ones that have an abundance of leadership from their players, and the coaches do not have to get on players.

That is not the formula for this Michigan State team. With a lack of leadership from the players on the court, Izzo has had to step up his own attempts to try and coax more effort out of each player, but the results have been largely fruitless since the beginning of February. 

The pleas for more effort have seemingly fallen on deaf ears as MSU continues to trot out and play in a lower gear than its opponents on most nights. But how much blame can fall on Izzo’s shoulders when he is not the one out there looking uninterested game after game?

His words cannot motivate players to get back on defense to prevent a three or motivate the team’s big men to shut down a player that hasn’t scored in his last five games before tonight. That onus falls on the shoulders of players who are starting to reach the same level of anger as Izzo.

“I’m frustrated,” Brown said with a scowl. “For sure, I’m frustrated because I want to win as bad as anybody, and I know Coach wants to win, and I know my teammates want to win.”

The only way to stem that frustration is to pick up the effort, play as they did against Purdue or Wisconsin on the road. But with time running out on the season, the opportunities for the team to make that improvement are dwindling rapidly. 

“I think our guys gotta check their ticker a little bit because sooner or later you gotta reach down and guard somebody,” Izzo said. “I mean, that’s not a skill; that’s an effort-related stat, and I’ve always been able to get my teams to play harder, and right now I’m not, so that falls on me, and I’m going to have to try to fix it.”