5 Observations: Michigan State battles, falls short at No. 2 Purdue
Coming off back-to-back home losses, Michigan State men's basketball faced a daunting task tonight against No. 2 Purdue at Mackey Arena. The Spartans gave great effort and went toe-to-toe with the Boilermakers, but didn't have enough down the stretch in a 80-74 defeat.
Michigan State came out with some fire and played tough in the first half. The Spartans built a 26-19 lead through the first 13 minutes, but more odd lineup decisions stunted MSU's offensive momentum. Purdue responded with a 19-4 run, giving the Boilermakers a 38-30 lead with 1:15 left in the half. However, facing an early knockout punch, Michigan State countered with Tyson Walker scoring the final five points of the opening frame, capped by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
Purdue landed a big blow out of halftime, going on a 16-4 run to start the second half and building a 54-39 lead with 14:26 left in the game. Up against the ropes, the Spartans had one last push in them, as they ground out a their own 16-4 run to pull back within three points, 58-55, with just over nine minutes left.
MSU would get no closer however, as the Boilermakers force fed the reigning National Player of the Year, Zach Edey, down the stretch, drawing many (questionable) fouls and knocking down enough 3-pointers to put the Spartans away. Here are five observations from Michigan State's third straight defeat...
1.) Xavier Booker has to start and play more minutes
We're preaching to the choir with this one, but it's so abundantly clear that the freshman big has to be in the starting lineup and get the most minutes at center for the rest of Michigan State's season. Like all of the Spartans bigs, Booker was no match for Edey in the post tonight, but what he did to the 7-footer on the other end added more value than anything else Michigan State's centers did tonight.
It was a smart move from Izzo to primarily play Booker at the 4-spot instead of the 5 tonight, but I would have preferred the freshman play more than the 13 minutes he got tonight. Booker matched his career-high with 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting, including 2-for-5 from 3-point range and added a pair of rebounds. For the second consecutive game, he led MSU in plus-minus as the Spartans outscored the Boilers by 11 points with him on the floor.
That's just another reason why him only playing 13 minutes was baffling. Mady Sissoko got the start over Booker tonight and had four fouls, zero points, one rebound and a turnover in his six minutes on the floor. Carson Cooper battled and ended with six points and five rebounds in 15 minutes, but Jaxon Kohler struggled with just two points and two rebounds in 12 minutes of action.
2.) MSU's backcourt inconsistency on full display
This team is built around its backcourt, but between Tyson Walker's injury and recent struggles and the continued inconsistency of A.J. Hoggard and Jaden Akins, the Spartans have few things to hang their hat on right now. Walker had some good moments tonight, like his mini-spurt of five straight points to end the first half, but he was inefficient once again tonight. The graduate senior scored 14 points but was just 5-for-15 from the floor.
Hoggard's play, meanwhile, continues to be baffling. The senior went 3-for-13 from the floor and missed a pair of crucial free throws, finishing with eight points, three rebounds, four assists and another braindead turnover late in the game. Hoggard had a few makeable shot attempts in the first half, but went 0-for-7 from the floor in the opening 20 minutes.
Finally, Akins used a strong second half to finish with 13 points, three rebounds, a steal and a blocked shot, but he once again fell into "the invisible man" routine for long stretches of this game. Much of that was due to foul trouble through the first 25-30 minutes of the night, but the disappearing act has been a problem for Akins much of the season. If the junior can harness what we saw from him in the back-half of the second frame tonight, maybe Michigan State can turn things around.
3.) Bizzare lineups and scoring droughts
Scoring droughts have been a problem for Michigan State going back multiple seasons, and it doesn't help when Izzo and/or his coaching staff throw ridiculous lineups out on the floor together.
After the Spartans got out to that seven-point lead, the staff elected to go with lineups of Hoggard, Walker, Coen Carr, Malik Hall and Sissoko. MSU struggled offensively, and Cooper was inexplicably subbed in for Hall. That left the Spartans with one shooter — Walker — on the floor. Unsurprisingly, it resulted an over four minute scoring drought and Purdue taking the lead. Stretches like that are what lose you games in competitive leagues like the Big Ten. If assistant coach Doug Wojcik is indeed in charge of lineups, the man needs to be shown the door at season's end.
4.) Big Ten referees don't call Zach Edey games well
We don't blame losses on referees around here, and we aren't doing that tonight. However, the way Edey is officiated by Big Ten referees is eye-rollingly bad. The 7-foor-4 center is a massive human being, and I acknowledge he's a difficult guy to officiate, but the amount of times Michigan State was called for a foul while standing next to the behemoth with their hands straight in the air was insane. On one play, Cooper absorbed an elbow from Edey while straight up on the low block and got whistled for a foul. That was probably the most egregious of the whistles, but there were several others.
I'm not trying to take anything away from Edey. He's a unique and impossible matchup for just about everybody and he's deserving of the accolades he's gotten these last few years. At the same time, the dude shot 20 free throws himself tonight — three more than MSU shot as a team. It's easy to see why the Spartans have such a difficult time slowing the big man down, and he put on another huge statistical performance tonight with 32 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks.
5.) A huge week ahead for MSU
Michigan State is too storied and rich of a program for moral victories, but it's worth mentioning that I was impressed with the fight and the grit the Spartans' displayed tonight. Mackey Arena has been a house of horrors for MSU in recent years, but this team held its own tonight.
Unfortunately, Michigan State is still in the midst of a three-game losing streak after those inexcusable home losses to Iowa and Ohio State last week. That leaves the Spartans with a massive final two games ahead, first at home against Northwestern on Monday, and then with a season-finale road trip to Indiana next Sunday. They will be far from easy victories, but MSU needs to win both of those games to secure its spot in the NCAA Tournament. Split the pair, and the Spartans will have work to do in the Big Ten Tournament in order to keep its streak of trips to the Big Dance intact.
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