Spartans prevail to win B1G outright title
MSU played undoubtedly one of their worst games of the season but still manage to walk away with the win, the B1G title and basically needed about 12 minutes of decent play to do it.
The first half of this game was an atrocious display of basketball that is not going to bode this well later in March. MSU jumped out with 11 quick points and then never saw the lead again until the 9:40 mark of the second half. MSU was unable to do much of anything the remainder of the first half. The Spartans Achilles heal showed up once again in their struggles from behind the arc. They also struggled against the 2-3 zone again and were just slinging the ball around the perimeter and unable to get anything inside. This left the Spartans throwing up deep threes and shot clock violations and zero points. On the other end they were being out rebounded, hustled, and losing the inside physical game. Giving up easy pick and rolls led to a time out and a chew out. The Spartans found themselves being outplayed in every facet of the game and you could see the frustrations rising. Of course the refereeing was also playing against the Spartans and optimism was flailing. But, this Spartan team is just built differently than recent seasons. Rather than going down by twenty, they managed to hang around just enough to stay within comeback range. Even though they ran up against a 22-2 run and missed 10 of 11 shots during that run, they only trailed 37-30 at the half. This team wasn’t going to continue to shoot that poorly and play that soft on defense the whole game. The tide would change.
In the early stages of the second half that tide was not changing as MSU got off to a tough start in the first five minutes. With 12:13 left in the game the Spartans were still down ten. From that point on a switch flipped and the Spartans we’ve been acquainted with this season resurfaced. The defense became more stifling, challenging shots at the perimeter, rebounding, playing more physical in the paint and getting turnovers. All of this led to MSU being able to push the tempo and get cleaner looks in transition as well as get the ball inside. MSU shot 61% from the field in the second half. The open looks from the 12:13 mark allowed MSU to go on a 19-2 run and reclaim the lead. Coen Carr had a 5 minute stretch where I swear he was playing possessed. Back to back lob dunks as well as a blocked shot and suffocating defense followed by back and forth hustle. Carr seemed to pump the entire team up and the Spartans never looked back. Holloman also had a beautiful all ball block that was called a foul during that stretch that just seemed to up the intensity for every Spartan. Richardson had 22 points and was a model of consistency. Aikens got hot in the second half and he and Kohler each had 15.
After just 30 points in the first half, MSU showed up big in the second with 61. Izzo said the team got away from its identity early and finally got back to playing better defense which improved the offense. The one extreme out of character stat was the poor free throw shooting from the Spartans. They only shot 66% from the line which is far below their average. Everyone was missing, even those that never do. Hopefully, this was just a rare outlier game and this doesn’t happen again.
Even with 25 minutes of horrendous play this team managed to win. That is a trademark of a special team that can have a successful postseason. This win allowed MSU to be outright B1G champs and claim the 11th title for Coach Izzo. The Spartans will close the season looking to thump AA weasels on Sunday. As “O” mentioned in a previous piece, a number one seed in the NCAA tourney is not out of reach and a win on Sunday is an essential piece to that puzzle. Now, after that stressful first half and in celebration its time to do a shot! Go Green!