MSU win streak ends with loss Trojans
The Spartans’ 13 game win streak and undefeated start in the Big Ten are over after falling flat 70-64 to USC yesterday. A win against the Trojans would have tied Tom Izzo with Bob Knight for most wins in the Big Ten Conference. But now that will have to wait until Tuesday at UCLA for another chance at that record.
In his press conference after the game, Izzo opened with “What starts bad ends bad and the start was atrocious”. The Trojans jumped out to a 22-7 lead before the Spartans got it back to 35-32 at halftime. MSU had a chance to draw even closer but some turnovers and missed open looks left them facing the halftime deficit.
The Spartans weren’t fully able to close the gap in the second half either, falling behind by as much as ten and never drawing closer than three points.
Every time MSU would start to make a run and get their crowd – who at several times made this seem like a home game for MSU – into it, USC had a response. Jaxon Kohler got the Spartans within 40-36 but that was followed by a bucket from Desmond Claude to put SC back up six. Fears nailed a three to make it 42-39 but Rashaun Agee followed with a layup. Fears had a steal and a dunk but then Wesley Yates III hit a three as the shot clock was winding down. A Coen Carr dunk was followed by a three from Saint Thomas and then a Fears jumper was followed by a three from Yates III, again late in the shot clock. And on it went. A Jase Richardson layup to cut it to 57-54 was followed by one from Josh Cohen 18 seconds later and the Spartans never got closer.
Michigan State got the Trojans late in the shot clock several times in the second half but, when they really needed a stop or a defensive rebound, they couldn’t get one.
Now, Izzo will have to wait until Tuesday, when the Spartans face a surging, and rested, UCLA team to try to tie Knight’s record. The Bruins are 16-6, 7-4 in the Big Ten, and have won five in a row. They are coming off a 78-52 trouncing of Oregon at home on Thursday after beating USC here in the Galen Center last Monday.
I was able to cover the game for TOC and here are some of the sights and sounds from the day.
After the short ride up the 405 and 110 freeways from Orange County to Los Angeles’ University Park area, I arrived a few hours before the game hoping to explore USC’s campus. Despite living out here for several years, I’m actually not too familiar with LA. My previous experiences here have mostly involved languishing in the famous gridlocked traffic en route to events in other places like Newport Beach and San Diego.
When I arrived, however, the campus was surrounded by a fence with designated entry points monitored by security staff. It looked like you needed a USC ID to get in. I’m not sure if it’s always like that or perhaps there was a special event on campus.
Regardless, instead of a nice stroll through the urban campus, I had to settle for a lap around the outside. It looked nice, from what I could tell. It kind of reminded me of Purdue with its red brick buildings, except it was in the middle or the second largest city in the country instead of being surrounded by corn fields.
The only part of the main campus I was able to see up close was the beach volleyball stadium, which is on the East end of campus, right across Figueroa Blvd from the Galen Center.
More importantly, I happened to catch the Spartans on their way into the arena .
Once inside, USC’s Galen Center seemed like a comfortable place to take in a game. The student section takes up the area behind one of the baskets and it was the first part of the arena to fill up. It looked like it was first-come, first-serve seating for the students. There were only two guys in line a few hours before the game. I hope they got the seats they wanted.
In the first warm up period, it looked like a lot of the MSU guys were putting on a slam dunk contest. Frankie Fidler showed some impressive athleticism going between the legs before flushing it home. But, when all of this was going on, Jaxon Kohler was practicing his stroke from the three point line.
Interestingly, all of the Spartan Bigs – Booker, Cooper, Kohler, and Zapala – put up threes during the second warm up period, with Kohler’s shot seeming to find the bottom of the net most often.
My biggest takeaway from this game was the Spartan fans, including Magic Johnson, showing up. They were noticeable outside the arena before the game and certainly inside during the game, where it appeared to be at least 50% Green and White faithful, if not more. There was a loud “Go Green, Go White!” as the Spartans came out for the second warm up period as the arena was filling up. No response from the USC faithful resulted in the USC DJ turning up the music to drown it out. I’m not sure if having a DJ at a basketball game is a thing now but it does seem quite appropriate for LA.
Izzo acknowledged the crowd in his post game presser when asked if there was any difficulty traveling to LA. He made sure to thank the MSU fans and said he felt bad for letting them down.
Finally, a few more takeaways from Izzo’s press conference:
- Coach has been waiting to see how the Spartans would respond to adversity and they didn’t respond very well today but they will have to fix that pretty quickly with UCLA coming up.
- Izzo was surprised that MSU shot 42%. Turnovers, offensive rebounding by USC, and poor free throw shooting were the differences in the game. There were a few times when USC got three or four offensive rebounds in a possession and one of them ended in a three. Izzo: “. . . there is just no reason you get beat on the boards like we did . . . they probably should have beat us by a lot more.”
- Izzo mentioned that MSU finished with only 9 fast break points. He said they did not get out and run because “you can’t run if you don’t have the ball.”
- The Spartans knew USC would be a match up problem . Izzo: “They have good players and their guards are bigger than ours.”
As a side note, this is Eric Musselman’s first year at USC and he brought in 11 transfers. The Trojans returned only one player from last year’s team. This is obviously a huge win for them and it will be interesting to see what it does for Southern Cal going forward. In his press conference, Musselman spoke of some extremely tough practices leading up to this game to prepare for MSU’s physicality.
- Izzo mentioned that Richardson had been hurt all week leading up to this game. He missed some practice but did practice yesterday. Syzmon Zapala also went down hard in the game. He was trying to warm up on the exercise bike but did not return. Izzo also said Zapala has been sick. Hopefully MSU can recover a bit before Tuesday.
- Izzo was asked if he thought the players felt pressure in trying to get him to the Big Ten wins record. He said he thinks they’d like to do it for him but doesn’t think there is pressure. He wants them to make their mark.
- And finally: “We’re going to have to regroup and it doesn’t get any easier at UCLA. We have to play better.”
So on that note, on to UCLA Tuesday to see how the Spartans respond. See you from Pauley Pavilion, TOC.