The 3-2-1: Michigan State humbled in Big Ten opener

No. 4 Michigan State (6-1, 0-1) was humbled by a 79-65 loss in the Big Ten opener to a Northwestern team that hadn’t beaten a team ranked in the Top 5 since 1979.

Northwestern probably played as good a game is it can play, but that is something that Michigan State teams should anticipate given the name on their jerseys and their program’s status as a measuring stick for every other conference program.

Now the Spartans return home to East Lansing with work to do, and a difficult task ahead in a Christmas Day match-up with Wisconsin, which is playing as well as any team in the Big Ten.

Continue reading for Three Things We Learned, Two Questions, and One Prediction from the Big Ten opener.

Being ranked in the Top 5 and being a Top 5 team are two different things.

Based on its body of work to this point in the season, it’s not a surprise that Michigan State was ranked in the Top 5 going into this game.

“We are not the fourth best team in the country,” Tom Izzo said. “We are probably there because somebody has to be there.”

This game exposed issues that must be addressed for Michigan State to become a team worthy of a Top 5 ranking.

“We’ve got a good team, but we’ve got some holes,” Izzo said. “We had a couple of players that had bad games. I probably had a bad game.”

Do I think Michigan State can develop into a Top 5 team?

Yes, I actually do.

But there is a lot of work to do before it can happen, just as there was last year at this time. We know how good the Spartans were before their season was cancelled on the eve of the Big Ten tournament last March. But it took them until the final month of league play to put it all together.

So what has to happen?

First, Rocket Watts has to be able to run this team with a level of consistency from game to game, and do so without letting his struggles on offense dictate his level of play on defense.

Second, Michigan State needs to be able to get a bucket inside when the outside shots aren’t falling. This is a live-by-the three, die-by-the three, type of team right now, and Michigan State can’t settle for outside jumpers.

Third, Michigan State needs to play better ball-screen defense (more on that later).

Talk Michigan State Basketball at THE FINAL FOURUM message board.

It's the internet's oldest, best and only message board dedicated entirely to Michigan State Spartan Basketball discussion.

When Michigan State had Cassius Winston there wasn’t much guess work. When the Spartans needed a bucket, they went to No. 5. He either made a big bucket, or made the pass that led to the big bucket.

Against a red-hot player like Boo Buie was on Sunday night, Winston always seemed to possess an answer. And when Winston didn't have an answer, Michigan State usually lost.

Michigan State doesn't have a go-to scorer like Winston with the ability to put a team on his shoulders. And I don’t think there is one guy on this roster that can carry Michigan State as a scorer the way that Winston did during the second half of his career.

What Michigan State has is a collection of guys that can get hot and carry the scoring in spurts. Tonight, aside from Josh Longford when he wasn't in foul trouble, Michigan State's top scorers didn't produce.

Seven games into the season, Michigan State still needs to find a guy or combination of guys that are capable of putting the team on their shoulders and carry the scoring burden when that is necessary.

Who is that guy? I’m not sure.

Joey Hauser leads Michigan State in scoring and has been a double-double machine for the Spartans prior to this game, but he doesn’t feel like that guy because he doesn’t have the ball in his hands enough.

Is Rocket Watts that guy? Maybe at some point he will become that guy, but he isn’t right now. And I don’t think he’ll become that guy until he learns how to balance his responsibilities as a lead guard. One of the problems for Watts in this game was he took too many shots in the first half that Winston would have saved for the second half if he were in the same position.

Is Aaron Henry that guy? It’s hard to be that guy when you’re missing lay-ups and you can’t knock down an outside shot. Right now, however, Henry is the guy that needs to keep looking for his shot the way he did against Duke. Against a zone, it gets a little bit tougher if you can’t hit an open three.

Is Josh Langford that guy? I'm not sure, but he did some really good things tonight on offense when he wasn't in foul trouble. The mid-range jumper is back. He is shooting the three with confidence, and he is rebounding more effectively.

So, Michigan State has a bunch of guys that are capable of scoring between 10 and 15 points on regular basis, but the Spartans don’t have a guard that can rise up and give you 25 when you need to match a red-hot scorer on the opposing team.

That doesn’t mean that guys can’t grow into roles they don't currently play. But it takes assertiveness to take a game over, and it also takes timing.

In the second half, we saw the ball moving on the perimeter at a pretty good clip and in a lot of instances guys that you’d like to see shooting the ball didn’t in order to give a teammate a better shot.

That’s all well and good, but when Watts is turning down a pretty good look at a three to get the ball to Julius Marble for an 18-footer in the corner against a zone, that’s a win for Northwestern.

Watts turned down a lot of shots in the second half. And the reason he turned them down is that he took some terrible shots in the first half.

At the end of the day, however, this game wasn't lost due to a lack of a go-to scorer or missing open jumpers. Both of those things were problematic for the Spartans, but the biggest issue was a lack of effort and energy.

Xavier Tillman was one of the best ball-screen defenders in the Izzo era, so it’s no surprise that Michigan State has had some drop-off in its ball screen defense.

This was a point of emphasis for the Spartans during the last week because Tom Izzo knows that Michigan State’s ball screen defense has to be better and that the issues this team is facing aren’t just a matter of running into some talented mid-major guards against University of Detroit, Oakland, and Western Michigan.

Michigan State isn’t where it needs to be with ball screen defense, and that has been an obvious issue throughout the season.

That said, lack of effort and execution on defense was the biggest issue.

“That was one of the most disappointing performances with the way we played in comparison to the scouting report that we've had,” Izzo said. “Missing shots, that’s okay. We took some bad shots. That’s not okay, but I can live that. Not guarding anybody. Not rebounding. Fouling. Forty-seven percent from the three. That was ridiculous.”

Izzo's assessment is shared by his players.

“We didn’t cover scout well enough,” Malik Hall said. “When we came into the locker room everybody knew what the problem was.”

Michigan State has several guys with the ability to score with their back to the basket, but the Spartans don’t really have a post player that can score with his back to the basket on a game-in, game-out basis.

Xavier Tillman was never a great post scorer, but he became a reliable post-player through hard work and determination.

Maybe this game isn’t the best barometer for post-play. That said, when Michigan State got the ball on the block, the Spartans made Northwestern’s Pete Nance, who is admittedly much-improved, look like Daniel Oturu, who was at Minnesota last year and is now playing for a paycheck.

We’ve seen Julius Marble do some things with his back to be basket, and he has solid post moves, although he didn’t do much in this game.

Thomas Kithier can score on the block if he wants it bad enough or if he catches defenders napping, but he isn’t somebody who you can throw the ball into and get a bucket with reliability.

Marcus Bingham has flashed here and there as a post-scorer. His jump hook is improved, but lack of strength is always going to be an issue until it isn’t.

Mady Sissoko is too raw to be reliable as an interior scorer. He has tremendous upside, but he is a work in progress.

Joey Hauser has been Michigan State’s best post scorer this season. Against Big Ten opponents, however, Michigan State is going to need Hauser on the perimeter in the role as stretch four.

The Spartans have to get the job done by committee inside right now, and that’s okay as long as they can get a decent amount of production collectively. If they don’t, you’re going to see a lot more games like this when things spiral quickly because outside jumper isn’t falling, and transition offense is difficult to come by.

Watts had taken some positive strides in his role as a point guard over the last several games. But this was not a good game for Watts as a point guard, and things aren’t likely to get much easier on Thursday when Michigan State plays a good Wisconsin team.

“Rocket was improving so much, so this was a kind of a setback for everybody,” Izzo said.

Setback aside, Izzo doesn’t believe that the point guard position is too much for Watts to handle. That said, there are going to be peaks and valleys for Watts as he continues to learn the position.

“Nobody has given Rocket more credit that me in the last two and half or three weeks,” Izzo said. “He is a sophomore and I had juniors and seniors that have had worse nights than him. He took a couple of bad shots, but what does that have to do with your defense? It wasn’t all him.”

How Watts handles the disappointment from this game depends a lot on mental toughness. And that is something that Watts has impressed me with since he set foot on campus.

This game should only serve as motivation for Watts. When Watts is motivated, good things usually happen.

Have you ever seen Michigan State play with a lack of effort during the Izzo era for two games in a row? If you have, you and I have different definitions of effort.

For a program like Michigan State, which has an identity based on playing with maximum effort, nothing is worse than failing to measure up to program standards for hustle and hard work.

This was an embarrassing loss for Michigan State. And while I’m not ready to predict a Michigan State victory on Christmas Day, I am confident that the outcome of that game will not be determined by a lack of effort on the part of the Spartans.

“We’re all pissed off about this loss, we got embarrassed and we know what we have to do,” Hall said. “Our main focus this week will be to get a win on Christmas Day.”

Paul Konyndyk has covered Michigan State basketball for SpartanMag.com since 2006. He has covered the NCAA Tournament 14 times, including four Final Fours.