Defend. Rebound. Run.
Those are the three things every Tom Izzo team is required to do, and his Michigan State squad failed to live up to it for the first time in a long time during its 70-64 loss to USC on Saturday.
The commonality between defending, rebounding, and running is that none of it requires a whole lot of talent or ability. USC won this game because it played harder than MSU played in these hustle categories.
“We got punched in the mouth, and that doesn’t happen often,” said Izzo after the game.
It just looked like a Spartan team that was uncomfortable. Whether that was because of a 22-7 opening run for the Trojans or something else, it just didn’t look like the same MSU team that rolled out and took care of business in its previous road games.
None of Michigan State’s ten rotation players stood out Saturday after at least one or two did in each game throughout its 13-game win streak.
A team shooting 81% on the year from the free throw line went 11-for-19 (58%). The shot clock ran out on MSU before they got a shot off in the final minute when the lead was only five points. Coen Carr ran out of bounds during the following possession.
In total, the seventh-ranked Spartans ended with a season-low 64 points and never led during the entire game; that was the first time that happened to Michigan State this season. The leaders in D-1 fast break points per contest (18.6) were held to just nine on Saturday.
Michigan State’s average rebound margin of +10 became just +1 while allowing ten offensive rebounds to the Trojans.
“Winning by one rebound isn’t exciting at all,” Izzo said.
Michigan State did all it could to get back in the game. There were a few instances where the Spartans had the ball in a one or two-score game, but it felt like every time that opportunity arose, USC would get a needed stop and then stretch its lead back out.
The Trojans’ starpower from their starting five simply overcame MSU’s depth. Four of USC’s five starters played at least 34 minutes, with two going the full 40. Fears led Michigan State with 12 points, whereas three of the cardinal and gold’s starters - Desmond Claude, Wesley Yates III and Chibuzo Agbo - all contributed at least 14 points. The only statistic that was clearly in favor of the Spartans was bench points at a 30-9 margin.
USC’s starters outscored MSU’s starters, 61-34. While some of that margin is to be expected given that the Spartan bench gets a lot more minutes than most, it’s asking a lot for those players to overcome a -27 margin, especially during a cross-country trip against a team that received an additional day of rest.
Regardless, the winning streak had to come to a close at some point. No team runs through a 20-game Big Ten schedule without facing some adversity, and - realistically - every single person, coach and player would happily take a 9-1 record and be atop of the Big Ten standings at the halfway point of the season.
The goal now for Michigan State will be to prevent the loss from compounding. MSU will immediately get tested again with its second leg of its trip to Los Angeles being against a UCLA squad that will enter the game on a five-game win streak.
That game will tipoff at 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST on Tuesday, Feb. 4 and will be streamed exclusively on Peacock.
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