Back in 1994, when Tom Izzo was still just an assistant coach under the legendary Jud Heathcote, the British rock band Bush could be heard on the radio singing:

"It’s the little things that kill; tearing at my brains again."

After the Michigan State Spartans fell on Saturday in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, 77-74, to the Wisconsin Badgers, it was a tune that seemed to be on everyone's mind in the locker room and at the postgame press conference.

"Well, I'm disappointed, and I think it shows you little things can make a difference," Izzo said. "We preach that all the time, and sometimes it doesn't go through."

A glance at the box score shows that Michigan State did a lot of the things that they needed to do to advance to the Big Ten Tournament championship game. They outrebounded Wisconsin 37-to-33 and claimed an 11-3 advantage in second-chance points.

Michigan State limited turnovers (seven total, equal to Wisconsin), and held the Badgers to just 31% from three on 9-for-29 shooting. The Spartans actually outshot the Badgers from deep, going 7-for-19 (37%). The Spartans held an 8-0 advantage in second chance points.

Stats like those usually result in Spartan victories.

The advantages for Wisconsin that resulted in the win were relatively subtle. The Badgers outscored the Spartans by three points from the free throw line and outshot Michigan State overall by less than two percentage points, 42.6% to 40.7%. That was it. It was just those little things.

The players also understood what went wrong.

"Coach hit on it last night," said freshman point guard Jeremey Fears after the game. "It's just the little things, you know, they win or lose you games. We talked about it a lot. I think down the stretch, we didn't do what we needed to to win a game. And it was a little thing, like the small possessions and that's just what matters the most, especially around this time."

Freshman guard Jase Richardson, who led the Spartans with 21 points, agreed.

"We've got to come out in the second half with energy," Richardson said. "We didn't get rebounds, those little late rebounds, and we didn't have those late floaters, and then (there were) a couple missed free throws here and there. So those little things just lost us the game tonight."