Heading into February and a trip to Los Angeles, Michigan State was riding high. The Spartans were on a 13-game winning streak and had a cushion over the other Big Ten teams with a 9-0 conference record.
Just under two weeks later, MSU has suddenly lost three of its last four games. Tuesday’s loss to Indiana was the most stunning, with it being at home, the Hoosiers having lost seven of their previous eight, and that it has already been reported that IU head coach Mike Woodson will be out at the conclusion of the season.
“I don’t think the players played very well and I don’t think the coaches coached very well,” said Spartan head coach Tom Izzo after the game. “That’s a bad combination against a team that was desperate.”
It would be very easy to talk about how Indiana’s 2-3 and 2-2-1 zones obviously caused the Spartans issues on the offensive end, but the fact of the matter is that Michigan State has had two simple, but very major issues, ever since it hopped on that flight to L.A that spell serious trouble for the remainder of the season.
The first is that MSU has trailed at the half in four consecutive games now. Obviously, the preferred outcome of any first half is to go into the break on top, but it feels extra important for this group of players.
“It’s super critical,” said guard Jase Richardson. “When you get out good in the first half, it kind of builds momentum on ourselves. And the past couple games, we’ve been down at the half and it kind of just has a different demeanor when you’re going into the halftime talk. So I feel like we just have to be better in the first half.”
What makes it so vital is that MSU is simply not a team that is very equipped to come back from these halftime deficits. That may be odd to say after what happened against Oregon, but teams that are losing are forced to take more threes — the shots that Michigan State is the worst power conference team in the country at making, according to KenPom.
“(We need to) make some shots,” Izzo said. “I don’t have some magic potent; make some shots.”
MSU went 4-for-23 from deep against the Hoosiers, including a 2-of-11 second half.
This trend can be seen throughout the year.
The Spartans are a perfect 18-0 when they lead or are tied at the half. When they trail, the record is 1-5. That win against Oregon was also Michigan State’s best three-point shooting night — with a minimum of 10 attempts — since its Big Ten opener against Minnesota on Dec. 4 and the second-best percentage of the season.
