Michigan State had a chance to win on Sunday evening at Nebraska as it seized the lead back late, but couldn't finish down the stretch. Dropping its first game in 12 outings against the Cornhuskers, the Spartans problems are not seeming to get fixed following a 77-70 loss in Lincoln that drops the team to 4-5 overall and 0-2 in Big Ten play.
"Disappointed is probably a word," Tom Izzo told media following the loss. "There are some things we did better. I couldn't believe some of the shots we missed early, but then we made the money shots . . . But when they hit those threes, banked in two 35, 40-footers at the end of the shot clock, instead of being up eight or nine at halftime, we were up three or four."
The Huskers indeed seemed incapable of missing as UNL shot 50% from the field, including 10-for-23 from 3-point range. The percentage marks the worst by MSU all season, and the fourth to shoot over 40% against the Spartans.
"Give them credit," Izzo said. "They made some plays. It's the third game in five that we lost that we were up with 4 minutes left to go in the game and then find a way to win it."
After MSU took a narrow 63-60 lead with 4:54 remaining, UNL proceeded to close out the final two minutes of action on a 10-3 run for the victory.
Despite the loss, Izzo did see some good from select players on the roster.
"I thought A.J. [Hoggard] played awfully well, both ends," Izzo praised of his point guard. "I thought Tyson [Walker] played okay. I thought they did a great job on him, give Fred [Hoiberg] credit. I believe that Malik [Hall] had his game overall, and I had to move him all over because of the lack of production I got out of my two centers."
Michigan State did see a season-high 22 points from Malik Hall on Sunday. The graduate forward finished the game with seven rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and a steal on his stat sheet. A.J. Hoggard also added 12 points, five rebounds, three assists, and two steals on the game as well with just one turnover.
"We keep talking about the little things," Hall said after the game. "Those things are the difference between, in a game, us winning and us losing. People are gonna hit shots on us, they do that all the time."
"[I'm] just disappointed that I thought we were playing well enough to win," Izzo said of his most of his team's effort. "And boy they made some shots, even in the second half."
The stellar showing by the two upperclass men was overshadowed by poor play from MSU's centers, though.
"We did a hell of a job on those back doors, and then our centers got lazy on ball pressure and they got three of them to start the second half, made nine of their their first 11 shots," Izzo said. "We'll be doing some restructuring, I guess, but really disappointed."
MSU's three bigs combined for just six points and six rebounds total amongst the three of Coen Carr, Carson Cooper, and Mady Sissoko.
"The way I feel right now, Nick and Stephen, are options," Izzo deadpanned when prompted what options he has for who to turn to for production on the current roster. Freshman big Xavier Booker was mentioned later on as well.
"We put him on the scout team and he really made some progress in the last two weeks," Izzo praised of Booker. "I mean, like every other great player I've had, and I almost put him in, but that center was so physical. Then they went with [Juwan] Gary, even though that one kid got hurt, we were kind of concerned because Gary's in our minds a better offensive player. And he goes 8-for-11. And we didn't think Booker could cover him.
"But he'll get his chance this week because there's going to be some rotation, but he's not the savior. People got to chill out on Book because he's a great kid. He's doing everything he can do. He's just going to take some time, just like a lot of other people. He's learning how to play harder. I've been really pleased with his practices ... But this week book will get more of a chance and we're going to we're going to start shuffling a little bit."
One freshman who is already seeing time on the court drew praise from Izzo for his performance in Lincoln Sunday, despite his stat lines.
"I thought Jeremy [Fears, Jr.] played his butt off as far as trying to check and do things," Izzo added in regards to centers failing on ball pressure. "And he just turned the ball over three times ... We need to get a little more out of Jeremy."
Fears ended the night +3 despite the turnovers and going 0-for-2 from the field.
Izzo came back to his upper-class men quickly, though.
"The one thing I did like about Tyson and Malik, they were in the game the whole time," Izzo said. "There was great dialogue. We took a step forward in a couple of areas there.
Hall also had words for his teammates regarding the loss.
"All I had to say was, 'We can't hang our heads,'" Hall said. "There's gonna be more games coming. We're gonna go play one of the top 10 teams in the country. We're gonna play more people out there. We're gonna get back into the Big Ten. It's like, nobody cares that we lost two games, they aren't gonna give us a free win. So we have to go grab it. We have to go take what we want. We can't keep talking about the same things. We have to be better."
Hoggard is also not too concerned at this point with the pressure to win at MSU despite the slow start. While the 4-5 start to the season matches Izzo's two worst of his career in East Lansing (1995-1996 and 2002-2003), Hoggard seemed confident the team will turn it around.
"We've been through a lot of stuff together on and off the court," Hoggard said. "It's going to click. We're not too worried about that. We're just worried about getting better every day and learning from the things that we're not doing. We did something positive in every game, but we just got to put it all together in one and we're going to come together and it's going to click because we've done it before."
The Spartans will have their final opportunity to make a statement in non-conference play next weekend in Detroit. A neutral court matchup against No. 6 Baylor awaits. Start time is set for 2 p.m. against the Bears with MSU hoping for a refresh.
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