Michigan State entered the 2023-2024 season with high expectations for the team. Saturday night's primetime matchup seems like a perfect encapsulation of everything that fans believe has gone wrong for the Spartans this season.
MSU took on No. 2 Purdue on its home court of Mackey Arena with the Boilermakers poised to clinch at least a share of the Big Ten regular season title with a win, while the Spartans were coming off two frustrating losses and causing fans concern a continuing slide may cause the team to miss the NCAA Tournament.
Michigan State performed well early, even jumping out to an eight-point lead around the midway point of the first half. The team's shortcomings that have shown up all season long came in the second half to cause MSU to fall 80-74.
MSU has not found much success at Mackey arena, having last won a game there a decade ago on Feb. 20, 2014. The Spartans had also dropped three-straight in the series entering Saturday night's matchup, and head coach Tom Izzo was well aware of how difficult it is to play in West Lafayette during the game planning.
"Couple of goals were get off to a decent start," Izzo said in his opening remarks after the loss. "I knew the place would be rocking … getting off to a good start would be important. We did that most of the first half. We had one of those stretches again where we just can't get everybody playing well together."
