Michigan State Basketball: Report card for overtime loss at Louisville

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LOUISVILLE, KY – NOVEMBER 27: Dwayne Sutton #24 of the Louisville Cardinals shoots the ball during the 82-78 OT win over the Michigan State Spartans at KFC YUM! Center on November 27, 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

Defense: C

Not having who Tom Izzo calls “our best defender, by far” definitely hurt on Tuesday as the perimeter was open for most of the evening. Sure, Louisville only made 34 percent of their shots from distance, but they aren’t known for making those shots normally.

Junior guard Ryan McMahon killed Michigan State the most, making 4-of-7 shots from distance, most of them being off-balance heat-checks, and Louisville finished with 10 makes on 29 attempts — but many of those shots were wide open and unguarded. Izzo nearly had a heart attack watching the Cardinals get dozens of lightly-contested threes up.

A healthy Matt McQuaid would have helped matters and likely would have checked McMahon, holding him in check and not allowing him to get a career-high 24 points off the bench.

Unfortunately McQuaid didn’t travel with the team due to an injury and the team suffered because of that.

Cassius Winston, Nick Ward, Josh Langford and Kenny Goins got regularly beat to the basket as everyone liked to take the ball to the hole off the dribble. That even cost the Spartans two big points before halftime as they couldn’t stop a dribble-drive as time expired, making the Louisville lead six instead of just four.

On top of all that, foul trouble was a factor as the Spartans couldn’t seem to play defense without getting whistled for hand-checks and reach-ins.

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