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Michigan State Basketball: 5 takeaways from impressive Maryland win

By Connor Muldowney

EAST LANSING, MI - JANUARY 21: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans drives to the basket while defended by Ivan Bender #13 of the Maryland Terrapins in the first half at Breslin Center on January 21, 2019 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
EAST LANSING, MI - JANUARY 21: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans drives to the basket while defended by Ivan Bender #13 of the Maryland Terrapins in the first half at Breslin Center on January 21, 2019 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /
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Michigan State basketball recorded yet another impressive win, beating No. 13 Maryland by 14 points in East Lansing. What’d we learn?

Once again, Tom Izzo wasn’t all that impressed. He had some good things to say about Cassius Winston’s game, but he wasn’t blown away by his team’s 14-point victory over the No. 13 Maryland Terrapins.

The win was impressive, though.

Michigan State improved to 17-2 on the season with the victory and 8-0 in conference action. The Spartans controlled the action from start to finish and had some players step up for an injured Josh Langford as well as Nick Ward who was in foul trouble and didn’t score a single point.

What’d we learn from Michigan State’s win over Maryland?

5. Defense is legit, and getting better

Before the game, I predicted that Michigan State would hold Maryland to under 65 points, becoming the fourth straight opponent to fail to reach that mark against the Spartans, but I had no idea the defense would be this dominant.

Besides a couple of overpowering and-ones by Bruno Fernando and five 3-point makes by Aaron Wiggins, the Spartan defense absolutely shut down the Terrapins and made them work for everything.

Michigan State had been a team that didn’t force many mistakes from opponents, but that seemed to change against Maryland as it stole nine passes and the Terrapins finished with 12 turnovers. That’s exactly what this defense needed to do to prove itself worthy of “top-tier” status.

Sure, the Spartans could defend the perimeter and the post relatively well, but they never really put pressure on the opposition by forcing mistakes left and right. They did that constantly versus the Terrapins and also added nine blocks.

This team is getting better defensively by the week and they have now held four straight teams to 65 points or less.

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