Michigan State Basketball: 5 takeaways from tough loss at Purdue

Michigan State basketball had a tough game on Sunday afternoon, losing to Purdue in West Lafayette. What did we learn?

Everyone knew it was bound to happen. The first loss of the Big Ten regular season was going to come sooner or later, but no one expected Purdue to handle Michigan State for 30-plus minutes the way it did on Sunday afternoon.

Michigan State played lazy through the first half and settled for shots that it normally wouldn’t all while failing to get the ball into the post and defend the 3-point line.

The Spartans nearly pulled off an incredible comeback, going from down 23 to just trailing by four with a few minutes left. In the end, Purdue earned the win while the Spartans were handed their first loss since November and first Big Ten regular season defeat since the middle of last year.

What’d we learn from the Spartans’ first Big Ten loss of the season?

5. Slow starts are going to start biting this team

Falling behind by 10 within the first 10 minutes was not only less than ideal, but it was also detrimental to the team’s confidence. When the Spartans started to see Purdue make its shots and they could hit anything, they started to settle for threes.

Settling for the long ball killed Michigan State in the first half and the Spartans were shooting just under 25 percent by halftime. Playing catch-up isn’t ideal, especially on the road in an environment like Mackey Arena, one of the toughest places to play in the Big Ten, if not the country.

Purdue was the better team from the opening tip on — outside of a 10-minute stretch in the second half — but if Michigan State avoided that sluggish start and even kept things within 5-7 points by the half, this is a completely different game. Being down 18 at the half makes things almost insurmountable away from home, but the Spartans nearly pulled off the comeback.

Michigan State got off to a slow start against Iowa the game before and it’s been a theme for this team before putting together big runs each game, and that can’t continue if the Spartans want to make a deep run in March.