Michigan State Basketball: 5 takeaways from horrendous loss vs. Indiana

Things went from bad to worse on Saturday night as Michigan State basketball couldn’t overcome a surge from Indiana. What’d we learn?

I’ll be the first to admit it, as the final buzzer sounded, I was full of hot takes, stating that this team may need to start worrying about the Josh Langford injury.

Then I sat down to digest it.

Michigan State struggled at home against an average Indiana team but these kinds of losses happen almost every year. Just look at Duke losing at home to Syracuse a few weeks back — over the course of a 30-plus game season, these upsets happen.

The most important aspect of this loss will be how the team responds.

Reflecting on the shocking defeat in East Lansing, what did we learn?

5. Free throws may have been the difference

What the heck happened? Michigan State shot 45 percent from the floor, 43 percent from beyond the arc and had just 10 turnovers, but still lost the game. Where was the issue?

Free throws.

It couldn’t have been any uglier if the Spartans strapped on blindfolds and tried to shoot freebies all night long. They finished just 8-for-22 from the charity stripe and couldn’t seem to figure out that free throws are supposed to be free points.

Cassius Winston was the lone bright spot here, making all four of his attempts, but the rest of the team combined to go 4-for-18, led by Nick Ward’s horrid 1-for-9 performance.

If Michigan State made even half of its free throws, this game doesn’t go to overtime and the Spartans escape an upset. It’s too bad this team lacked that killer instinct all night long and got lazy from the foul line.

Time to make 100 before leaving practice this week.