Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from uninspired loss at Michigan

1. For some reason, this team is playing with no sense of urgency

Tom Izzo had been talking about getting his guys ready for road games and on Saturday, we didn’t see much of that from the get-go. The Spartans had an early 1-0 lead but that was basically as good as it got because the Wolverines would go on to extend their lead to 10 in the first half before Michigan State cut it to six at the break.

Playing in a hostile environment against a hated rival should be motivation enough to get off to a hot start and play with a sense of urgency, but we didn’t see that.

In fact, Michigan State played timid, directionless basketball again. It look as if this team didn’t want to take command of the game despite getting multiple chances to do so and it led to Michigan extending a one-point second half lead to nine in the blink of an eye.

Cassius Winston can only do so much. Xavier Tillman had another up-and-down game, but settled down after a shaky start. The role players need to do more.

We need to see Aaron Henry take over. He had 11 points and shot the ball relatively well, but he needs to be more aggressive. We need to see Gabe Brown drive more when his shot isn’t falling. We need to see Marcus Bingham Jr. come off the bench with some energy. We need to see someone — anyone — step up as a vocal leader and pick the team up when things aren’t looking good.

We haven’t seen a sense of urgency with this team since mid-January and it’s starting to become a massive concern.