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Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from blowout win at Nebraska

By Connor Muldowney

CHAMPAIGN, IL - FEBRUARY 11: Head coach Tom Izzo of the Michigan State Spartans is seen during the game against the Illinois Fighting Illini at State Farm Center on February 11, 2020 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
CHAMPAIGN, IL - FEBRUARY 11: Head coach Tom Izzo of the Michigan State Spartans is seen during the game against the Illinois Fighting Illini at State Farm Center on February 11, 2020 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /
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Michigan State basketball went on the road and picked up a big win over Nebraska on Thursday night. What’d we learn from the Spartans’ blowout?

After the first 20 minutes of Thursday night’s game, it looked like Michigan State was headed toward disaster against an 8-17 Nebraska team on the road.

And then the Spartans closed strong, out-scoring the Cornhuskers by 18 in the second half to pull away with an 86-65 win, getting back on track before a tough stretch to end the year.

With the victory, Michigan State is now 18-9 but there are more opportunities for signature wins as the final four games of the regular season come against ranked opponents — two home and two on the road. Can the Spartans use this blowout road win as a confidence-booster heading into the remainder of the schedule?

What did we learn from their win on Thursday night?

3. Turnovers were a major issue

For some reason, Michigan State was sloppy with the ball on Thursday. Cassius Winston got pick-pocketed a couple of times, Xavier Tillman fumbled the ball away, Aaron Henry had some errant passes and there were just some poor decisions all game long that led to 22 turnovers compared to just 20 assists.

I will say, the ball movement was much smoother against Nebraska than it had been in previous games, but turning the ball over 22 times against an 8-17 team is not going to cut it.

You can bet Tom Izzo wasn’t happy with that sloppy display even though the Spartans found a way to win by 21. If Michigan State cuts those turnovers in half, we might be talking about a 30-40 point road win.

These guys need to focus up because turning the ball over as lazily as they did on Thursday isn’t going to lead to wins against teams like Iowa, Ohio State, Maryland or Penn State down the stretch.

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