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Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from huge win over No. 18 Iowa

By Connor Muldowney

EAST LANSING, MI - FEBRUARY 25: Xavier Tillman #23 of the Michigan State Spartans celebrates with Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans late in the second half of the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes at the Breslin Center on February 25, 2020 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
EAST LANSING, MI - FEBRUARY 25: Xavier Tillman #23 of the Michigan State Spartans celebrates with Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans late in the second half of the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes at the Breslin Center on February 25, 2020 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /
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Michigan State basketball was playing catch-up all game against Iowa at home on Tuesday night. What’d we learn from the ranked battle?

Home-court advantage has not been kind to Michigan State lately, but the Spartans found a way to grind out a win for the first time this season after trailing at halftime, 78-70.

The Spartans improve to 19-9 with the win and 11-6 in conference play with three regular season games remaining and, surprisingly, they still have a shot at the Big Ten title, but they’ll need to win at Maryland on Saturday.

With the win, Michigan State ends a two-game home losing streak and it was due, in large part, to the defense the Spartans (especially Xavier Tillman) played on Luka Garza.

What’d we learn from the Tuesday night showdown?

3. Xavier Tillman was a man vs. Luka Garza

Xavier Tillman didn’t play much in the first half after getting called for a couple of fouls in the post and that led to Luka Garza going off as the Spartans couldn’t seem to slow down the front-runner for National Player of the Year.

In the second half, Tillman stayed out of foul trouble, shut Garza down and made him look human for the first time all season.

Sure, Garza still finished with 20 points but he was much less effective with Tillman on him. In fact, he finished just 3-of-13 from the floor all game long with Tillman on the floor and he was 5-of-8 when he was on the bench. Michigan State needed Tillman to step up against the best post player in the Big Ten and he did just that.

Tillman may not have had the best offensive game with six points on 2-of-4 shooting, but it’s because he used all of his energy on the defensive end.

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