Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from win over No. 6 Duke

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Nov 28, 2020; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State Spartans head coach Tom Izzo points from the sidelines during the second half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Jack Breslin Student Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports /

1. MSU played poorly and still won comfortably

From the opening tip, the Spartans’ shooting touch was just off. They couldn’t hit anything and fell behind by 10 points before they could even blink.

Michigan State was struggle on offense with shooting and turnovers as the Spartans were just sloppy overall, but a short run at the end of the first half was the difference. Michigan State was playing solid defense all game so you can’t knock that end of the floor for the Spartans, but the offense was not good.

Rushed shots, bad looks, soft passes and silly mistakes made this game closer than it should have been. Missed free throws and bad fouls also led to a much closer final score.

All of this poor play and Michigan State still beat the No. 6 team on their own floor (granted, no fans) and made it look easy in the second half — until the final couple minutes.

That six-point win probably should have been 20 just like the 10-point win over Notre Dame should have been 25 and the 16-point win over Eastern should have been 30-plus.

Michigan State needs to learn to close.

Next. MSU Basketball: 5 bold predictions for December. dark

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