Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from upset loss to Northwestern

Yet again, Northwestern proved to be a thorn in Michigan State basketball’s side on Sunday evening. What’d we learn from the Spartans’ first loss?

In true Michigan State fashion, the Spartans found themselves on the wrong end of a lopsided ballgame in the first half as Northwestern raced into the locker room with a 13-point lead.

The start of the second half wasn’t pretty for the Spartans either as Northwestern extended their lead to as many as 21 before Michigan State started to chip away. Like always, Michigan State found itself playing catch-up at Welsh-Ryan Arena, but you can never really count this Spartan team out because it can score in bunches.

But with Joey Hauser going down with an injury at the end of the first half and Joshua Langford in foul trouble, that wouldn’t be a simple task.

Michigan State just couldn’t piece together extended runs as Northwestern would just end everything with a big three or easy drive to the hoop to knock off the No. 4 team in the country.

What’d we learn from the disappointing loss?

3. Rebounding needs to be the focus moving forward

For a team that “has an athletic advantage” and should win on the glass against teams like Northwestern, the Spartans just can’t seem to figure it out on the boards.

Once again, the Spartans were out-toughed on the glass by an opponent that, on paper, shouldn’t be winning rebounding battles. It was clear relatively early on that this wasn’t the Spartans’ day and they were going one-and-done on too many trips down the floor. No offensive rebounding and not really crashing the boards as well as they should have on defense.

Michigan State still finished with a tie on the glass (32-32) with Northwestern but this needs to be a focus moving forward because the Wildcats might be the weakest rebounding team the Spartans see all Big Ten season.