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Michigan State Basketball: Can Spartans be fixed before it’s too late?

By Connor Muldowney

Michigan State's Joey Hauser, right, celebrates with Malik Hall, after Hall was fouled on a dunkduring the second half of the game against Rutgers on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.210105 Msu Rutgers 168a
Michigan State's Joey Hauser, right, celebrates with Malik Hall, after Hall was fouled on a dunkduring the second half of the game against Rutgers on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.210105 Msu Rutgers 168a /
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Michigan State’s head coach Tom Izzo, right, talks with Foster Loyer during the first half of the game against Purdue on Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.210108 Msu Purdue 069a
Michigan State’s head coach Tom Izzo, right, talks with Foster Loyer during the first half of the game against Purdue on Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.210108 Msu Purdue 069a /

Tom Izzo must trim the rotation, be more consistent

We saw against Purdue that the lineups were inconsistent for just about the entire second half. In the first half, we saw lineups that worked even though the offense wasn’t going off, but the defensive rotation was keeping Trevion Williams in check with both Mady Sissoko and Marcus Bingham Jr. playing some stingy defense on him.

Then, in the second half, Williams was the only means of offense for Purdue and the Spartans saw very little of Sissoko or Bingham out there. Williams ended up scoring 24 points in the final 20 minutes, including the game-winner with about four seconds left.

Why did the lineups do a complete 180 with Joey Hauser defending Williams and getting absolutely dominated? Tom Izzo didn’t have a good answer and that was the main problem in the second half: inconsistent lineups.

If Izzo had just kept doing what he did in the first half with the stable of bigs on Williams, making his life difficult, the Spartans would likely have held on for an easy win. That just wasn’t the cas.e

Also, having Foster Loyer in games for long stretches hurts the defense and makes it so there’s basically a void at the point on offense because he’s no longer looking to score or even shoot. AJ Hoggard or Rocket Watts need to be there at all times.

It’s time to trim the rotation and keep being consistent. Stay with what works — Izzo lost the game for MSU because of this reason.

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