Michigan State basketball must take advantage of rare fresh start

After shutting things down following a COVID-19 outbreak, Michigan State basketball must take advantage of a rare midseason fresh start.

It’s been over two weeks since Michigan State last took the court, losing a home-court heart-breaker at the hands of Purdue, 55-54.

That game not only showed that this team has a long way to go before it can be competitive in the Big Ten this year, but it also needs a fresh start. Sometimes, getting breaks in action can help with that. Unfortunately, Michigan State was hoping that its break in action would be planned rather than due to a COVID-19 outbreak which saw Joshua Langford, Mady Sissoko and Steven Izzo test positive for the virus.

Since then, things have been shut down and the Spartans are hoping to return to practice on Monday or Tuesday.

But with the last taste of live action being a tough loss which dropped their record in the Big Ten to 2-4 and put their NCAA Tournament hopes in serious doubt, there’s some concern that this team might come out of this hiatus a little flat.

I don’t think Tom Izzo is going to let that happen.

With this time off, everyone has gotten a chance to think. Think about what they need to do in order to get back into the race or even on the heels of contention. Think about what has gone wrong and what needs to be fixed. Think about why things haven’t gone according to plan after such a hot start to the season.

This break could actually end up being good for the team because they didn’t get the usual break over the holidays and maybe this refreshing time off in a grueling season filled with disappointments thus far will pay major dividends.

This team needed a restart button and it may have gotten one in the form of an unfortunate stop in action.

I’m not saying things are going to be magically fixed when the team returns to action, but this pause in action may end up being what saves the season. A restart was needed, and we can all agree on that.