Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from season-opening loss to Kansas

Turnovers, missed free throws, poor defense, losing the 50/50 balls. Michigan State basketball’s struggles on Tuesday night could be attributed to each one of those shortcomings against Kansas in a losing effort.

Michigan State couldn’t seem to come up with any loose balls or offensive rebounds in the second half which led to Kansas pulling away.

The Spartans showed some solid signs in the final 20 minutes, but they just turned the ball over too much, missed too many free throws, and couldn’t come up with enough stops. The Spartans have a lot to learn from here.

What’d we learn from the Spartans’ tough loss?

3. Turnovers continue to plague the Spartans

For years now, turnovers have been Michigan State’s kryptonite, and Tom Izzo knows it.

But even those he addressed the turnovers at halftime and mentioned that it was the biggest issue through 20 minutes, the Spartans continued to be careless with the ball. They surrendered plenty of “turnovers for touchdowns” as Izzo calls them and Kansas was able to build a lead in the second half because of these lazy passes.

Michigan State couldn’t seem to generate any momentum in the second half because of the turnovers and Kansas went on a run that the Spartans couldn’t come back from.

The offensive side of the ball needs to be tightened up moving forward so this multi-year trend doesn’t carry over into 2021-22.