Michigan State Basketball: 3 storylines to follow heading into Big Ten play

1. Turnovers, turnovers, and more turnovers

This has been a focal point of why the Spartans have lost their two games against ranked teams. It is also been a major reason that teams they should be beating by 20 are hanging around and given a chance to make a run to win the game. The turnovers are a major issue.

The Spartans are averaging just under 16 turnovers a game and most of these turnovers are self-inflicted. They are stepping out of bounds or making traveling violations. Tom Izzo has said that they just have to slow down. They are going too fast without a plan. Izzo prefaced this by saying that he does not believe this applies to getting out in transition. He thinks they thrive when in transition which they do.

But he added that it is when they are in the half-court, they are just going too fast. They need to slow down and just let the game come to them and stop forcing the ball.

In Michigan State’s first nine games of this season, it has only had three games in which it has had 12 or fewer turnovers. They have shown they can play a game where they do not turn the ball over now they just need to do this consistently.

Currently, the Spartans are ranked 307th in the nation with their turnovers, and only one Big Ten team, Indiana, is ranked lower than them. If the Spartans can get their turnovers down to around 12 per game and ranked in the top 100, that will go a long way once conference play starts.