Michigan State Basketball: 3 quick reactions to pathetic loss at Penn St

2. Gone are the Big Ten bully days

Michigan State has been known for their toughness throughout Tom Izzo’s 27 seasons with the team. This year is different. They are not tough. They do not fight for loose balls and rebounds.

Gone are the days of Derrick Nix, Branden Dawson, Goran Suton and, Adrien Payne. These players did not get bullied down low and they certainly did not let their opponents have double digits offensive rebounds on multiple occasions. This team is different.

This team has lost the battle on the glass six different times this season three of those times coming in their last six games. They did not lose to Penn State but they did not win either. They need to locate their man and box out. Rebounds are the little things that teams have to do if they want to win games.

This team not only has lost the overall rebounding battle but they have lost the offensive rebounding battle 10 different times. Although they have won a good majority of those 10 games their opponents have been to the likes of Northwestern twice Penn State, Rutgers, Louisville, and Loyola-Chicago. These are teams that are not great teams and should not have beaten the Spartans on the glass.

Although they are won six of these games. They are games that they should have won convincingly. Instead they have won these games by an average of 0.6 points. That is begging for a round one exit in the tournament.

These Spartans have got to “look in the mirror” and find their Big Ten bully ball selves if they want to redeem the rest of their season.