Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from huge win over No. 4 Purdue

Michigan State basketball needed a near-perfect effort to beat Purdue on Saturday afternoon and it was all thanks to strong defense and hot shooting.

What a win. It’s never easy and it was stressful until the very end, but Michigan State basketball stepped up to beat No. 4 Purdue in East Lansing on Saturday afternoon.

The win improves Michigan State to 19-9 overall and 10-7 in conference play and the Spartans should be comfortably in the NCAA Tournament now. It was a gutsy win and it ties Tom Izzo with Bob Knight as the most wins as a Big Ten coach ever.

Tyson Walker played hero with a 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds left, sending Purdue home with a loss.

What’d we learn from this one?

3. The lineup changes helped

Instead of falling behind big early on, Michigan State raced out to a 5-0 lead thanks to a three by Gabe Brown and a quick bucket. It was the fastest start the Spartans had gotten out to in weeks.

The Spartans started Malik Hall over Joey Hauser and Julius Marble over Marcus Bingham and it seemed to bring some life to the lineup to start the game. And both Bingham and Hauser looked good off the bench, scoring a combined 10 points and playing solid defense.

Hall struggled, scoring just two points and missing a couple of wide-open threes but Marble had a heck of a game, holding his own against Zach Edey and finished with 12 points and three rebounds.

There was a ton more energy on the floor to start the game and these lineup changes were a welcome sight.