Michigan State Basketball: 3 reactions to crushing loss at Michigan
By Nate Rhoades
Michigan State basketball struggled once again on the road when the traveled south to take on in-state rival Michigan. What happened?
Michigan State basketball was trying to gain steam after a gusty win at home against Purdue when they traveled to Ann Arbor to take on the Wolverines of Michigan. Once again they fell short and continued their tough stretch of games when they crumbled only a few possessions into the game.
Michigan State was able to punish the Wolverines when they came to East Lansing a few weeks ago and tried to do it again but Hunter Dickinson and Co. got the best of the Spartans this time around.
Without a strong performance, these Spartans are not playing like a normal Tom Izzo team. What did we notice in this contest?
3. These Spartans lack passion
These Spartans are having an up and down season where they will play well and strong one game and then look like they do not even want to be on the court the next. It looks like they have lost their desire for the game.
There needs to be passion on the court because when there is not their opponent doesn’t flinch. In the second half the Spartans went on a 10-2 run to cut the lead to 12 and try to get back into the game. Once the Spartans went on this run the Michigan coach called a timeout. A normal Michigan State team would get pumped, excited that they were on this run and that they were getting their game to flow.
Not this team though. They most that the Spartan bench got was some hard claps from Brown. That is simply not enough. These Spartans need to reflect and find their passion for the game again. They need to get excited when they go on runs and take that momentum and run with it. Instead they are on the court and look apathetic about the outcome of the game. Especially when they go down early.
This team is good enough to get out of hole if they get down early but not when they do not have any passion or excitement about the game they play. They need this passion in March to end the season.