Michigan State basketball: What went wrong in loss at Indiana?

After playing really well for a month straight, Michigan State basketball had its first real dud of a game since the final 10 minutes of the second half of the Illinois game.

The Spartans held a lead in the second half against Indiana in Bloomington, but they just couldn’t overcome some runs by the Hoosiers, falling 82-69.

The loss drops Michigan State to 13-7 overall and 5-4 in conference play. Just staying above water in league play should be enough to get this team to the tournament, however.

Let’s take a look at what exactly went wrong in this latest MSU loss.

What went wrong for Michigan State basketball?

Plenty went wrong for the Spartans in this loss, but I’ll just speak about the most obvious issues from the loss that are all correctable.

• Michigan State gave up a couple of big runs in each half that they just couldn’t overcome. It was up nine early and then Indiana went into halftime with a five-point lead and then it had a bucket lead in the second half and then went down 10 a couple of minutes later.
• Tom Izzo failed to call timeouts when Indiana went on its big runs. One in the first half that saw a nine-point lead evaporate in minutes and another in the second half that wiped away a two-point advantage. Allowing the big runs was an issue, but they could have been halted before they were well out of hand.
• Mady Sissoko had a tough time trying to guard Trayce Jackson-Davis, giving up 29 points to the Hoosiers’ star big man. Mady’s defense has been lackluster lately.
• Tyson Walker wasn’t getting enough shots up.
• There hasn’t been enough quality ball movement lately. The Spartans need to have more assists on their made buckets and that just didn’t happen on Sunday as they settled for some shots.
• Pierre Brooks just can’t seem to get going.
• The Spartans got lost trying to defend guys like Tamar Bates and Trey Galloway who went a combined 8-for-9 from three.

Overall, it was a winnable game and Michigan State was in it for about 30 minutes but it just ran out of gas late in the second half when Indiana went on another big run.

Have to be better moving forward.