Michigan State basketball: 3 takeaways from emotional loss at Michigan

If you didn’t watch Saturday’s Michigan vs. Michigan State basketball game and just looked at the final score, you would have thought the Wolverines dominated the Spartans.

That wasn’t even close to the case, however.

Michigan State controlled the game, for the most part, and held a lead at halftime and for a good chunk of the second half, even hitting a 3-pointer with eight minutes left to take a 63-57 lead.

Michigan stormed back and the game was actually tied 72-72 with a couple of minutes left before Kobe Bufkin and Hunter Dickinson hit back-to-back threes to put the game away and then Michigan State fouled three meaningless times to make the final score look uglier than it was.

This was a tie game with two minutes left.

There are a lot of thoughts on my mind, but here are three takeaways from the devastating loss.

3. Mady Sissoko is struggling big time

It’s hard to be mad at Mady Sissoko because I know his struggles are not completely on him. He was lightly used during his freshman and sophomore seasons and then he was thrust into the fire this season as Tom Izzo put all of his eggs in one basket at the center position.

Mady felt the weight of the world on his shoulders because if he struggled, the team would have to rely on a couple of freshmen which could be detrimental.

As a third-year player and first-year starter, Sissoko got off to a hot start to the 2022-23 season but has since slowed drastically. His defense has regressed quite a bit and he’s just a major liability on the offensive end of the court. That continued on Saturday night.

Mady is struggling big-time right now and Izzo needs to figure out a solution before it’s too late.