Losing to Wisconsin is nothing new for Michigan State basketball. The Spartans have lost four of the past five meetings with the Badgers, proving that Greg Gard has Tom Izzo’s number.
There were plenty of concerns stemming from this latest loss to Wisconsin. The Spartans were run off the floor almost immediately, falling behind 22-14 and then never getting closer. That’s concerning in and of itself.
What are the other big concerns stemming from this loss?
1. Trey Fort now falling behind Denham Wojcik?
It was pretty obvious that Tom Izzo was not comfortable playing Trey Fort on Friday night, running him out there for just six minutes which resulted in 0-for-3 shooting from the floor. Seeing him play just six minutes in a game where offense was at a premium for the Spartans was just frustrating.
Even more frustrating was the fact that Denham Wojcik played eight minutes. While they’re not playing the same position, seeing Wojcik finish with more minutes than Fort made no sense.
Izzo needs to put his stubbornness aside and give Fort some run to see what he can do.
2. Perimeter defense
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of seeing lazy close-outs and sliding under screens against elite shooters. These issues have been lingering for a few games now, dating back to the Rutgers game where the Scarlet Knights finished with 27 attempts and 10 makes. That was a bad look for Michigan State considering Rutgers is one of the worst teams in the conference.
The Spartans then gave up 8-of-21 against Michigan, 10-of-21 to Minnesota, and they did hold Illinois to 10-of-36 from deep, but giving up that many attempts is a sign of poor perimeter defense — though Illinois did chuck up a lot of contested threes, too.
Friday’s 15-for-35 performance by Wisconsin from deep was just the cherry on top of a horrendous perimeter-defending stretch. This is concerning and it can’t continue.
3. Not enough offense
The half-court offense has been a problem all season, but the fast break has really helped things out, minimizing the half-court struggles. Losing Divine Ugochukwu for the season and not having Kaleb Glenn has really hurt this team, as well as the lack of Fort. That’s three shooters that Izzo was expecting to have contribute before the season, but two of them are now out and a third isn’t getting the playing time.
The team’s best shooters (Jaxon Kohler, Kur Teng, Jordan Scott) were a combined 10-of-40 from the floor and 6-for-18 from deep. That’s unacceptable, and you’re not going to win many games when your best offensive weapons not named Jeremy Fears shoot 25 percent from the floor.
Something has to be tweaked because this current offense won’t make it far in March.