Losing in the fashion that Michigan State basketball lost on Friday night at Wisconsin had to just boil Tom Izzo's blood. He clearly took that lopsided loss to heart, bouncing back do dominate a UCLA bubble team, 82-59.
The Spartans are now 21-5 on the season and 11-4 in conference play, officially locking up a winning Big Ten record yet again. A win over UCLA is something that Izzo had been craving after losing to the Bruins last year and there's still that bad taste from the First Four game back during COVID lingering in the Hall of Fame coach's mouth.
The defense dominated throughout and the team shot 52 percent from 3-point range to finish with one of its most lopsided wins in weeks. This felt like the team we saw a month ago.
What'd we learn from the bounce-back win over UCLA?
1. Jordan Scott raises this team's ceiling
Jordan Scott only entered the starting five a couple of weeks ago, and he looked like he belonged early on. He looked more comfortable than he's been all season on Tuesday night, hitting three big threes and finishing with 11 points, three rebounds, and two assists.
The more we see of Scott in that starting five, the better he gets. He's averaging around 12 points per game over the past five games and he's shooting a really efficient 19-of-39 from the floor.
Adding a scoring option like Scott on the wing just raises this team's ceiling.
2. The defense returned
Failing to hold teams under 76 points over the past few weeks has been disappointing to see but the defense that we had grown to love when it was No. 1 in the nation before this recent slump returned on Tuesday night.
We saw a much more motivated Michigan State team on the defensive end and it showed that the ceiling of this team can be unlimited if both sides of the floor are playing well at the same time.
UCLA could not get anything going offensively, and it was because this defense just came to play.
3. When this team hits threes, it's over
When the offense struggles, the entire team seems to wilt away. When the offense is hitting threes, there aren't many teams in America that can beat the Spartans.
Michigan State was 14-of-27 from deep and when the Spartans have a higher 3-point percentage than the opponent this season, they're 19-1. That's the key to a deep run.
This just needs to be a consistent thing.