It took a full 40-minute effort for Michigan State to hold on against Penn State at the half-empty Bryce Jordan Center on Saturday afternoon, but the Spartans got it done. A 76-72 win probably wasn’t what anyone expected, but these types of tight wins will make Michigan State better in the long run.
Penn State covered the spread, but Michigan State found a way to close strong, turning a 67-66 deficit into a 73-67 lead with under a minute left. This is how elite teams get it done.
Was this an impressive performance? Absolutely not, but it tested Michigan State’s mental toughness, and they were able to respond to every Penn State run and close on a high note with an 8-0 run before a couple of Nittany Lion buckets to make it interesting.
Here’s what I noticed about the Spartans in this game.
1. Divine Ugochukwu is a problem
Who would have thought that all it would’ve taken for Divine Ugochukwu to break out was being inserted into the starting lineup? We saw a different version of the Miami transfer on Saturday.
The sophomore got his first start with the Spartans on Saturday and responded by playing the role of hero with 23 points. He hit a big three to put Michigan State up two with a couple of minutes left and then hit another one to put the Spartans up five and essentially ice the game. Oh, and he hit two big free throws to put Michigan State up four with eight seconds left.
Ugochukwu was a perfect 5-for-5 from three and was 8-for-10 from the floor. If he builds on this, he’s going to be a problem for the rest of the Big Ten.
2. Whacky lineups nearly cost MSU
Inserting Ugochukwu into the starting lineup was a nice shot in the arm offensively, but that meant that Michigan State didn’t have a trusted backup point guard to spell Jeremy Fears Jr. That meant that Denham Wojcik had to play meaningful minutes in a close Big Ten game. As you can imagine, that didn’t go well.
The lineups were off because of this starting lineup change, and Trey Fort also barely saw the court which was an interesting development — could he be in Tom Izzo’s doghouse?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t personally want to see more of Wojcik and less of Fort moving forward. Let’s hope this is just a one-off.
3. Finals week apparently took a toll on this team
It’s always difficult for young student-athletes to go through finals week and then play a game right after, and we saw that with the Spartans on Saturday. It’s not an excuse, but it was fairly obvious that this team wasn’t as locked as it usually is.
Turnovers, sloppy passes, poor defense. It was very un-Michigan State-like.
Michigan State needs to regroup, close out non-conference play strong, and then head into January with some momentum. These past two games knocked the Spartans down a little, but we’ll see how resilient they are by how they respond to a couple of close games after blowing everyone out to start the season.
Ultimately, I think these close games will be good for Michigan State.