3 takeaways from Michigan State basketball's tough loss to No. 3 Purdue

2. Guard play giveth, guard play taketh away

On Friday, Michigan State won because the guard play was fantastic as the quartet of Jaden Akins, Tyson Walker, AJ Hoggard, and Tre Holloman combined for over 50 points and shot well over 50 percent from the floor while playing elite defense.

Well, the guards played really solid defense on Friday again but the offense was not there. The four guards combined for 37 points which isn't horrible, but they shot just 14-for-42 from the floor.

Walker was just 6-for-18 and Akins was 2-for-11 and Hoggard went just 3-for-8. When you have all three of your starting guards struggling offensively, you're not going to win many games. And that's the main concern everyone had going into the postseason.

We've seen that when the guards are all on at the same time, no one can beat Michigan State but when they're struggling or at least 2-3 of them struggle, the team has a tough time winning.

Fortunately, the rest of the team (and Holloman) played really well on Friday so they were almost able to beat Purdue, but if Walker or Akins even had an average game, by their standards, Michigan State pulls off the upset.