Freshman Inexperience Proves Too Costly For Spartans in Loss to Northwestern 81-74

Evanston, IL It and January, cold outside, and you’re on the road in the Big Ten. Did you expect it to be easy? If you or the number six ranked Spartans

Evanston, IL

It and January, cold outside, and you’re on the road in the Big Ten. Did you expect it to be easy? If you or the number six ranked Spartans thought a trip to Northwestern was going to be, you were wrong.

The Spartans arrived in Evanston on a wave of momentum that they haven’t seen in some time. They looked relaxed, confident and ready having won 15 in a row.

As the game started, the Wildcats created two schemes on each end that would challenge Izzo’s young crew.

On the defensive end, MSU was met with a trapping zone that looked for opportunity to catch the sleeping Spartans. MSU’s young point guards, were ready behind some great ball movement and penetration, The Spartans hot hand opened the game 9/10 from the floor and were out to an early lead.

On the offensive side, Northwestern utilized they’re complex movement to create some open looks and capitalize on open three’s and five offensive boards. It may have been the variety of looks that disoriented them or possibly just bad defense, but they generally seemed out of position and trailing the play.

They could not capitalize on their hot shooting and run away with a lead.

The latter part of the first half finished with a reversal of roles as Northwestern was hot from behind the arc, and MSU cooled down, and trailed 39-37 at half.

The second half started miserably. The defense which was sure to improve after some halftime adjustments didn’t. Open looks and terrible rebounding plagued the Spartans and if it wasn’t for some free throws by Sophomore Keith Appling, the Spartans would have been down by more than seven as Coach Tom Izzo took and uncharacteristic rushed timeout to gather his team.

This was clearly the first time the young Spartans had been tested since Gonzaga. Could they recover.....

Oh, forget the hesitation... It was a resounding “NO.”

The Spartans looked slow on defense and couldn’t capitalize on getting to the line, even though they were in the bonus very early on in the half.

They couldn’t recover from picks on the defensive end, and seemed to be allowing a slow Northwestern team walk around them and get easy lay ups.

By eight minutes left in the game, both teams were in the double bonus and the game slowed down. But while one team stood dejected and made lackadaisical passes, the other team thrived and utilized their energy to keep it rolling.

MSU would go on a mini-run to keep it respectable but if not for a few MSU fouls and some timely shooting. It would have been a 20 point loss.

After the game, Izzo lamented that his three and a half freshmen (Dawson, Trice, Kearny and Senior Transfer Wood) really had never seen this offense before.

But Izzo didn’t take anything away from Northwestern. He said, “They deserved to win the game, we didn’t.”

He made it clear, what the reason for losing this game was, “We didn’t lose this game on the offensive end, we lost it on the defensive.” He said the scout team tried admirably to simulate this offense but there was nothing like this invaluable experience to lead this team forward.

Draymond Green said going forward with a few days before arch rivals Michigan Wolverines, “It’s a true test of character to see if you can bounce back.”