Michigan State Came To Minnesota & Dominated the Gophers 87-57

The Barn Minneapolis, MN The #1 Michigan State Spartansshowed up to Williams Arena and promptly handed the struggling Gophers a boring loss 87-57. Now

The Barn

Minneapolis, MN

The #1 Michigan State Spartansshowed up to Williams Arena and promptly handed the struggling Gophers a boring loss 87-57. Now before you get offended by a calling a blowout road win in the Big Ten boring, allow me to explain.

With the Spartans taking heat for being ranked #1 by the coaches and #2 by the AP and the NCAA selection committee calling them a ridiculous three seed, MSU needed a boring win. MSU has arguably taken every teams best shot this year. The Spartans are 25-3 (13-2) and have had their struggles with teams that are not that good. Yet no one mentions that they are an astounding 6-1 ON THE ROAD IN CONFERENCE PLAY!

Tonight the Spartans showed up and simply took care of their business. They dominated a team that they should have. Tonight the Spartans were magnificent in their blandness. They dominated an inferior opponent by putting their foot on the neck of their opponent and never letting up. Here in the land of the “Vikings” the Spartans were as ruthless as Ragnar Lodbrok.

Tom Izzo said of the performance, “We shot the ball well, we wanted to go inside early, it was one of those nights where Nick just went a little too quick and turned it over, I think he had six turnovers in the first half, I don’t know if he ended up with eight or whatever but he played much better the second half. It was disappointing, what was exciting was that Jaren stayed out of foul trouble and played well and made a lot of shots, we got him the ball in the post, we got him the ball off the post, we got him the ball from three, and I give Myles a lot of credit to come off that big game and he was just hunting for passes more than shots, and I thought Cassius Winston played awfully well in that first 10 minutes of the game where the whole standards were set. So there were a lot of good things defensively we did, broke down a little bit at the end and they hit some threes, but in general I thought the job we did on defense was good, I thought offensively we did what we wanted to do, but those turnovers made it look like an ugly first half. The only thing I was disappointed with personally was I didn’t think we moved the ball as well the in the first half, I thought we did a better job in the second half”

Jaren Jackson, Jr. (3J) played like a #1 overall NBA pick. He led the Spartans with 27 points and six rebounds and was a defensive savant. He showed discipline avoiding fouls and played like a seasoned pro. On the night 3J had zero personal fouls and played 22 minutes. Nick Ward had 13 points and nine rebounds narrowly missing another double-double. Ward did have six turnovers. The Spartans saw 11 players get legitimate minutes and ten of them scored. Cassius Winston was the only other Spartan in double digits. He had 12 points, five rebounds, and five assists. He also only had two turnovers.

But the story of the game was the unselfish play of Miles Bridges. He had five rebounds and five points and four assists. Bridges was a savant on defense and distributed the ball and set up his teammates passing up shots for the benefit of the team. He was so good that while the hordes of media surrounded 3J he boldly declared on his captain and friend, “Miles Bridges is the most unselfish superstar.”

Gopher head coach Richard Pitino said of the loss, “It’s hard. It’s hard. But nobody is going to feel sorry for us. I just have to keep these guys scratching and clawing, staying positive. It’s tough to do against Michigan State, but we get a little time off to regroup and get our confidence back…and continue to move forward.”

Tom Izzo is fond of encouraging his teams to, “To leave a footprint.” He asks each team to do something not seen in the illustrious Spartan past and this one accomplished that tonight. With the aforementioned 25-3 start, the Spartans now have the best start to a season in program history.

I asked Izzo of this particular footprint, “ You know somebody said that to me and I forgot about it before the game, but that does mean something to me because it gives this team a chance to have some identity of their own, you know we always talk about the championship team and this team and that team, and it seems like sometimes unless you win a championship you’re not worthy of things. They’re setting some marks in their own way, and I think that is pretty cool. 25 and 3 is a hell of a start, and we’ve had some good teams that never got close to that. One team that did was I think 2001, so for me, I think it’s great and we’ll see now, can we handle this, can we embrace a little bit of pressure, can we embrace the opportunity we have in front of us instead of letting this bog us down."

There were only two negatives in the game for the Spartans. Turnovers and free throw percentage. MSU again finished with 14 turnovers and shot only 64% from the charity stripe. Concerns certainly for another day, but to not have angst over tonight.

Tom Izzo is the dean of Big Ten coaches. He relishes the role of elder statesman and his heart hurts for a young Pitino who has a team snakebit by injury. Izzo defended him to the Minnesota media, “I’ve been where Richard is twice in my career with a slew of injuries. Even though I thought we did some things that we needed to do, I was pleased that after a big win, after the ranking moves up, that I didn’t think that we handled some of those things as well the first time. I wanted to see how this young team would respond, and I did think we practiced well and responded good, but not at Minnesota, not at Michigan State, not at Duke or Kentucky can you have four starters or three starters and your sixth man out and expect to play at a high level.”

After the game Izzo grabbed Pitino and at center court, they had a long talk. Pitino said of the moving moment, “We just kind of talked. He is always really good to other coaches. He takes the time out to talk to you and just give a little bit of wisdom.”

The Spartan return to action on Saturday. That game will take place in Chicago versus Northwestern and can be seen on FOX.

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