Decades of an unresolved issue are catching up with Michigan State

Since the turn of the century, Michigan State men’s basketball has been the team to beat in the Big Ten, winning or sharing eight regular season conference titles over the previous 22 years. That’s three more than any other Big Ten program during that stretch.

Last season, Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo tied a national record by leading the Spartans to their 24th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament, a streak only matched by Mike Krzyzewski and the Duke Blue Devils.

As of now, Michigan State is once again solidly in the tournament field for 2022-23, and is poised to set a new national record with their 25th consecutive appearance. However, the Spartans have not been as competitive in March in recent years as they were earlier in Izzo’s tenure.

From 2014-15 until COVID shut down the remainder of the 2019-20 season, MSU was hitting on all cylinders. It was a historic five-year run which included two Final Four’s, two Big Ten tournament championships, and a streak of three straight regular season conference championships (2018-2020).

However, post COVID, the Spartans haven’t lived up to their standards as a program. This is the third straight season in which Michigan State isn’t in the running for a regular season conference title. The Spartans finished 8th in the league standings in 2020-21, 7th in 2021-22 and are currently tied for 8th this season.

While there’s no doubt Izzo is one of the best coaches in the history of college basketball, there’s been one major flaw that has haunted his program for decades, even before this recent stretch of non-competitiveness in the Big Ten — turnovers.

Michigan State has always struggled with turnovers and it has cost them greatly. In 2014, the Spartans were one of the favorites to win the national championship. In a stunning Elite Eight loss to eventual champion UConn, Michigan State had twice as many turnovers as the Huskies in that game. The same thing happened during the 2010 Final Four against national runner-up Butler. And those are just two examples.

This season, the Spartans average 11.1 turnovers per game, which seems like an improvement over previous seasons until you factor the slower tempo that Michigan State has played at in 2022-23. The Spartans’ turnover margin of minus-1.4 ranks 291st out of 352 teams, and its been a key factor in close losses to Rutgers, Illinois and Northwestern this season.

Point guard A.J. Hoggard is second in the Big Ten and 15th in the country averaging 5.8 assists per game, but he also turns the ball over at a high rate. His 2.6 turnovers per game is the fourth-worst mark in the conference.

While Hoggard has improved from last year, he still forces the ball into the post and plays out of control at times in nearly every game. Additionally, Hoggard and forward Joey Hauser split time as the team’s inbounder on baseline or sideline out of bounds plays. While play design for these situations is certainly a factor in the struggles, Michigan State has an abnormal amount of turnovers trying to inbound the ball.

The turnover issues have carried on for years at Michigan State. Now, with a team that has less star talent and lacking depth, they’ve become more costly. Over the last three seasons, the Spartans haven’t had the offensive weapons to overcome their poor turnover margins, and it's led to costly scoring droughts.

As cliche as it sounds, Michigan State needs to work on the little things. Former Michigan head coach John Beilein was notorious for making his teams work on fundamentals every day in practice, and it worked. Beilein’s teams at Michigan and West Virginia were routinely among the “fewest turnovers per game” in the country.

Time is running out for Michigan State to reduce the turnover dilemma that its experienced again this season. Izzo has worked his magic late in the year plenty of times before, and this is the area he needs to address. A regular season conference championship is out of reach for the Spartans, but this team can still make a run in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.

However, this Michigan State team is not talented enough to overcome their current turnover margin. That issue has sealed the fate of Spartans teams from the past, and it could seal this 2022-23 team’s fate as well if it’s not fixed soon.