Poor Offense, Weak Defense Doom MSU vs. Indiana
The Michigan State Spartans suffered their third loss in four games, a shocking upset against the Indiana Hoosiers on their home floor, 71-67.
MSU played about as poorly as it could have for roughly 30 minutes of game time, struggling to make anything happen against a zone defense and not applying enough pressure on the other side of the court.
Tom Izzo had a chance to pass Bob Knight with the most Big Ten wins in conference history, but Indiana did not want that to happen to its former coach on Tuesday night.
MSU is a talented team, but its flaws were exposed more in this game than at any other point this season. The shooting issue will likely not resolve itself.
We have reiterated this point, but Jeremy Fears Jr. cannot be passive if the Spartans want to have any chance at winning the Big Ten or making a run in March. He must be much more aggressive taking the ball to the rim and applying pressure on defense.
This team goes as Fears goes. If he is being passive, the team will not go very far. He must look for his own shot and not be afraid to put the ball on the floor and get to the hoop.
MSU was dominated defensively by the Hoosiers’ bigs. Oumar Ballo and Malik Reneau got whatever they wanted, drawing constant fouls against Carson Cooper, Jaxon Kohler and Szymon Zapala. MSU’s big men cannot play like that if it's going to make a deep run.
Offensively, it was unacceptable how poor the Spartans’ offense looked against a simple 2-3 zone. No one drove to the basket, no big man flashed to the middle, and they took low-percentage shots early in the shot clock.
MSU’s inability to execute its half-court offense against a zone should have opposing teams licking their chops to face this team. Izzo and his staff absolutely must make adjustments, or this team will be in trouble.
This is not a bad basketball team. This is a basketball team that is in a funk right now. Fans have seen many losses over the past few seasons, so they are predisposed to think a few in the middle of the season means the sky is falling.
However, while that may not be true, the schedule becomes much more difficult to finish the month.
MSU must quickly find a way to mask its flaws, or this skid could continue into treacherous territory.
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