Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast: Reason to Panic Over Spartans' Loss?

On this episode of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast, Aidan Champion and host Bryan Anthony Davis discuss what No. 7 Michigan State's loss to USC means for the Spartans moving forward.
Feb 1, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA;  Michigan State Spartans guard Jeremy Fears Jr. (1) dribbles down court against the USC Trojans at the Galen Center. Mandatory Credit: William Navarro-Imagn Images
Feb 1, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Michigan State Spartans guard Jeremy Fears Jr. (1) dribbles down court against the USC Trojans at the Galen Center. Mandatory Credit: William Navarro-Imagn Images / William Navarro-Imagn Images

No. 7 Michigan State is going to have to do something it has rarely had to this season, and that's bounce back from a loss.

The Spartans were outmatched by USC, 70-64, in Los Angeles on Saturday, which ended their 13-game win streak, as well as their undefeated record in the Big Ten.

How Michigan State handles this loss will be telling of how this squad can respond to adversity.

On this episode of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast, our Aidan Champion and host Bryan Anthony Davis discuss whether or not the alarms should be sounded over the defeat.

You can watch the episode below:

Below is a transcript from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's opening statement from his postgame press conference on Saturday:

Izzo: "I had an assistant that said, ‘What starts bad, ends bad.’ And the start was atrocious. Wanted to go inside right off the bat. Turned the ball over twice. We took a couple of bad shots, I think it was 9-3, and I think we only had one shot. And then, we got down 21-27, and give our guys credit, they bounced back, but USC played better than us. I thought the biggest things that happened in the game -- we got punched in the mouth. That doesn't happen to us very often, and I don't know if we responded very well. Then, before half we did a little better job. But when you don't take care of the boards like we did, even though we outrebounded them by 1 -- that's kind of a facade, they had a couple of times when they had three or four rebounds in a row and scored both times, one on the 3 and one on the 3-point play. And then, uncharacteristically, we shot poorly from the free-throw line, which we’re an 83% free-throw shooting team. And what did we end up shooting? 57% or something. Had a couple of those goofy turnovers, and that's usually the difference in the game. But give credit to USC, they played well. And I’ve been waiting to see how we would respond under some adversity, and today, we didn’t respond very well, so we’ll have to fix that quickly since we have another game coming up.”

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Aidan Champion
AIDAN CHAMPION