How Most of Spartans' Strengths Vanished in Loss to Wisconsin
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As good as things went for No. 10 Michigan State last weekend against Illinois, it was equally bad on Friday night against Wisconsin. The Spartans got hammered from the start and never seemed to stand a chance against the Badgers, suffering a 92-71 loss, one of their worst in recent memory.
There's plenty to lament after a game like that, but for head coach Tom Izzo, it can be summarized in one sentence: "We're not good enough."
"I've told you guys, we're not a great team," Izzo said postgame. "We're as good as we are when we're playing together, and things are going our way. We've played everybody good. ... Tonight, we got beat by a team that I think is a little better than us, but we got beat by a team that played a lot better than us."
Credit Wisconsin for the way it played on Friday. The Badgers took the Spartans out of their game, and it showed. Michigan State basketball is at its best when it plays to a few core strengths, primarily defense, rebounding, and the fast break, and for the most part, those strengths were absent during Friday's loss.
Defensive Issues
Where to begin with this one? Friday was one of Michigan State's worst defensive outings of the season. The Spartans allowed 92 points, including 51 in the first half alone, and were pretty much never competitive. Sure, a couple of their own shots finding the net would have helped change things a bit, but it just seemed that MSU was chasing Wisconsin up and down the court all night.
Wisconsin also had two 20-point scorers on the night in Nick Boyd and John Blackwell, who seemed to hit every shot in sight. They finished the game with a combined 53 points on 16-of-31 shooting (including nine-of-16 from behind the arc). Some of that is just getting good looks, and some of it can be blamed on the defense, but none of it is acceptable.
The Spartans' overall defensive effort yielded just four steals, two blocks, and six overall turnovers, and allowed 21 points off their own nine turnovers. But if that wasn't bad enough, Wisconsin shot almost 50% from the floor, including 43% from three-point range, and MSU let the Badgers double them up in points in the paint.
Rebounding Struggle
Izzo wasn't happy with his team's rebounding effort, but both squads came away even with 38 boards apiece. Still, the Spartans were outmanned on the glass when it counted, losing 27 rebounds to the Wisconsin defense and allowing 19 second-chance points, often as a result of missed free throws.
Wisconsin's Nolan Winter grabbed 11 rebounds, three more than any Spartan, and only three MSU players had more than five boards on the night. Carson Cooper and Jaxon Kohler were the leaders, even though their overall totals didn't quite measure up to their performances this season, and guard Kur Teng deserves credit for rivaling those rebounding numbers as a guard who's been challenged to play better numerous times throughout the season.
Excelling on the Fast Break
The fast break is the one area where Michigan State played well on Friday, outscoring Wisconsin 24-10 despite only causing six turnovers. It's even more impressive considering Wisconsin didn't miss many shots, but the Spartans seemed to have found a groove in the open floor over the last two games.
In last week's win over Illinois, they outscored the Fighting Illini 22-0 in fast break points, and it was another game in which there weren't many turnovers to aid things.
Yet Michigan State needs to see its principles on display more often, especially in these big games. In conference play, the Illinois game is really the only one where the Spartans showed up and competed for the majority - if not all - of the game. They've had excruciatingly slow starts in the others, and it's affected their chances of repeating as Big Ten champs.
If Michigan State still wants to have any chance of that happening, it needs to play to its strengths (aka Spartan Basketball) night in and night out. That simply didn't happen on Friday night.
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-ac9f01ae65e71c7320d1c61247b2ecac.jpg "Travis Tyler")
Travis Tyler joined On SI as a writer in January 2026. He has experience contributing to FanSided’s NFL, college football, and college basketball coverage, in addition to freelance work throughout the Dallas–Fort Worth area, including high school, college, and professional sports for the Dallas Express and contributions to the College Football Dawgs, Last Word on Sports/Hockey, and The Dallas Morning News. In addition to his writing, Travis contributes video and podcasting content to Fanatics View and regularly appears as a guest analyst. He is a graduate of Michigan State University and SMU and is an avid Detroit sports fan with a deep knowledge and appreciation of sports history. Follow Travis Tyler on Twitter at @TTyler_Sports.