Why 1st-Half Struggles a Major Concern for MSU Moving Forward
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"Michigan State basketball" and "early lead" are terms that have not been put together much lately.
The 10th-ranked Spartans got crushed by Wisconsin on Friday, 92-71. It felt like the game was pretty much over at halftime, with MSU trailing by 17.
This is actually the fifth consecutive game where Michigan State has gone into the locker room after 20 minutes behind on the scoreboard. It trailed by nine at Rutgers, by 16 against Michigan, by 11 at Minnesota, and by four against Illinois as well.
"I don't have an answer for that," Tom Izzo said about the streak of halftime deficits after the game Friday night. "I'll have to look at it and try to figure it out."
Concerns Moving Forward
This is now the point of the season where the focus should be on maximizes the runs in the Big Ten Tournament and in March Madness. MSU's remaining hopes of a Big Ten basically went "poof!" with Friday's loss, as it now has four conference losses to just one for first-place Michigan (which came against Wisconsin).
Sort of stating the obvious here, but: Michigan State cannot be consistently playing from behind when it reaches the stage where every game is do-or-die. Perhaps it can get away with it for a round or two, but banking on overcoming a halftime deficit against a 1 seed in the Sweet 16 isn't going to work out for you very much.
That goes beyond the fact that, duh, being ahead is better than trailing. MSU is not a team currently built to overcome these large deficits. Teams that are behind generally shoot more threes, which the Spartans rank 151st in the country in at 34.6% on the year. The Spartans have only hit 10+ threes twice during Big Ten play, and they haven't done it since the game at Nebraska on Jan. 2.
It also doesn't help that Michigan State's offense is so reliant on Jeremy Fears Jr. now. MSU isn't getting enough supplemental scoring from other starters and bench guys on a consistent basis, which means the Spartans have been asking Fears to become an elite-level scorer and passer. It's not a coincidence this low valley in the season has coincided with Fears averaging 22.0 points and 10.8 assists per game in his last five contests.
Izzo has said that his team's margin for error is pretty low. He's also said that teams like this one have gone pretty far in tournament time before. The problem is that it feels like Michigan State is starting to have to thread the needle every time it plays against a quality opponent.
Declaring the season over would be premature, though. Last year's MSU team also lost three of four right around this time of year, too. With the top of the Big Ten being much better this year, another conference regular season title may not be in the cards, but the Spartans still have six more regular season games to go before they go off to Chicago for the Big Ten Tournament.
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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