Michigan State basketball: 3 crucial plays that decided loss to Iowa

Michigan State basketball suffered a crushing loss to Iowa on Tuesday. Which plays decided the outcome of this defeat?

The result was not what anybody was hoping for, or expecting, but it happened just the same. Michigan State basketball suffered a tough 78-71 loss last night to the Iowa Hawkeyes. The game was defined by poor defense and a lot of missed chances by Michigan State, while Iowa just couldn’t seem to do anything wrong.

The loss can be broken down into a few big plays that lead Michigan State to this heartbreaking loss.

Tyson Walker’s 3-point shot at 16:32 in the first half

Tyson Walker got the scoring started for the Spartans in this game. He kept the team in the game early by showing the game plan was to take looks from outside the arc. This was mostly because the Iowa defense was playing very tight and our bigs were in foul trouble early. The Spartans struggled in the first half to get scoring going in the paint.

The inability to get anything going inside the paint would end up hurting Michigan State later on but through the first 14 minutes, it was the saving grace.

At the end of the first half, the Spartans were shooting 50 percent from beyond the arc. They had seven 3-pointers compared to only four baskets in the paint. Until Iowa went on their run towards the end of the first, this kept the Spartans in the game. Once the Spartans went away from the 3-ball, that was when the lead started to grow for the Hawkeyes.

Patrick McCaffery and-one at 6:16 in first half

At 6:16 in the first half, Walker ended up hurting the team by missing his coverage on Patrick McCaffery. This led to Carson Cooper trying to overcompensate and led to a foul. The missed coverage led to Cooper foul and began the 21-6 run to end the first half. Is it all on Tyson? No. He had a decent game by his standards. The problem was that because of this, we had both of our bigs in foul trouble, which meant that we had little defense down in the paint. Had this gone differently, the defense may have been a bit stingier.

Malik Hall missed pass to Carson Cooper with 1:40 left

The last play was the one that put the nail in the coffin for Michigan State basketball.

After it appeared as though Spartans could make a run and come back in the game, all momentum was killed by a missed pass. Malik Hall tried to find Carson Cooper down low to cut the Iowa lead to five, but completely missed him. This led to a turnover and allowed Iowa to extend their lead. This was the last time that it looked like any Spartans believed there was a chance to win this game.

Overall thoughts

This loss hurts, but it will be a learning experience for a veteran group. In the locker room postgame conference, AJ Hoggard expressed similar feelings. He also expressed that everyone needs to “come with their hard hats” for the rest of the week as the team prepares to take on Ohio State on Sunday.

Tip-off is at 4 p.m. ET from the Breslin Center and the game will be broadcasted on CBS.