Michigan State basketball: 3 things that went wrong vs. James Madison

Losing to James Madison stung, but there were some avoidable mistakes that led to it. What went wrong for Michigan State basketball?

This was not the start we were all hoping for. Michigan State basketball opened its season with a stunning 79-76 overtime loss to James Madison. Now don’t get me wrong, James Madison is a good team. They were even picked to finish first in the Sun Belt. But by no means is this a game the Spartans should ever lose.

A lot went wrong for Michigan State in this game that caused this depressing loss.

Here are the three things that stood out to me the most that caused us to lose this game.

1. Awful 3-point and free throw shooting

Usually when big upsets happen it’s because the better team has an off night offensively. That was definitely the case on Monday night. Every team has their off nights and it’s never a surprise if that happens in the first game of the season, but Monday’s game was especially bad. Michigan State was 1-for-20 from 3-point range. They weren’t even close misses which might make you think we got unlucky, some of these misses were terrible. I’m talking airballs or off the side of the backboard bad. Free throw shooting wasn’t much better either as the Spartans shot 62.2% from the charity stripe. That includes starting 2-for-10 and missing the front end of many one-and-ones. This bad night shooting is the difference between a comfortable win and a heartbreaking loss.

What makes this night shooting even worse is when you look at our numbers last year. Michigan State led the Big Ten in both 3-point and free throw shooting percentage a season ago. With our core roster essentially the same as last year, it is a big surprise that we struggled to shoot this much.

2. Upperclassmen lacked that killer instinct

Early in the season, we need to be able to rely on our upperclassmen to carry the team. It typically takes freshmen some time to get comfortable, so we can’t be relying on them for significant contributions every night yet. Outside of Tyson Walker, no other upperclassmen showed up on Monday night. Without the stellar performance from Walker, James Madison likely would’ve blown the Spartans out.

Every player’s going to have their off night offensively and that’s fine. But what’s not fine is having an off night when it comes to leadership. Or hustle. Or making the easy plays. Those things need to happen every single night, especially from the upperclassmen.

3. Tom Izzo’s end-of-game lineups

In my eyes, it’s really quite simple. The players having the best game should be in at the end of the game. I don’t really care who starts the game, but who ends the game matters a lot. Not to pick on anyone specifically, but Malik Hall did not have a good game. On the other hand, Coen Carr was having a really good first game as a freshman. So why did Hall start in overtime over Carr? The same can be said for Mady Sissoko playing over Carson Cooper.

Experience matters and I get that, but that can’t always be the sole factor in Tom Izzo’s decisions. In my opinion, it was very clear who should have been playing down the stretch, but Izzo didn’t see it the same way. I love how Tom likes to try new lineups to see who plays well together. But at the end of the game, the best players need to be on the floor.

Michigan State has a lot to improve on and fast. Thankfully this is only game one and I have high hopes that we’ll see a much better team against Southern Indiana. Maybe this is the wake-up call this team needed to not be complacent.