Michigan State basketball showed encouraging signs in Purdue loss

Although Michigan State basketball came up short against Purdue, it was an encouraging effort without Malik Hall.

That’s two losses in a row our Spartans should’ve won. This Michigan State basketball loss against Purdue hurts a bit more though.

Michigan State had a chance to take down the No. 3 team in the country in front of the home crowd. This game looked over early on for the Spartans as Purdue jumped out to an early 13-point lead while the offense struggled to get anything going.

The defense remained locked in, however, and the shots started to fall. Before you knew it, the Spartans were only down two going into the half and all of the momentum was with them.

They came out of the half right where they left off and jumped out into the lead. The two teams would trade leads for the remainder of the half before Purdue ultimately went on to win after a bucket by Edey with two seconds to go.

Tyson Walker would get one final shot off but it would not go. Not to be lost on the day, Walker had a career game at MSU. He scored 30 points and seemed to be in his own world down the stretch for the Spartans.

Step-back three after step-back three. Dribble drives around the screen for a pull-up two. Driving to the lane and laying it in. There’s nothing Walker couldn’t do in the final four minutes of the game as he tried to will his Spartans to a win.

But it ultimately wasn’t enough.

Over on Purdue’s side, Zach Edey has quite the day himself, scoring 32 points for the Boilermakers. But how did he get there?

Well, it started with an over-the-back that he wasn’t called for. Shortly after he went up for a board and wrapped his arm around Sissoko’s arm and then threw him to the ground. A foul was called, but not on Edey.

There were at least three over the backs, several illegal screens by these refs’ standards plus the play where he threw Sissoko to the ground. All of which he was not called for. In fact, Edey wound up with zero fouls for the entire game.

Purdue’s best player, and quite literally their whole offense as he scored half of the team’s points was allowed to play freely the whole game with no worries of foul trouble.

This wasn’t just a one-off game for Edey not picking up fouls either. Over the last 11 games, the 7-foot-4 Edey has been called for one or zero fouls in each and every game. The officials don’t have a clue how to officiate him.

That’s a huge advantage for Purdue over every other Big Ten school. It’s not just a problem for MSU, it’s a problem for the rest of the Big Ten, too. And it’s a problem that needs to be addressed. Just because a guy is 7-4 doesn’t mean he’s incapable of fouling other players. And the refs are missing some obvious ones.

Even after all of that though, you could point to two straight misses at the line from Hoggard in the final three minutes that could have changed everything.

With Malik Hall out for the foreseeable future, it’s hard to say just how good this team will be as we struggled without him earlier this year. But today’s performance was encouraging.

Even though we lost we fought until the end with the No. 3 team in the country and played through some terrible officiating as well.

With two home games on the horizon in the next three, the Spartans will need to come through with at least two wins, if not wins in all three. And I think we’re more than capable of doing that.