Michigan State Basketball: Good, great, bad, and ugly from close call win at Maryland

It wasn’t pretty, but Michigan State basketball came away with a 61-59 win on Sunday. Let’s take a look at the good, great, bad, and ugly.

At this point for Michigan State basketball, it’s almost become do or die. It’s definitely not ideal to be forced into this mindset just eight games into the conference season, but that’s where MSU is. On Sunday, Michigan State came out in the first half looking like a team that can, and is, going to make a run here in the Big Ten standings.

Offensively, the Spartans were sharp and efficient. Defensively, they took advantage of a less proficient Maryland offense and took a 12-point lead into halftime. 

The second half was a different story, however. MSU’s offense began to sputter, and Maryland, one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the Big Ten, began to catch fire. It wasn’t pretty, but thanks to a last-minute 3-pointer from Tyson Walker and a steal from Tre Holloman, Michigan State came away with the win. 

It definitely was not pretty, but Michigan State was able to come away with the 61-59 win and is now tied for fifth in the Big Ten.

Let’s take a look at the good, great, bad, and ugly from the close call win at Maryland.

Good: All things turnovers

For years, we’ve seen Michigan State struggle with turnovers thanks to their fast paced offensive play. This year, however, this team has cut down their turnovers tremendously and has actually been on the attack forcing other teams to cough it up.

On Sunday against Maryland, the Spartans did just that. Only committing eight turnovers, which is actually more than they’ve had over the last few games, the Spartans more than doubled Maryland in forced turnovers. Their defense was on point with the pressure, and the Spartans took advantage of those turnovers, finishing with 19 points off turnovers. 

MSU was under control with the ball on Sunday, and did a great job putting the Terrapins under pressure. For once in Spartan basketball history, they have been on the right side of the turnover battle for most of the season. 

Great: First-half offense

This team may have one of the highest upside, with lowest downside of any Spartan team I’ve ever seen. This entire season, Michigan State has periodically shown a team that truly has Final Four potential, and then a team that will struggle tremendously to even make the tournament. We saw both on Sunday. We will get to the poor second half later, but the first half had the Michigan State offense humming. After an early back and forth, MSU’s offense hit its stride and went on a 12-0 run and opened up a 15-point lead. Malik Hall and Tre Holloman were both fantastic in the first half. Hall was efficient all over the court, and Holloman continued his lights-out performance from deep. 

It’s been said before, this Spartan offense is so much Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The first half against Maryland was great, the second half was not. More on the second half later but the first 20-minute performance can be put up against most other teams in the country. 

Bad: Rebounding

Michigan State basketball is known for a few things: transition offense, high assist percentages, and dominating the glass. This team has gone back and forth at crashing the boards and Sunday was definitely a game in which they decided to not do so. Michigan State was out-rebounded 37-22, and had just two offensive rebounds. Now, only having two offensive rebounds leads you to believe that this was possibly part of the game plan. It’s possible that Izzo wanted the guys to limit any sort of fast break offense for Maryland by sending four back after the shot. This makes sense in that it would force a Terrapin offense that struggles from deep and in the half court to run their offensive sets to score, but being out-rebounded by 15 is terrible. 

Hall actually led the way for the Spartans with six rebounds. Mady Sissoko finished second with five. It’s strange having a Spartan team be dominated on the boards. The amount of second-chance points allowed for Maryland almost tipped the scale in Sunday’s matchup. Even if the game plan is to send three or four back on defense, MSU cannot be dominated in rebounding as it was on Sunday. 

Ugly: Second-half offense

Take the opposite of everything listed in the great section, and that’s what you get here from the second-half offense. Down the stretch, the Spartans obviously made plays to grab the win, but it was not pretty. Not even close. Maryland has great defense, and that showed as MSU finished with only 17 points in the second half. The Michigan State offense slowed to a halt, eventually regressing to just an isolation play that resulted in an undersized guard being blocked by a center/forward providing help defense. It was this lack of offense that actually fueled one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the Big Ten into hitting multiple shots and making the game closer than it should have been.