Michigan State basketball: It’s time to hit the panic button

With another Michigan State basketball lost to drop to 4-4, it’s time to officially hit the panic button on the season.

Starting the season No. 3 in the country with most of the Sweet 16 team from a year ago returning and the No. 4 incoming recruiting class, it felt like Michigan State basketball had a special season ahead of it.

A home loss to James Madison to open the year took the air out of the fanbase.

Maybe it was just an extreme outlier. Maybe James Madison was better than we expected. Heck, maybe it was just first-game jitters combined with the other two potential factors.

Seven games later, it just feels like this team doesn’t have it. The Spartans just don’t have that “dawg” in them that they had in last year’s NCAA Tournament when Tyson Walker was playing out of his mind, AJ Hoggard looked like a future legend at point guard, and Jaden Akins looked like an NBA guard. Walker is still great, but can’t carry the team by himself, Hoggard has been a roller-coaster, and Akins has become a ghost. On top of that, Michigan State has no post game and Malik Hall can’t seem to string good games together.

Oh, and Tom Izzo doesn’t trust his freshmen.

Instead of relying on a guy like Coen Carr to start or even someone like Tre Holloman with Hall coming off the bench due to a sickness he’s been dealing with, he starting Carson Cooper and Mady Sissoko together against Wisconsin. Two offensive black holes. How did that work out? The Spartans were down 11-2 in the blink of an eye and couldn’t hit a shot.

Michigan State battled back into it and pulled within five with under five minutes left in the first half but Wisconsin extended that to eight by halftime. The Badgers went up by 13 early in the second half and it felt like the game was over, but the Spartans stormed back to make it a 51-48 game. It felt like the comeback would be completed, but no one stepped up from that point on.

Guys were standing around looking at Wisconsin grabbing offensive rebounds and playing lazy defense. Speaking of lazy, the offense was just that as this team doesn’t seem to like to speed things up, but rather let the shot clock waste down to eight seconds before moving toward the basket. You know how that ends? You got it, a brick.

Michigan State basketball fell to 4-4 on the season with a 70-57 home loss to a Wisconsin team that won’t wow anyone this year but is just solid. That’s inexcusable.

This team just doesn’t seem to have any leaders outside of Walker. No one is stepping up. No one wants to shoot. No one wants to step on the gas and just run it down teams’ throats. That’s a problem.

After the Butler win a couple of weeks ago, I would’ve said that panicking isn’t necessary — that this team would be fine. That’s not the case anymore.

It’s time to panic. If things don’t get fixed soon, the Spartans will be lucky to get into the NCAA Tournament.