Michigan State basketball: 3 keys to victory at No. 13 Wisconsin

If Michigan State basketball is going to exact revenge on Wisconsin on Friday night, it’ll need to do these three things.

Michigan State basketball has arguably its biggest game this season in front of it on Friday. The Spartans travel to Wisconsin to take on the top team in the Big Ten and the No. 13 team in the country. The Spartans failed to defend home court against the Badgers in December, so they have revenge on their minds in this one.

Here are my three keys for victory against the Wisconsin Badgers.

1. Control the glass

Do I need to remind you how poorly Michigan State rebounded the ball last time against Wisconsin? The Badgers outrebounded MSU 36-22 last time they played. You aren’t going to be able to beat many teams if you get outrebounded by that much, let alone one of the best teams in the country.

Now we all know Michigan State isn’t the best rebounding team in the country this season, but it has to be better starting on Friday. The Spartans are coming off a game against Maryland where they were outrebounded yet again 37-22. If that’s the margin against Wisconsin, I don’t think MSU stands a chance.

I don’t think Michigan State needs to dominate the glass to win this game, but it does need to keep it close. At worst, if the Spartans are somewhere around -3 on the glass then that is good enough for me.

2. Defend without fouling

This is another area where Wisconsin dominated the Spartans in the first matchup. The fouls were only 14-12 in the first meeting, but it’s the type of fouls by each team that stood out. MSU fouled Wisconsin when they were shooting far too much. Wisconsin shot 14 free throws (making them all by the way) compared to Michigan State which only went 5-for-7 as a team. That’s an OK percentage as a team, but seven free throws isn’t enough.

The Spartans need to do a better job at evening out this free throw discrepancy. That means defending without fouling more as well as getting to the free throw line more. How can the Spartans accomplish this?

Michigan State basketball doesn’t have the traditional post-up game that can draw a lot of shooting fouls, but what they do have are excellent, quick guards. Tyson Walker, AJ Hoggard, and every other guard need to attack the rim aggressively more often. The Spartans’ offense runs more efficiently when they do that anyway, but this can help them get to the line more regularly as well.

3. Get Tyson Walker going again

You need your best player to show up big time in the big games. No game is bigger in the regular season than a road game against the top team in the conference. That means Tyson Walker needs to be at his best offensively in this game.

Walker hasn’t been playing poorly by any means, but he hasn’t been as great as we know he can be. He’s still scoring in double figures every game, but he’s only scored over 20 points once in the last four games. That was against Minnesota where he finished with 21, but he needed 12 points in the last few minutes. So he almost didn’t even get there in that game either.

Michigan State is going to need a superstar performance from their superstar on Friday night if they’re going to win this game. Thankfully Walker is someone who can go off at any moment, so there’s likely a good chance he will in this game.