Michigan State basketball: 3 takeaways from “best win of the season” over Illinois

Michigan State basketball was back in action following a scare against Penn State earlier in the week. The Spartans played host to No. 19 Illinois (13-4, 5-2 Big Ten). The Illini have been a tough test for the Spartans previously, and it would’ve been a shock if Sunday was any different. Tom Izzo called the Illini “the Celtics or Lakers coming to the Breslin” in his post-game press conference following Penn State.

Illinois looked like the Celtics to begin the game, but foul trouble and a gritty Spartan team won out. Despite trailing by 10 during points of this game, the Spartans won a squeaker, 80-78. Multiple Michigan State players called this the best win of the season thus far, and it is clear to see why.

What did we learn from Sunday’s clutch win?

1. Rebounds are important

In a tie game at half, Michigan State basketball gave up 11 offensive boards compared to only grabbing 13 defensive boards. That is an awful statistic.

When Illinois has Will Riley go off for 16 on the bench in a half and star freshman Kasparas Jakucionis on the bench with two fouls, it is frustrating, to say the least. If the Spartans had any ability to corral the ball on defense, MSU would have had a good lead. Instead, the Illini had second, third, and fourth-chance scores, and the game was 36-36.

Dra Gibbons-Lawhorn had as many offensive boards for the Illini as the Spartans had total offensive boards at half, and Lawhorn played 10 minutes in the first half. Safe to say, that is not a recipe for success. The Spartans had 10 fewer shots than the Illini at the half.

If I was blindly shown these statistics, I would have assumed the Spartans were beating up a mid-major on the glass. It is one of the worst discrepancies on boards I have seen from the Spartans in recent memory.

It was clear that was on the top of Izzo’s mind, too. The Spartans completely flipped the script at halftime, winning the offensive battle 9-4 on the glass. Carson Cooper was a unit after halftime, with six boards to lead the way. Despite only playing four second-half minutes, Szymon Zapala added two major offensive boards to help keep the Spartans from applying pressure on Illinois.

Lawhorn was held out of the offensive rebounding category in the second half, but Izzo gave him a special shoutout in the post-game press conference, complimenting the guard’s athleticism and tenacity at his size.

2. A cold game from the line does not bite MSU… this time

Michigan State basketball has been shooting at an all-time Izzo team-high from the free-throw line this season. Entering today, multiple Spartans had only a single miss at the line, along with some players on hot streaks. That changed today. Tre Holloman had his second miss at the stripe of the season, as did Xavier Booker. Coen Carr was restarting a streak of consecutive free throws but went 1-for-2 in both appearances at the stripe.

The Spartans still finished with a 78 percent clip from the line, but leaving six extra points at the line in a close game like today did not make matters any easier. If there was one game where I could choose the Spartans to sit at a “22-for-23” type performance like we saw earlier in the year, it would be on Sunday. Instead, 21-for-27 was good enough for the Spartans today.

In all honesty, Michigan State basketball is lucky to see that as the mark. I can recall 3-4 free throws that bounced on all edges of the rim before sinking in.

Thankfully for MSU, the Illini performance was much worse. The Illini also shot 27 free throws, converting just 17. Even taking the one intentional miss out at the end of the game, nine unintentional misses are not great. The Breslin Center crowd certainly influenced this, and won some chicken out of the deal, forcing two consecutive free-throw misses twice. Besides two Illini converting lone “and-one” attempts, every Illini to touch the foul stripe missed a shot. A paltry 63 percent from the line sunk Illinois.

That is what is different about this year’s team, in my opinion. In previous big games like this from past teams, the Spartans would be a 68-to-72 percent team, and those 2-4 extra misses would flip a game. It also feels weird to watch this team for the last six-plus seasons and call 78 percent an “off night”.

The other deciding factor on Sunday was a technical call on the Illini bench. Frankie Fidler’s 2-for-2 shooting from the stripe on the technical made the difference in a two-point victory.

3. Shot selection was a point of emphasis for a reason

Sunday saw the Spartans win via shot selection. Despite shooting 43 percent from the field, the Spartans flipped the second half by utilizing high-percentage shots. Michigan State basketball added eight second-chance points, with five in the second half. The Spartans were able to keep a possession alive for a putback on a few occasions.

The Spartans only shot 10 three-pointers today, which was by design. Tom Izzo knew he could capitalize on driving the ball, and it paid off with high-chance shots. In the Penn State win, Izzo lamented that “of 68 shots, we did not have even 62 good ones.” On Sunday, the Spartans had 65 shots, and I would argue at least 60-62 were good.

This includes nearly every three. Tre Holloman had three wide-open threes but missed each of them. In his post-game availability, he mentioned he would be putting in some work at the gym to correct this. Considering that the junior led the squad with 17 points without a single three, it is the attitude you love to see in a captain. Holloman has been the unsung hero this year.

Speaking of heroes, how about Coen Carr? He had the highlight plays of the day, despite his cold start at the charity stripe. He hit a 3-pointer alongside a dunk to have the Izzone rocking. Carr may have had the biggest leap of any Izzo player from one year to the next or is at least top five.

Regardless, he is the most improved Spartan this season.

What’s next?

Michigan State basketball gets a six-day midseason break before traveling to New York and Madison Square Garden to play the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Despite adding multiple five-stars this season, Rutgers has disappointed. I firmly expect that to change against Michigan State on Jan. 25 at 1:30 p.m. EST.

The Spartans are back at the Breslin on Tuesday, Jan. 28, to host the Minnesota Golden Gophers at 8 p.m. EST. While they are 1-6 in conference play currently, the Gophers did just upset previously unbeaten in-conference Michigan Wolverines.