Michigan State basketball: What happened to Tyson Walker?

Michigan State basketball star guard Tyson Walker has been struggling for a month with that groin injury.

Michigan State basketball is coming off a horrendous 60-57 loss to Ohio State at home on Sunday. There weren’t many good takeaways from this game, but one thing that stands out to me is Tyson Walker. The Spartan star has been lights out for most of the season, but he has been struggling of late.

Don’t get me wrong, he is still MSU’s best player and has been playing well. But he hasn’t been playing up to the standards we have come to expect from him. Walker has failed to hit 20 points in five straight games now, and he’s also been inefficient from the field as well. Only one of his last four games has he been better than 20 percent from the 3-point line. Tyson also hasn’t shot 50 percent from the field in six straight games.

So what’s going on that could have caused this recent decrease in play. What’s wrong with Tyson?

Groin injury

Tyson has been dealing with a groin injury for what feels like half of the season at this point. It didn’t seem to impact him much initially, but maybe it has recently. Tom Izzo even held Tyson out of practice for a day about three weeks ago.

Walker hasn’t missed any games or seen a restriction in his minutes, so this injury must not be that bad. But it might still be something he’s dealing with that could be a factor in his recent play.

Defenses changing how they defend him

I think this is another thing likely impacting Tyson’s productivity. As the season has gone on, it’s become more and more clear that Walker is most of MSU’s offense. If he doesn’t play well then it’s very difficult for this MSU team to find enough offense elsewhere to win. So opposing teams might have changed how they defend Tyson causing him to struggle more.

I think this is exactly what happened in the Ohio State game. The Buckeyes doubled Tyson a lot of the game, which is something that other teams haven’t done much of this year so far. So naturally, going against double teams will decrease his production. But I also think it has something to do with my third and final point.

Attitude/body language

Now this is just purely speculation, but Tyson may be struggling a little on the court because of a decrease in his body language and attitude. I was at the Ohio State game and I noticed a few things that just seemed off. He didn’t seem vocal during timeouts at all. Walker was also visibly annoyed at teammates after they made a bad play. And every time he missed a shot you could just see him beating himself up.

Now I don’t blame Tyson much for this. Anyone who has been struggling will likely see a decrease in their attitude. But Tyson is a leader of this team, and MSU needs him to stay positive as his attitude will impact everyone else’s on the team.

It’s no secret that Walker needs to play better if Michigan State basketball will go on any sort of run in March. I have full faith that he can do it, I just hope it starts sooner rather than later against Purdue on Saturday.