Michigan State Loses to Northwestern

Michigan State lost its first Big Ten game of the year, its first home loss in 28 games, and snapped an 11 game win streak with a 70-63 loss to Northwestern at the Breslin Center. I’m usually one to say that no loss is a good loss, but I almost feel like this is a good thing for MSU. It’s never good to peak in January, unless you’re playing in the NFL, and MSU was peaking. They had also had gutted out the last few wins, with each one in question, and this should let them know that they are beatable. Undoubtedly, this will be a wakeup call for the Spartans.

The defeat doesn’t present only positives, however. MSU was completely baffled by a zone defense, just as they were against Penn State. I will even say they are exposed as a team that can’t handle the zone right now. Make no mistake, MSU is going to see a lot of zone after this. And guess who runs a 1-3-1 zone just like Northwestern? The boys down the road in Ann Arbor. That game just got a lot more interesting. The zone defense forced MSU into what seemed like 56 turnovers. Chris Allen (or Chris Hill if you’re Tom Hamilton,) turned it over around 40 times. Kalin Lucas was indecisive and ineffective all day, just lobbing errant passes around. MSU consistently passed to a spot, instead of a man, which lead to the turnovers.

On Northwestern’s side, Kevin Coble clearly sold his soul to the devil. He was unconscious, hitting every shot he chucked up. Raymar Morgan went back to his terrible defensive ways and was abused by Coble. Now I know that Raymar had the flu, but if he was too sick, Izzo would have benched him. If he’s playing you have to assume he is OK. Play he did, and abused he was. Raymar couldn’t even slow Coble down on his way to 31 points.

But this loss is squarely on the Point Guards’ shoulders. Here’s some key numbers: MSU wins rebounds 39-19, Field Goal Pct is NW 43% MSU 40%, 3 pointers made NW 9 MSU 5, TURNOVERS: NW 9, MSU 18! When the offense turns it over 18 times, the blame goes to the ball handlers: Kalin Lucas, Chris Allen, and Travis Walton. And I’ll throw some blame on Tom Izzo, who relied way too heavily on a small lineup and perimeter shooting when the inside game was where the success was. In fact Goran Suton deserves mention as the ONLY Spartan who played well.

In all, a loss is never good, especially to Big Ten bottom-feeders at home. But I think MSU needed a loss to get them hungry again, knock them down a few notches, and humble them a bit. I think this will be considered a good thing in March.