I hope you didn’t ruin your Valentine’s Day weekend by prioritizing Michigan State basketball on Friday night because that was a rough one at Wisconsin.
The Spartans simply had their doors blown off from the 13-minute mark in the first half and experienced their most embarrassing loss of the season, losing by the final score of 92-71 at Wisconsin. It was the first time this season that it felt like Michigan State had no chance only a few minutes into the second half, and an eye-opening disappointing loss.
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Wisconsin shot lights out in the win, at one point hitting 8-of-13 attempts from three point range to build a notable lead. The Badgers would cool off over time but that fast start and continued strong play was simply too much for the Spartans in the loss.
With the loss, Michigan State falls to 20-5 overall and 10-4 in Big Ten play. The Spartans have now lost three of their last four games.
Here are three takeaways from the Spartans’ disappointing performance at Wisconsin on Friday:
Why can’t Michigan State get off the bus?
For me it has become an honest question that I simply can’t answer, but why is Michigan State so bad in the first half? Do they enjoy being down double-digits to start the game and want to make things more challenging for themselves? Did they skip their warmups and need the first 10-20 minutes of the game to wake up? Maybe their alarms to wake up on game days are just 10 minutes later than normal? I’m open to all and any suggestions because I really don’t know anymore.
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Obviously, there is a lot of sarcasm in that opening graph and I’m sure there’s something to it with scheme and coaching, but this is a problem that clearly is not going away and is going to continue to kill any ceiling for the Spartans long term. We’ve now seen poor starts in three of their last four games, and you could argue the Illinois game was also a slow start if you want and I wouldn’t fight back much. This has become a recent trend that has cost the Spartans a few times recently and if they don’t fix it, it’ll cost them their season in March.
The poor start was once again a killer for the Spartans, and unlike their other recent opponents, Wisconsin put the hammer on them when they had them down. That’s what could happen in March and you find your season over in a blink of an eye.
Coen Carr is lone bright spot
If you’re looking for a sliver of happiness out of this brutal showing, I give you Coen Carr.
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Carr was one of the few bright spots in this blowout loss, finishing the game with 19 points for the Spartans. The thing that stood out to me is that he was looking for his shot early on and knocked down some timely jumpers before the game got out of control.
Carr is the key factor for the Spartans to achieve big success this season, and while his performance tonight didn’t make a difference in the final outcome, it could in mid- to-late March. Michigan State will need more of what they got from Carr on Friday if they’re going to go on a run in March.
No chance at Big Ten title, play for seeding
Welp, there will be no Big Ten championship banner going up in the Breslin Center. This loss to Wisconsin all but sealed that fate so now it’s time to focus on the NCAA Tournament.
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In theory, sure, Michigan State could win out and there’s three more potential losses for the Wolverines who have firm control of the Big Ten at the moment. But, after tonight’s showing and recent lackluster performances, I’d be shocked if we saw Michigan State win their final six games to even put them in position to win the league. So, in my opinion, this loss ultimately ends their chances of winning the Big Ten and now it’s simply about finishing the season strong and holding a solid seed in the big dance.
According to most bracketologists, Michigan State came into the night as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the loss to Wisconsin on the road won’t change that much. If they can protect home court and pick up a notable road upset over Indiana, Purdue or Michigan, then they should be firmly in that seed line. It’s no longer about the conference race, and time to focus on stacking wins and improving the tournament resume. Which, ultimately, isn’t the worst thing in the world.
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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Three takeaways from MSU basketball’s blowout loss at Wisconsin
