This team is a joke.

Before the terrible performances of last week it looked like the Spartans might be putting it together finally. I was way way way off because the way they performed this week on home-court to inferior opponents was just flat out embarrassing. The Spartans seemed uninterested. I think the team thought that Iowa and Ohio State would just turn over and let them win. This week was a real gut check for the Spartans and they’ll need to respond. I was screaming at my TV quite a few times watching them this week and not in a good way.

Playing the Iowa Hawkeyes has not been kind to the Spartans recently, losers of 3 of the last 4 now. The game started off like most MSU games in a back and forth battle. The 3 pointers were flying early for Michigan State. Spartans hit 3 threes early on thanks to Tyson Walker, Tre Holloman and Malik Hall. The Hawkeyes were able to keep up though with their efficient offense. Patrick McCaffery, son of Hawkeyes Head Coach came in off the bench and gave Iowa a much needed spark in the 1st half putting up 6 points quickly. Iowa ended the first half on a run and went up 45-33 at half. At this point I already felt like the game was over the way Iowa was playing. The Hawkeyes shot over 50% in the first half and a lot of it was in the paint. Speaking of the paint, Mady Sissoko continues to struggle tremendously. The Spartan center played 7 minutes against Michigan before playing 5 minutes against Iowa. Izzo is starting to realize that Sissoko is a liability and cannot be trusted even for his defense anymore. This is a shame because Sissoko is a great person and has overcome so much adversity. Iowa picked off where they left off to start the second half and went up 16. At this point I was just watching with the game muted because I was getting frustrated. AJ Hoggard missed about 3 easy layups in the 2nd half which led to fast break points for Iowa. The Spartans only turned it over 8 times to Iowa’s 6 but Iowa doubled MSU in points off turnovers, showing me that MSU was not locked in on the defensive end. The whole 2nd half of this game just felt like death by a thousand paper cuts. Iowa big man Ben Krikke was dominating the paint as he shot 7-11 for the game with a double double of 18 and 14. Krikke is an unathletic player but has the fundamentals locked down. Iowa was led by their leading scorer Payton Sandfort who put up 22 points. Outside of Hoggard, Hall, Walker and a little from Tre Holloman the Spartans couldn’t get anything going on offense against a very weak defense. MSU made it a little closer towards the end but the game never felt within reach in the 2nd half. Props to Iowa for coming into a hostile environment and getting a much needed win, they clearly wanted it more than MSU on Tuesday.

As ugly as Tuesday night was, Sunday was much worse. Buckeyes Star, Jamison Battle was ruled out with an injury before this game. This news made me think it will be an easy win for the Spartans. The game was just an incredibly ugly game all around that ended in heartbreak for the Spartans. I will start off by saying that some good did come out of this game. Tom Izzo finally made a lineup change and gave 5 Star Freshman Center Xavier Booker his first start of the season. This came after multiple disappoint performances for Mady Sissoko recently. The Spartans started this game with a small lead with help from a Xavier Booker ‘3’ that had the crowd going crazy. The spartans had a balanced offensive 1st half and took a 10 point lead into the half. MSU only allowed the Buckeyes to score 22 points in the first half and I was thinking this is on the way to being a blowout. Oh boy was I wrong. The weird thing about this Spartans’ collapse is that it literally came out of nowhere. Michigan State continued to control the game for the first 8 minutes of the half, even increasing their lead to 12 at a point. It was pretty much all downhill after this point. Some bad shots mixed with careless turnovers, a lot of them by Tyson Walker, allowed the Buckeyes to get back in the game very quickly. Ohio State took the lead with 11 seconds left but on their next possession Tyson Walker was able to get to the free throw line with a chance to give the Spartans the lead with 6 seconds left. Spoiler alert: he did not make both. The Buckeyes got the ball back with the game tied at 57. Interim Head Coach Jake Diebler drew up a great play and Bruce Thornton found unsung hero Dale Bonner in the corner for a game winning buzzer beater 3. This shot left the Breslin Center in shock, I’d bet you could hear a pin drop in there after that game. What really annoyed me in this game was how Tom Izzo handled the lineups. It was clear as day that Xavier Booker added a spark to the Spartans lineup. Booker was a +11 in his minutes and looking like he was going to close the game out. For some reason, Tom Izzo benched Booker for the last 12-ish minutes of the game. This decision led to the Buckeyes taking over the game. Izzo claimed it was for defensive purposes but it backfired on him. Buckeyes Coach Jake Diebler was asked if anything changed when Booker went to the bench and said “We were able to get some deeper catches. We were able to get the ball a little deeper, which helped us.” Due to Buckeye star Jamison Battle missing the game, Freshman Devin Royal, who averages 4 points and 11 minutes a game stepped up in a huge way for them. He led the Buckeyes with 14 points and did not miss a single shot. Royal was 1 of 4 Buckeyes who put up double digits vs the Spartans. At the end of the day, this game was more on Michigan State making mistakes than it was Ohio State just making great play after great play; because they didn’t. Spartans missed 4 out of their last 5 shots and only put up 25 points the entire second half.

The Spartans are going to have to take a real good look at themselves this week after 2 of their worst games of the season. The task at hand only gets tougher for MSU as they travel to Purdue and Mackey Arena on Saturday to take on the #2 team in the nation. Purdue is pretty much locked into a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and we are only in February still. Lucky for the Spartans, they will have all week to rest and prepare for this game. Without a doubt this is the toughest game left on the Spartans schedule. The Preview for this game will be up in the coming week. Go Green!!