A loss against an unranked team amid a dominant season didn’t come quietly for Michigan State. Friday night raised an early warning sign for Tom Izzo’s team ahead of the March Madness, which conceded a 71-92 blowout defeat against the Wisconsin Badgers. And, quite naturally, Izzo didn’t hesitate to share his takeaways from his players’ sloppy performance after the game.

Speaking at the post-game press conference, Izzo went straight to the point when asked about his team’s inability to make a comeback. The Michigan State coach’s assessment highlighted that his team failed to secure defensive rebounds after Wisconsin’s missed free throws, thereby gifting the Badgers easy points that eventually cost them the game.

“I lost an NCAA game up five with like 12 seconds left, they missed a free throw, we didn’t cut out, they got the rebound and scored, three-point play, tied it, and then lost in overtime,” Izzo said. “That team went on to a Final Four. My whole career, I worked on something called free-throw cutouts, and when we cut it to nine, and they missed a free throw in front of our bench, and we did not cut out the shooter, that’s like illegal at Michigan State. So that kid might get put in jail for that, because that is inexcusable.”

Izzo’s statements were pretty clear about how the game flipped. The play Izzo specifically highlighted occurred in the first half of the game, when Wisconsin had already taken a substantial lead. With Jeremy Fears Jr.’s three successful free throws, Michigan State bridged the gap to nine (30-39), and it was the closest they would come in the entire game.

The Badgers responded with a successful layup by Nolan Winter, followed by a free throw opportunity after a foul by the Spartans’ Carson Cooper. Winter missed from the free-throw line in his first attempt, got an offensive rebound, was fouled again, and then again split one of two free throws in the same sequence of play. And this sloppy defense inside the paint from his players during free throws didn’t overwhelm Izzo at all.

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“But the other things, if a guy is quicker than you and beats you, bad coverages, bad ball-screen coverages, but that is a dead-ball situation, and that kind of told the story of the night,” Izzo added further in his press conference. “They got two of them on missed free throws.” Notably, Michigan State’s rebounding issue isn’t new. Izzo addressed it following the Michigan game, but the known nemesis pricked them even harder again at a crucial point in the season on Friday.

On their side of the free-throw line, the Spartans did a pretty good job, though. Izzo’s team scored 15 of 16 for 94%, in contrast to the Badgers’ 74%. However, Michigan State’s shooting from the field and the perimeter was cold throughout the game, and Wisconsin capitalized on it perfectly. Badgers’ guards John Blackwell and Nick Boyd set the tone perfectly in the first half of the game, and the Spartans were left chasing for the rest of the period.

Even individual performances add up. Their talisman, Jeremy Fears Jr., scored 14 points but missed 9 shots from open play, a major setback. Yet despite this crushing defeat, Tom Izzo remains optimistic about his team’s future in the upcoming stretch of games.

Tom Izzo Signals Improvement in One Metric Despite Spartans’ Blowout Loss

Barring errors on the boards and the back court, Michigan State had several errors with ball security throughout the season. It has cost them immensely over the course of the season. But after the Wisconsin game, Izzo noticed some improvements in his team’s perspective, which he clearly highlighted in the post-game press conference.

“We’ll get better guys. I mean, it’s one game,” Izzo said. “There’s some things you can look at on why you didn’t do this or why you didn’t do that? But I have seen most of the games this year. The one thing I will say, our margin of error is not too high. And usually the problem have been, we’ve turned the ball too much, tonight we didn’t really do that.”

This season’s overall numbers perfectly reflect Michigan State’s struggles with turnovers. The team has committed 287 turnovers this season, averaging 12.0 per game, ranking 205th in the nation. They brought it down to just 9 against the Wisconsin Badgers, signaling an improvement in this context. But it will be interesting to see if Tom Izzo’s team can replicate it against ranked teams, and additionally address their performance on the boards.

Because, with the National Championships next month, tight ball security and precise rebounding won’t be an option for them. The Spartans won’t have to wait too long to test their limits. They have two contests against ranked teams: No. 13 Purdue on Feb. 26 and No.2 Michigan on March 08. However, for now, Izzo’s focus will be on Tuesday’s game against UCLA.

With three losses in the last four games, the team stands at 20-5 and 10-4 in the season for now, and is desperate for some W’s. And they hope that the Bruins game might be the start of their winning momentum, following an unceremonious stretch. What are your expectations for Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans this season? Do let us know in the comments.