Michigan State basketball guards give Spartans push into Big Ten lead

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When halftime arrived, so did Tom Izzo’s wrath.

Michigan State basketball committed nine first-half turnovers Friday night. Its offense stagnated after a strong start. As the night went on, Michigan picked apart its interior defense and ran off 15 straight points, threatening to tighten its grip on first place in the Big Ten with a little over three weeks left in the regular season.

Yet Izzo saw a sliver of hope. Could’ve been worse, the Hall of Fame coach felt; the Spartans’ play suggested they should have been down by far more than four points to the league-leading Wolverines. In the locker room, he told his players they were “awful” in the first 20 minutes.

So what changed?

Michigan State’s Tom Izzo smiles as he greets Michigan’s Dusty May before their rivalry matchup game at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025.

“Threatened them. Old school,” the 30th-year MSU coach said wryly. “I went old-school on them and threatened them at halftime.”

Surely, he was joking. Right?

Not in this game. Not with this much on the line.

“We weren’t playing as ourselves, honestly,” freshman guard Jase Richardson said. “We were kind of sloppy and had a lot of turnovers. We let them go on a 15-0 run in the middle of that half. So I think it was just pickup, honestly, offensively and defensively.”

Michigan State’s Tre Holloman (5) celebrates after his team beat Michigan 75 to 62 in their rivalry matchup at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025.

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And one by one, the 13th-ranked Spartans got one play after another, after they returned to the Crisler Center court, from the guards Izzo had said, earlier in the week, would be needed at their peak.

Richardson, the first-half stabilizer, with a 3-pointer. Struggling Jeremy Fears Jr. shaking off a bricked attempt that resulted in a shot-clock violation by draining a 3 on the next…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/michigan-state-basketball-guards-spartans-132957554.html

Author : Lansing State Journal

Publish date : 2025-02-22 13:29:00

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