Spartans' leaders can't orchestrate tournament win

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Indianapolis — It all started with a swish, followed by a heavy roar.

Soon thereafter came a buzzer.

Then, there was a slap and another roar.

Next came a series of clanks and, finally, a sigh of deep despair and dismay.

The MSU men’s basketball team won’t need a hotel reservation in Indianapolis this weekend. They won’t be served eggs in the morning, nor will they take the floor at Conseco Fieldhouse again this season.

It’s all because of a sequence of sounds characterizing the lows, highs and consequential repeated lows in their 72-67 loss to Minnesota on Friday night in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.

The same group of upperclassmen, captains and leaders who put the Spartans on their back down the stretch of a furious comeback were the same ones that clanked and then sighed.

Draymond Green ended two lengthy stretches of distress with baskets for the Spartans, but the sophomore forward also lost his cool in a free throw line scrum. Later, his missed free throws and defensive lapse led to a four-point swing at a crucial juncture.

Kalin Lucas and Raymar Morgan controlled the offense at the end of regulation and maintained the momentum for the start of overtime but bricked consecutive pairs of free throws in the bonus five minutes thereafter.

Sophomore guard Korie Lucious’ nothin’-but-net 3-pointer got the Spartans and their fans back into it and helped send the game into overtime before Morgan’s and-one gave MSU a three-point lead.

But then, the legs gave out. On Morgan and Lucas — two of the team’s most skilled players, co-captains and upperclassmen — and the team’s will to win.

“In fairness to our 18-for-34 from the line, which really has never happened, that’s my fault because I ran these guys into the ground,” Izzo said. “I played Kalin and (Green and Morgan) just stretches that they were so tired by the end, they missed some free throws.”

So Izzo took the brunt for those three combining for 113 minutes Friday night. In this case, maybe rightfully so. But in the long run, those three must know they’re the backbone of this team and playing a 45-minute basketball game is as much mental as it is physical.

“During overtime, you really can’t have tired legs,” Morgan said. “That’s just gut-check time.”

Holding its foot on the accelerator and closing the door has been an issue for this team all season. Heck, owning a lead at home or against inferior teams has been enough of a challenge.

“We came up with some big plays down the stretch,” Minnesota guard Devoe Joseph said. “We rebounded the ball down the stretch and we closed the game a lot better than we did last game.”

Not only did Minnesota close Friday night’s game better than the last meeting in Minneapolis, but, more importantly, the Gophers’ ability to close was far better than the Spartans’ overtime effort.

Pair MSU’s inability to put teams away this season with the wasted momentum in the extra session Friday, and the Spartans will have enough trouble closing the car door behind them on the way back to East Lansing.

There was nothing left in the tank for a game well within the Spartans’ capability of controlling from the get-go.

And now, as the Big Ten Tournament champion is honored Sunday in Indianapolis, what fans will be hearing won’t be the Michigan State Spartans.

Joey Nowak is a State News men’s basketball reporter. He can be reached at nowakjo2@msu.edu

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