Keith Appling has garnered quite a bit of praise this year for the ease of his transition from shooting guard to point guard this season.

But the sophomore guard’s play in Saturday’s victory at No. 3 Ohio State shows he still has some work to do.

Appling did have 14 points, but turned the ball over seven times, with no assists.

The struggles most likely come from the matchup with guard Aaron Craft, who many say is the best defender in the nation, including MSU head coach Tom Izzo.

Izzo, who has coached some great defenders himself, had nothing but praise for Craft.

“The guy is the best on-ball-defender I’ve ever seen,” he said. “He can just maintain. We’re just dribbling it and we’re not getting away from it.”

Appling didn’t think Craft showed him up at all.

“Nah, I don’t think he got the better of me,” Appling said. “ He’s a great defender that’s what he does. He knows all the tricks, everything. It’s tough to get around him, so I had to try to utilize all the screens I could.”

MSU leads 35-25

Junior center Derrick Nix, a key to an MSU victory is struggling early, getting pushed around in the paint and missing easy lay-ins. NIx did make a lay-in midway through the half, but still struggled through out with OSU center Jared Sullinger.

MSU had some interesting rotations in the first couple minutes.

Sophomore center Adreian Payne playing well. Hit the first two Spartan buckets of the game.

Payne has 11 points and three rebounds.

Senior forward Draymond Green went on a 7-1 run to give the Spartans their first lead of the game with 12:13 left in the half.

Green with nine points, seven assists and two assists, shooting 4-for-10.

Sophomore guard Keith Appling has seven points on 3-for-6 shooting.

Sullinger has nine points and eight rebounds, but five turnovers in 20 minutes.

Ohio State guard Aaron Craft with nine points for the Buckeyes.

MSU winning turnover battle 8-5.

MSU holds a 18-13 rebounding advantage.

*MSU shooting 46.9 percent, OSU shooting 33.3 percent.

MSU went to line just twice (Payne 1-of-2), OSU went 9-of-10. No Spartan in major foul trouble. Nix and Trice with two each.

First place is on the line today with all the midweek games wrapped up.

No. 11 MSU (8-3) plays at No. 3 Ohio State (9-2) for first place in the Big Ten.

Should MSU win, they’d hold the 9-3 tiebreaker by winning the only game the two have played this season, with the last game of the season being the teams’ second meeting at Breslin Center.

If the Buckeyes win, they’d take a two game lead and control their own destiny for the Big Ten title.

Wisconsin and Michigan, both 8-4 in league play, both are still in the race, but only if MSU and Ohio State falter.

Indiana sits at 7-6.

Illinois, Northwestern and Purdue make up the middle of the field at 5-6, with Minnesota coming in at 5-7. All four still have tournament hopes. (Iowa also sits at 5-7.)

Nebraska and Penn State round out the conference at 3-9 and 2-10, respectively.

No. 11 men’s basketball team five-star recruit Gary Harris (Fishers, Ind.) was named a McDonald’s All-American on Thursday.

The 6-foot-4 guard is the 11th recruit under head coach Tom Izzo to earn McDonald’s All-American status. He’s the 15th in MSU program history, including current Spartan guards sophomore Keith Appling and freshman Branden Dawson.

Harris is ranked No. 11 nationally by Scout.com and in the ESPNU 100, scoring 24.8 points, grabbing 8.5 rebounds, nabbing 4.6 steals and dishing out 3.8 steals per game. HIs team, Hamilton Southeastern High School is ranked No. 1 in Indiana’s Class 4A at 16-2.

The last four games have been a shooting struggle for the No. 11 MSU men’s basketball team.

Not including the disastrous shooting night on Nov. 11, 2011, on the USS Carl Vinson, the Spartans (19-5 overall, 8-3 Big Ten) have shot 49 percent in this season.

But in the last four games, starting Jan. 25 against Minnesota the Spartans have struggled mightily, shooting just 38 percent, and that’s including the 52.2 percent against Michigan.

The shooting percentage is also is brought down by the 15-for-56 3-point percentage of 26 percent.

Sophomore guard especially has been plagued by the shooting slump, going 7-for-28 from the field, including 1-for-11 from the 3-point line.

That one made 3-pointer was the last trey he took against Penn State.

After the game Appling said his shot will come back around eventually, and that the last made shot will be crucial to his confidence.

Head coach Tom Izzo was disappointed following the four-game shooting skid and said it will be crucial for MSU to get back to its shooting from earlier this season to beat No. 3 Ohio State on Saturday.

That includes having a better shot selection, making layups and inside-out three point shooting.

MSU won 77-57.

Penn State coach Tom Chambers called a timeout 43 seconds into the half after senior guard Austin Thornton hit a 3-pointer and freshman guard Branden Dawson took a steal the other way for a layup.

The Nittany Lions went on a 10-0 run a little before the midway point of the first half. MSU had built a 22-point lead, but Penn State managed to cut it to 11 with about 12 minutes to play.

With 9:18 to play, Penn State pulled to within five, 52-47. The Spartans then went on a 20-5 run to take a 72-52 lead heading into the final media timeout of the half.

Draymond Green recorded his Big Ten leading 13th triple-double by scoring 23 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

MSU leads 33-19 at the break.

Senior guard Austin Thornton started in place of fellow senior guard Brandon Wood for the second straight game. Wood checked in at the 16:37 mark of the first half.

Neither team scored until sophomore guard Keith Appling made two free throws with 16:37 left in the first half. He also scored the game’s first field goal 4:50 into the game.

Penn State didn’t score until Nick Colella hit a 3-pointer to make it 9-3 in favor of the Spartans with 12:20 left in the half.

Both teams committed five turnovers in the game’s first eight minutes.

Junior center Derrick Nix picked up his second foul with 9:38 left in the half, making way for sophomore center Adreian Payne to play 13 minutes. Redshirt freshman Alex Gauna also played three minutes at center.

MSU dominated the glass in the first half, grabbing 14 offensive rebounds and outrebounding the Nittany Lions 30-14.

Shooting was a struggle for both teams, as Penn State finished the half shooting 5-for-24 (20.8 percent) while MSU shot 8-for-30 (26.7 percent) from the field.

The Spartans shot well from the charity stripe, though, connecting on 13-of-16 (81.3 percent) free throws.

Senior forward Draymond Green scored nine points and grabbed eight rebounds, putting him on pace for his 12th double-double.

Draymond Green is focused on the present, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t thought about his future.

The senior forward, like anybody who’s played basketball their entire life, hopes to be playing in the NBA in the near future. So, when he’s not practicing or preparing for the next opponent, Green studies guys who could one day be his peers.

“I watch a lot of basketball,” Green said after practice Monday.

The list of players on Green’s watch list is not short. Everybody from Kobe Bryant to Kevin Love to players of the past — Charles Barkley specifically — give Green a chance to learn something new. Green’s theory: Take a move or technique from everybody to become the most complete player possible.

“I don’t think I necessarily really emulate anybody,” Green said. “But I try to take stuff from everybody.”

Kobe teaches Green how to find a shot whenever he wants. Carmelo Anthony provides Green with tips on how to use his body to his advantage, and undersized forwards such as Carl Landry, Chuck Hayes and Paul Millsap give Green an idea of how to survive in the NBA without being the biggest, fastest or strongest player on the floor.

Sometimes, Green said he’ll see players such as Dirk Nowitzki or Bryant pull off a move he likes while watching a game. Then it’s off to Breslin Center right away to work on doing it himself.

As an NBA “tweener,” Green is stuck between being a forward or wing in the League, which is exactly why he watches such a variety of players. That work ethic and dedication — along with everything else Green brings to the table — makes head coach Tom Izzo believe his senior leader will survive in the NBA.

Green seems confident as well.

But as someone who’s put so much into the MSU program for four years, Green said his NBA aspirations are taking a backseat to what he hopes is a long run for him and the Spartans in March.

“Of course it’s a childhood dream, something you’ve always wanted to do, everything you’ve worked for,” Green said of playing professionally. “But guys who look forward to trying to get to the NBA screw their guys who they’re playing for, and I will not screw my guys who I worked with for years.

“It’s about doing what I have to do here and focusing on what I can do at Michigan State. I’m like 17-18 games away from finishing my Spartan career, so I’ll just focus on that.”

Head coach Tom Izzo spoke about Keith Appling’s emergence out of a slump in Sunday’s 64-54 win against Michigan.

The sophomore guard talked a little about the process to get out of the streak Monday following practice.

A Friday meeting with Izzo, where Appling shot around and the two sat and talked for about an hour, helped Appling out the stress of the poor play.

“I’m a laid back kind of guy, so I don’t say much to anyone,” Appling said.
(I) said some things I’ve had bottled up for a long time, I feel better about it.”

It wasn’t frustration of the play that got to Appling, however.

“I felt I was in a rut or overly anxious,” “I just need to slow down. It just came from knowing what I’m capable of and (trying) to show everyone else what I can do or have done before.”

Prior to Sunday’s game, Appling said he watched a lot more film than he normally does. He noticed a lot of little mistakes he was making, and said he was able to correct them easily.

And it helped him dissect the Wolverines and help him play better in the win.

“I just had to figure out how they were playing the ball screens and once I did it was easier to get to the basket, easy points,” he said.

For the second time this season, someone on MSU’s bench other than Tom Izzo was called for a technical foul Sunday against Michigan.

With 11:12 left in the Spartans’ 64-54 win over the Wolverines at Breslin Center, assistant coach Dane Fife stood up, stomped his foot and yelled after senior guard Brandon Wood missed a layup.

“I don’t know exactly what happened,” Izzo said. “But according to everybody on the bench, (Fife) was stomping his foot telling (junior center Derrick Nix) to run back.”

The officials didn’t see it that way and whistled Fife for the tech about three minutes after the U-M bench also was T’ed up.

The Spartan bench was hit with a technical in a game at Wisconsin on Jan. 3. That time, assistant video coordinator Doug Herner was the culprit, although Izzo said Monday at his press conference he planned on covering for Herner before he spilled the beans.

“I figured I didn’t want to throw him under the bus, and he threw himself under the bus. Michigan grad,” Izzo said laughing.

Izzo said he doesn’t think Fife did anything wrong, and he really was yelling at Nix, not the officials. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t concerned with the trend Fife’s technical follows.

Since Xavier and Cincinnati took part in a bench-clearing brawl Dec. 10, Izzo said officials have been quick to discipline people on the bench. It’s to the point where Izzo said he’s paranoid when a ref is anywhere near the sideline, and he’s worried about what that means for the game.

“Every time they come by us, it’s, ‘Bench, sit down,’” Izzo said. “I feel bad for the officials in some respect because we’re going to minimize the excitement of things. … When you start talking about players and this and that, I just worry we’re going to take all the enjoyment and fun out of the game, and then it’ll be like pro ball where they’re sitting there eating hot dogs sometimes or popcorn or talking to some movie start.”