IU basketball’s effort “just not enough” in home loss to Michigan State
- Josh Pos
- 1h ago
With slumped shoulders and the bottom of his jersey clenched in his teeth, a dejected Lamar Wilkerson trudged toward the Indiana locker room.
His team had fallen short again, losing its fourth straight game — a 77–64 home defeat to No. 13 Michigan State on Sunday afternoon.
Wilkerson carried the same crestfallen expression into the press room alongside fellow senior Tucker DeVries. Wearing his frustration openly, he spoke softly about missed opportunities being the reason his team fell short of a much-needed resumé-boosting victory.
“We’re just not playing our best basketball as a group,” Wilkerson said. “There’s a lot of things we have to fix.”
That sentiment rang true again Sunday, but in a different way.
In the first three games of the skid, a lack of effort became an issue. Sunday afternoon was the opposite. Indiana looked like a team with a winning mindset but couldn’t make the plays to get back in the game.
Trailing by as many as 11 in the second half, Darian DeVries’ team punched back, cutting the deficit down to five. However, there wasn’t enough power behind the punch to draw any closer. The cat-and-mouse game wore on as each time Indiana started rolling, Michigan State flexed its muscle to regain a double-digit advantage.
During one of Indiana’s surges midway through the second half, the Hoosiers forced a pair of misses it desperately needed but couldn’t secure a defensive rebound, giving Michigan State two more opportunities— the third ending in a 3-pointer that pushed the lead back to eight.
That sequence sparked a 7–0 Spartan run, effectively ending Indiana’s comeback bid and triggering a mass exodus from Assembly Hall.
“There are times you go out there, and you lay it all out there, and it’s just not enough,” Tucker DeVries said. “I thought tonight was a little more on that side than the last previous losses.”
Even with a valiant effort from Tucker DeVries and Wilkerson — who combined for 26 of Indiana’s 27 second-half points — Michigan State had an answer. The Spartans turned nine offensive rebounds over the final 20 minutes into 12 points and consistently made the winning plays, while Indiana couldn’t get out of its own way.
“We got it to a two-possession game, get a stop, get the ball, get in transition, get the crowd into it,” Darian DeVries said. “And it seemed like they just came up with all the loose balls, all the big plays in those situations.”
With the regular season entering its final week, opportunities are running out. Indiana fell to 2-11 against Quad 1 opponents, missing chances to bolster its tournament résumé. The Hoosiers now face a mountain to climb with two games remaining, needing to get off the canvas and return to form to improve their chances of making the field of 68.
“We have to find a way to get back to how we were at the end of January, beginning of February,” Wilkerson said. “If any time, it’s right now.”
With each loss feeling heavier than the last, Indiana’s flaws are showing. Still, amid the unraveling, Tucker DeVries insists the Hoosiers won’t go quietly — and that the dam hasn’t yet broken on his team’s season.
“We’re going to go down swinging,” Tucker DeVries said. “As long as we really stick together and give it our all these last few games, and hopefully give ourselves a chance to be playing in that tournament.”
Sunday afternoon didn’t end Indiana’s season, but it reinforced what Wilkerson said after the game. Some teams are simply better than the Hoosiers, and effort alone usually isn’t enough to win against elite opponents.
See More: Media, Darian DeVries, Lamar Wilkerson, Michigan State Spartans, Tucker DeVries