The Minute After: Michigan State

Lamar Wilkerson defends at Michigan State.

Thoughts on an 81-60 loss to the Spartans:

It’s one thing to go on the road and lose to this strong Michigan State squad.

But for the first time this season, Indiana didn’t just lose. Because as Michigan State pulled away in the final 10 minutes of the contest, the Hoosiers’ will looked broken. They appeared to give up.

The game was all knotted up at 53 after a thunderous Lamar Wilkerson dunk in transition with 11:19 to play. The Hoosiers kept pace, as their 3-point shooting so far had been traveling. They also did a nice job of countering Michigan State’s hard hedging with some good slips to the rim to try and balance out their offensive attack. But after the Wilkerson dunk, Michigan State ripped off a 19-0 run, eventually closing out the contest on a 28-7 run to blow out Indiana by 21 points.

The stretch in which the Spartans broke open the game for good was eerily reminiscent of how Indiana lost control against Nebraska on Saturday afternoon. The Hoosiers turned the ball over too much and had bad offensive possessions. IU turned the ball over six times in about five minutes and 30 seconds, and the Spartans feasted, scoring 10 points off those miscues. Those accounted for 12 of their 19 points on their 19-0 run.

“You can’t give them transition, especially here,” Darian DeVries said after the game. “That’s where the game just flipped.”

As the Spartans started to take control, and the crowd reached a fever pitch, Indiana was unable to handle the moment well and just flat-out crumbled. This was despite handling things well for nearly 30 minutes of the contest. Michigan State’s offense seemed to feed its elite defense, which further put Indiana down in the hole. The Hoosiers went scoreless for 6 minutes and 45 seconds until a Tucker DeVries bucket stopped the bleeding with 4:34 to play. Other than that, Indiana only got two more baskets the rest of the game. Nick Dorn hit a 3-pointer with 1:45 to play, and Trent Sisley got a dunk with under a minute to play.

Michigan State also just played its game better than Indiana did. The Spartans were opportunistic in transition, outscoring the Hoosiers 25-12 on fast-break points. They rebounded 48 percent of their misses. Jeremy Fears Jr. dished out 10 assists. He was also tough to stop once he got a head of steam off IU’s misses. He led all scorers with 23 points. Jaxon Kohler scored just over his scoring average with 16 points. Coen Carr threw down a poster dunk during IU’s turnover fest. The Spartans held Indiana to .93 points per possession, Indiana’s second-worst offensive output of the season.

Wilkerson continues to carry the offensive burden for Indiana, leading the way with 19 points. DeVries airballed a 3-pointer in the first half and went just 1-of-7 from deep. He’s now shooting only 24.4 percent (10-of-41) from 3-point range in Big Ten play.

Indiana is now 0-4 against Quad 1 teams this season. It’s yet to put together a full 40 minutes against top competition. The Hoosiers will get another shot against Iowa on Saturday afternoon, back in Bloomington. We’ll see if IU can bounceback from a poor performance this evening.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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