Whats wrong with Michigan State basketball?

Actually, the better question right now seems to be what ISN’T wrong with Michigan State basketball right now. As their current record of 13-10 indicates, the Michigan State basketball team sits on a edge of something they haven’t experienced in the past 13 seasons—missing out on the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Spartans fall from grace has been startling in its confounding and sudden manner.

The trouble actually started this past off-season when rising Senior Chris Allen was kicked off the team for reasons that have no fully been resolved (We won’t dig into the millions of rumors that have been floating around since he left) While Allen was often a frustrating Spartan to watch in his first three seasons in East Lansing, there was no doubt he could play and was due to be a starter again. Allen provided State with another three point specialist and was also a lanky defender who provided a match-up nightmare for smaller opposing players. Couple that with losing last season’s top defender, Raymar Morgan to graduation and a storm was beginning to brew in East Lansing.

Then Coach Izzo famously waffled on his decision to leave Michigan State for the Cleveland Cavaliers head coaching job. Reports were rampant that he was leaving, and some players on the team made it clear they would transfer if Izzo left. Izzo ended up staying but the effect of the whole “Will he-won’t he?” media saga certainly took its toll on the team and their development.

When the season finally did get underway, Michigan State was ranked #2 in the nation by the Associated Press. Junior Forward Draymond Green publically stated that anything less than a national championship would be a disappointment. Right out of the gate, State never played like the #2 team in the nation.

Playing a typical brutal Izzo-made out of conference schedule, State lost to Connecticut, Duke, Syracuse and Texas. This wasn't huge news, all four of those teams have been ranked in the top-5 nationally at some point, but the bigger news was State lacked a real solid victory even over teams that were obviously below their level talent wise.

The Big-10 season has been, how shall I say this? A clusterf***. State has never really gotten into a rhythm after defeating then top-25 ranked Minnesota. Losses came quickly at Penn State, at home to Michigan (for the first time in 11 seasons) and on the road to the last place team in the Big10. Iowa didn't beat State so much as blow State out of the water from the get-go, prompting Izzo to call it “The worst defeat in his time as head coach. State also suffered shellacking’s against Purdue and Wisconsin and needed overtime to knock off lesser teams at home like Northwestern and Indiana.

If to add another element to the "perfect storm" of awfulness surrounding the team, back-up point guard Korie Lucious was dismissed by the typically tight-lipped Izzo. The Spartans now stand at 13-10 overall and 5-6 in the Big-10 which begs the question: What the hell is going on?

The most glaring problem as I see it is that Michigan State cannot stop anyone on defense. When you lose your top two perimeter defenders from the previous year, you know it won’t be easy, but States perimeter defense has been truly atrocious this season. Kemba Walker (UConn) dropped 30 points, Kryie Erving (Duke) slashed and burned State for 31 points, E’Twan Moore (Purdue) made it look easy, downing 26 points and Jordan Taylor (Wisconsin) dropped 30 points.

See a pattern? Opposing teams’ guards eat our defense up. Point Guard Kalin Lucas’ lateral speed is no where up to par thanks to his Achilles injury, Korie Lucious was too small to play against bigger guards, and Durrell Summers has shown he just doesn’t have the desire to seriously check anyone. Freshman Keith Appling has been the teams’ top perimeter defender, but he is a freshman and only six feet tall (on a good day).

If the Spartans want to keep their streak of Big Dance appearances up, something needs to change on the defensive end, fast. Izzo has talked about switching to a zone defense ala Jud Heathcoat, but I would count on it. Izzo has always been a man-to-man coach and I don’t see that changing unless Izzo becomes desperate.

Ever since Izzo has taken over in East Lansing, rebounding has been his M.O. The Spartans have led the nation in rebounding margin four times during his tenure. This year? The Spartans are a distant 81st in the nation in rebounding. Typically Spartan teams always have guards who aren’t afraid to bang with the giants in order to pull down some rebounds (think Charlie Bell, Kelvin Torbert), but this year that isn’t the case. Besides Summers (who actually pulls down a respectable 4 'bounds a game) no other guard comes close. Big men Draymond Green and Delvon Roe do their job on the boards, but no one else seems willing to come down with a tough rebound.

We could get into the teams apparent lack of leadership, focus, will, etc, but I believe none of that matters if players are not doing what they are being asked to do in terms of playing defense and rebounding. Any player can scream and yell about it (and not even spark-plug Draymond Green has been doing much of that lately) but if you don't show it on the court, no one will follow you anyway. Izzo knows this. This isn't some big secret to anyone. If the Spartans get back to out-rebounding teams and getting after it like hound dogs on the defensive end, the "intangibles" will fall into place.

Realistically, at 13-10 the Spartans face a long climb uphill to try and make the Big Dance for a fourteenth straight year, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. Four of their next seven games are at home. Thats about where the good news ends. Only two games are against a team that hasn't already beat them or they haven't played yet (Minnesota, #1 Ohio State).

So while fans of Spartan basketball (like me) watch in horror as our teams get pummeled, I urge them to step down off the ledge and remember we have one weapon so valuable a professional basketball team tried to steal it away from us, Tom Izzo. And as far as i'm concerned as long as we have Izzo we have a chance.