Iowa rolls again, and this time Michigan State has no excuse
In its 16 games against opponents other than Iowa this season, fourth-ranked Michigan State has won every game by an average of 21.2 points.
That's what makes it so impressive how bad the Hawkeyes keep making the Spartans look.
Peter Jok erupted for 23 points on Thursday night as sixteenth-ranked Iowa halted an 18-game losing streak at the Breslin Center and completed a season sweep of Michigan State with a 76-59 rout. The Hawkeyes hit nine first-half threes, opened up a 22-point halftime lead and never let the Spartans closer than 14 thereafter en route to their first win in East Lansing since 1993.
If Iowa's one-sided Dec. 30 victory could be rationalized by the absence of injured national player of the year candidate Denzel Valentine, Michigan State had no such excuses Thursday night. This time it was clear that the Hawkeyes (13-3, 4-0) are not only a legitimate Big Ten title threat but also a nightmare matchup for the Spartans.
The first-half 3-point barrage led by Jok and Jarrod Uthoff helped Iowa gain separation, but the Hawkeyes maintained it by outworking Michigan State in all facets of the game. They ran the Spartans' shooters off the 3-point arc, they controlled the glass at both ends and they forced 16 Michigan State turnovers with their defensive aggressiveness.
It's hard to pick Thursday's low point for Michigan State because there were so many options from which to choose.
Was it the two-on-none Iowa fastbreak late in the first half made possible by indifference from the Spartans? Or was it sharpshooter Bryn Forbes picking up his third foul seconds into the second half after sitting most of the first with two? Or was it the early second-half possession when Michigan State somehow surrendered five offensive rebounds to the Hawkeyes?
Whatever your pick, give Iowa credit for making Michigan State look bad. The Hawkeyes are good.
They flew under the radar entering Big Ten play after blowing a huge lead against Iowa State and sustaining a pair of losses in the Advocare Invitational, but they've more than made up for that sandwiching two routs of Michigan State around wins over Nebraska and Purdue. They have an underrated star in Uthoff, a strong supporting cast headlined by Jok, point guard Mike Gesell and center Adam Woodbury and a wealth of shooters off the bench.
About the only thing they don't do well is draw fouls and protect the defensive glass, though you'd never know either were season-long weaknesses from the way they played against Michigan State.
Meanwhile, as dismal a showing as this was for the Spartans, they can take solace in this: They won't see Iowa again the rest of the regular season. That's probably welcome given the discrepancy between how well Michigan State has played against everyone else this season and how vulnerable they look against the Hawkeyes.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
