Michigan State basketball wants to atone at Wisconsin to keep pace in topsy-turvy Big Ten

EAST LANSING — Wisconsin is right where Tom Izzo hoped Michigan State basketball would be at this point of the season.

In the top 10 of the polls, fighting with Purdue for the top spot in the Big Ten standings, pushing for a high seed in the NCAA tournament.

Instead, the Spartans have taken a more circuitous route to where they now reside — trying to play their way back into title contention from a muddled middle in the league, looking for redemption against the team that already handled them once. Having to seek that atonement in an always-difficult and hostile road environment, however.

“When you dig a hole like we dug,” Izzo said Tuesday, “your backs are gonna be against the wall.”

MSU travels to face No. 10 Wisconsin, which will have a “Stripe-Out Night” crowd waiting Friday in the Kohl Center stands. Tipoff is 8 p.m. (FS1) in Madison.

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And it is a pivotal game if Izzo’s team realistically believes it still can be a factor in the race for the conference regular-season championship.

“I think for us,” senior forward Malik Hall said after practice Tuesday, “every game we play is going to have an impact on how we want the rest of our year to go.”

MSU (12-7, 4-4) dropped its Big Ten opener to the Badgers on Dec. 5 at Breslin Center, 70-57, in a game the Spartans never led. Wisconsin (15-4, 7-1) has 14 of its last 16 games and eight of its last 10 since the win at Breslin Center. The Badgers survived Tuesday night at Minnesota, 61-59, and are half-game ahead of No. 2 Purdue (7-2) for first place in the Big Ten.

In the December meeting, it was MSU not playing at full strength. Hall was sick with a temperature above 100 degrees but gutted out 23 minutes. He finished with two points, three rebounds and three assists but struggled defensively.

The Spartans got worked on the boards, giving up 19 second-chance points on 11 Wisconsin offensive rebounds. The Badgers won the overall rebounding margin, 36-22, and used a 20-8 start over the first 9½ minutes to provide a cushion MSU could not overcome.

Despite holding forward Tyler Wahl (eight points) and guards Chucky Hepburn (five) and Max Klesmit (two) to a combined 5-for-19 shooting, the Spartans struggled to defend the other Badgers. Big man Steven Crowl and guard AJ Storr combined to go 8-for-10 from 3-point range and scored 40 points between them.

Crowl, who made all four of his 3-point attempts against MSU, is 6-for-16 from deep in the 10 games since. Storr is making just 30.9% for the season behind the arc. Izzo put the blame on himself and his staff for allowing them to take those shots.

“We're not going to take that chance again. I think we're gonna guard them. Take the analytics and stick it,” Izzo said. “You figure that, in general, some guys get hot against teams, some guys play better in certain arenas, some guys make shots on certain nights. But for those two to go 8-for-10 and that game really socked us.”

The Spartans, who lost at Nebraska five days after falling at home to the Badgers, rediscovered their mojo in late December. MSU has won eight of its last 10, including three straight, to get back to .500 in league play after beginning 1-4. Izzo’s team enters Friday tied with Indiana for sixth place in the Big Ten but remains just a game out of third; 11 of the 14 teams have three, four or five league losses.

The win at Maryland was the Spartans’ first in three true road games this season.

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“You don't want to lose on the road here. I'm just being totally honest with you. There's no secret, that plane ride back and that bus back is really long,” Hoggard said afterward in the locker room. “So being able to get on the bus and be able to talk and laugh a little bit, it's definitely in the back of our minds. But yeah, we definitely needed this win or just decided that we needed this win.

“And just for us to feel confident going on a road, instead of going into our next road game on Friday 0-3 on the road, this was definitely big. It's a momentum-builder for us, and we just gotta grow on it.”

Gard, in his ninth season with the Badgers, won his 100th Big Ten game Tuesday. Izzo also has a chance for a milestone with a win in Wisconsin — the Spartans’ victory at Maryland was his 699th overall in 29 seasons as MSU’s head coach.

The Spartans have won the past two meetings and four of the last five at Kohl Center. That included an 86-74 win there in 2022 when the Badgers were ranked No. 8 and a 69-65 victory last season with Wisconsin ranked 18th.

“It's definitely a big game in itself already because we're back on the road again. Then it being Wisconsin on top of that, and they beat us and they're top 15 team in the country,” Hoggard said Tuesday. “So just to go into their environment, you gotta have focus, you gotta have leadership. … I'm definitely eager to see how we do. But I think we're ready. We've been in this situation before. We went out to Wisconsin before when they were ranked like this before and took care of business, so we just gotta find another way.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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Next up: Badgers

Matchup: Michigan State (12-7, 4-4 Big Ten) at No. 10 Wisconsin (15-4, 7-1).

Tipoff: 8 p.m. Friday; Kohl Center, Madison, Wisconsin.

TV/radio: FS1; WJR-AM (760).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball seeks redemption on road at Wisconsin