Michigan State basketball's big problem: Rebounding, defending, scoring woes prove costly

MADISON, Wis. – Michigan State basketball arrives at the midpoint of the Big Ten season with big issues in the middle.

A lack of interior scoring. Inconsistent rebounding. Defensive struggles against some of the better post players in the conference.

The Spartans’ struggles took center stage in Friday night’s 81-66 loss at No. 10 Wisconsin, another opponent that dominated them on the boards and scored in abundance in the paint.

“If you ask coach, it's an effort thing,” senior forward Malik Hall said. “We just gotta bang harder. We gotta be physical first. ... If we want to win big-time games against teams – we're obviously not that big of a team. But if we want to be in those games and we want to win those games, it has to be a priority for us going forward.”

It was the third straight game getting outrebounded for the Spartans (12-8, 4-5 Big Ten). MSU survived giving up 15 more boards in a Jan. 21 road win at Maryland and surrendering three more rebounds in a Jan. 18 home win over Minnesota. Izzo’s team has outrebounded four conference opponents and evened up in a loss at Nebraska.

The Badgers, who swept the Spartans in the regular season for the first time in 20 years, finished with a 35-25 rebounding advantage. That included 12 offensive boards they turned into 17 second-chance points. Many of those, coach Tom Izzo felt, were more loose-ball boards than vertical rebounding opportunities.

And Izzo was unhappy with how his players were battling for those.

“It wasn’t like somebody went over us and got some,” Izzo said. “It was like the ball was knocked around and they came up with it.”

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MSU enters the new week ranked 12th out of 14 teams in Big Ten play at 31.0 rebounds per game with a minus-2.9 rating on the glass as the first nine opponents averaged 33.9 boards against them. The Spartans also are 12th in offensive rebounds (8.3) and defensive boards (22.7) in conference games.

Wisconsin, which ranks third in rebounding margin in Big Ten games (6.1) is only averaging 8.7 offensive boards. But in the two meetings against the Spartans, the Badgers were a plus-24 overall in rebounding and had 23 offensive boards that led to 36 second-chance points. MSU gave up 11 offensive boards and 19 second-chance points in the first meeting, a 70-57 home loss to Wisconsin on Dec. 5, and got outrebounded in that game, 36-22.

“I didn’t think they were definitively better than us. I think they played better than us today,” said Hall, who had 13 points Friday but snared just two rebounds while battling foul problems. “And that's how the game goes at some point, one team usually plays better than the other.”

After allowing 7-footer Steven Crowl to drain four 3-pointers in the December meeting, the Spartans gave up a pair to 6-11 Badgers freshman Nolan Winter in the first half Friday as a result of defensive miscommunications. Crowl also got an open look he missed early then drained his second deep shot as the Spartans attempted to crawl back from an 18-point second-half hole they had cut to 12 with 4:24 to play.

“I think we messed up on some of our coverages. That's just how it goes,” Hall said. “We obviously gotta be better and make sure we can limit those mess-ups as much as possible.”

Crowl finished with 15 points and did the majority of his damage in the paint, where Wisconsin finished with a 32-26 scoring edge. The senior backed down MSU’s big men and made 5 of 7 shots inside the arc.

Mady Sissoko struggled with ball screen coverages to the point Izzo said, “He was out of it.” The coaching staff learned after the game that Sissoko’s grandmother had died in Mali, and the 6-9 senior did not tell the staff beforehand.

“Normally we can guard (Crowl) a little better with Mady. Our other guys just weren’t capable of doing that,” Izzo said. “Mady, even though he played, he didn’t play. So his 20 minutes, he still gets seven boards, but that hurt us a lot. I feel for Mady, so I don’t even want to talk about that.”

Sissoko’s American guardian, Mike Clayton, told the Free Press via text message that Sissoko was taking his grandmother’s death hard, “because he wants to pay her respects and can't go” back to Mali.

“She was his favorite, as all the kids slept in her hut and he remembers lots of backrubs to get him to sleep,” Clayton said via text.

Sissoko scored just two points on two attempts, and most of MSU’s 26 points in the paint came from its guards. Carson Cooper went scoreless and Jaxon Kohler had six points as the three big men combined to go 4-for-10 shooting inside. Izzo used both sophomores at the same time at points in the game when Sissoko was struggling, which led to further defensive deficiencies – Winter hit one 3-pointer over 6-11 Cooper and the other over 6-9 Kohler.

“We had practiced with Jaxon at (center). And all of a sudden, we had to play him at (power forward) some,” Izzo said. “That created some problems on some coverages. When Winter hit the 3s, we were in a certain coverage that should’ve been covered. It just wasn’t. We went a little brain-dead, and that was disappointing. …

“We changed our coverages a couple of times. But the coverages – when a guy pops out and there’s no one within 10 feet of him, I don’t care if the guy’s made two 3s all Big Ten season, that was supposed to be covered. Those were mistakes. Mady is a big part of that, too. So we had guys just all over the place. That wasn’t really good.”

In Big Ten play, the Sissoko-Cooper-Kohler trio is combining for 7.8 points and 10 rebounds a game. Kohler has played six games since returning from offseason foot surgery.

Next up is the first of two rivalry games against last-place Michigan (7-13, 2-7). It is a 9 p.m. tipoff that will not be televised but will be streamed on Peacock. Despite their struggles, the Wolverines are sixth in Big Ten play at plus-0.3 rebounding margin and seventh in both offensive (10.2) and defensive (25.0) rebounding.

“We know what that game means to both sides. There's no sugar-coating that,” senior point guard A.J. Hoggard said. “But definitely after a loss like (Friday’s), to get back and be able to play your rival is definitely big.”

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

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball big men struggling to rebound, defend, score