What Tom Izzo, Michigan State basketball must figure out, and soon, entering March

EAST LANSING — Now comes some time for Michigan State basketball to do a few things.

Rest. Refocus. Reassess.

After playing 14 conference games in 48 days, and seven of those in the past 26 days, the Spartans get a bit of a respite as they prepare to finish off the Big Ten regular season.

That includes five days between Tuesday’s frustrating 78-71 home loss to Iowa and Sunday’s visit by Ohio State. And MSU then won’t play again until it tries to conquer its demons on the road at No. 3 Purdue, where Tom Izzo has not won in a decade.

“I mean, that could be good and bad,” senior point guard A.J. Hoggard said about that stretch. “So we just gotta figure it out.”

The lackluster performance against the Hawkeyes showed some of the Spartans’ limitations, but also is an outlier overall flatline performance during a stretch MSU has won 13 of 18 games. Only a 14-point road loss at Northwestern on Jan. 7 is comparable.

But Tuesday pointed to four areas in which MSU (17-10, 9-7 Big Ten) must make improvements — and fast — with four games remaining in the regular season:

SHAWN WINDSOR: MSU has issues in the middle — but slow starts are the bigger woe

Consistency

Earlier this week, Izzo pointed to his biggest need: Finding consistency.

“If we do,” he said Monday, “we got a chance. If we don't, we'll just be another team.”

It took a day for him to get his answer. The Spartans’ most consistent trait is their inconsistency.

MSU had won three games, two of them on the road, entering Tuesday. The Spartans were coming off a dominating second half in Saturday’s 73-63 win at Michigan, in which they held the Wolverines scoreless over the final seven minutes and scored the final 10 points to pull away.

The Hawkeyes hammered MSU off the opening tip, scoring 45 first-half points and building a 16-point lead thanks to a 15-1 stretch that took only a little more than three minutes shortly before halftime.

“We keep having good games, we'll stack a couple, and then we'll have a setback. And then we'll stack a couple we'll have a setback,” senior forward Malik Hall said. “So we have to find a way for everyone to be consistent and everyone to be on the same page on offense, on defense — just holistically, with energy and everything — to be able to move forward.”

Figuring out the fluctuations as to why the play has been so unsteady is critical, especially Sunday against the Buckeyes (15-11, 5-10). Ohio State, which fired coach Chris Holtmann last week, is coming off an emotional home upset of the Boilermakers on Sunday. However, interim coach Jake Diebler’s team will arrive at MSU on short rest after it plays Thursday night at Minnesota.

Post play

While overall consistency is a concern, getting any production in the paint is just as critical.

It wasn’t a secret coming into the season where the biggest questions about MSU would be. And that uncertainty got further compounded when Jaxon Kohler needed surgery in October, less than a month before the opener. That left Mady Sissoko, Carson Cooper and untested freshman Xavier Booker to hold down the middle.

Against Iowa, those four players combined for only seven points and 11 rebounds, seven of those by Cooper.

Sissoko’s struggles reached a zenith the past week, playing single-digit minutes for the first time since his sophomore season — and doing so in three of the past four games.

In that span, the 6-9, 250-pound senior has just three points and four rebounds while committing seven fouls. He played just 9 minutes against Illinois, then 17 at Penn State, but got just 8 minutes at U-M and a season-low 5 against Iowa. His defense and screening also have been amiss.

The Hawkeyes outscored the Spartans in the post, 40-28, with a concerted plan to attack them all game.

“We didn’t think in a million years we’d have to double the post,” Izzo said. “We thought we could handle it. We were worried about their 3-point shooting — they just got layup after layup.”

Despite starting 24 games and averaging 17.1 minutes in 27 appearances, Sissoko is posting just 3.7 points and 5.6 rebounds.

Bench help

The problems in the post dovetail into the issues in getting production and energy from the reserves.

Kohler played a season-high 19 minutes against the Hawkeyes, blocking three shots. However, he made 1 of 2 shots, missed both of his free throws, committed a turnover and grabbed only one rebound.

The 6-11, 240-pound Cooper’s inconsistency and limitations against sturdier has shown. He had seven rebounds against Iowa but got scored over repeatedly in the paint, missing his only two shots on offense.

Cooper is up to 17.6 minutes a game but averages just 3.8 points and 4.8 boards. In his 13 games back, Kohler is at 1.8 points and 1.5 rebounds in 7.7 minutes.

Booker continued to show development, grabbing two rebounds and getting a block in his 6 minutes and showing more toughness when getting pushed around down low. Fellow freshman wing Coen Carr delivered some energy and a bucket in his 2-plus minutes. But Izzo did not play either of them in the second half again for the second straight game despite those encouraging signs.

“If our other guys play like they did,” Izzo said, “(Booker and Carr) are gonna play more, even if they can’t play.”

Coaching

Izzo continued to point the finger at himself and his staff for the dips and dives their team has taken.

He stood by the decision to keep Booker and Carr on the bench while lamenting not giving Sissoko more minutes in the second half. He also did not call a timeout during Iowa’s game-tilting run late in the first half until it already had reached a 12-2 spurt.

“We looked like we were in quicksand right from the get-go,” Izzo said. “I gave them a day off even on a two-day prep. Just had some guys didn’t look very good. I didn’t think I did a good job.”

Figuring out the post pairings and rotations that work best continues to be a conundrum. Finding ways to get Tyson Walker free more frequently — as well as keeping him as healthy as possible as he plays through a groin injury — also is on the agenda, as is pushing Hoggard and Jaden Akins to get to a level of scoring consistency that Hall has finally been able to provide.

“I don’t know what the reason is,” Izzo said. “For the most part, we’ve had the pressure on us for quite a while and won a lot of games. And we didn’t bring the same energy for some reason (against Iowa).”

If they all don’t get that fixed quickly, the final games — against the Buckeyes, at Purdue (March 2), at home vs. Northwestern (March 6) and at Indiana (March 10) — could continue the rough roller-coaster ride into the postseason. And make the dream of a deep run in the NCAAs just as unpredictable.

“Everybody has to take time, seeing what they can do better or whether there's something else that they can bring to the table, so that we can go in the direction that we want to go …,” Hall said. “So I think in the next couple of days, we need to take the time to learn from what happened in this game and make sure that, moving forward, we are showing up every single day.”

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

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Next up: Buckeyes

Matchup: Michigan State (17-10, 9-7) vs. Ohio State (15-11, 5-10).

Tipoff: 4 p.m. Sunday; Breslin Center, East Lansing.

TV/radio: CBS; WJR-AM (760).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What Tom Izzo, Michigan State basketball must figure out before March