Ouch...
Okay, I didn't expect MSU to win, but I didn't think they'd lose by 15. I also didn't think Draymond Green would be about the only Spartan player to show up to play (and Green was outstanding, scoring 29 of MSU's 55 points and playing with passion the entire game). The rest of the team really looked fairly lifeless. Appling seems to lack confidence in his shot, and Payne seems to have turned into the invisible man since the Ohio State road win. The only other player who looked halfway decent, besides DayDay, was Thornton.
Now, Indiana does deserve credit. Zeller had an excellent game, Olidipo looked faster than a speeding bullet throughout the entire game (how may times did he zip through defenders to the basket?). Watford and Jones also made some big shots and the Hoosiers fed off the crowd, and those fans were jacked to the moon for this game.
Anytime it seemed MSU would make a run in the second half, Indiana would either answer with a huge basket, or MSU would have a few empty possessions in a row. I see, looking at the box score, that MSU shot 39 percent from the field, but it sure seemed worse than that. The free throw disparity was not that great considering it was a road game. Though IU shot considerably more free throws than MSU in the first half, by the end of the game it was only 22-17 in the Hoosiers favor. IU made 19 of 22 from the charity stripe, while MSU only made 10 of their 17. MSU also was out rebounded 30-28 and had 13 turnovers to IU's 9. All of that adds up to an "L".
I have now spent the better part of an hour verbally sparring with Michigan fans on Facebook, since Michigan fans always seem to crawl out of the woodwork any time MSU loses a game. Talk about a huge waste of time and energy on my part.
Time for the Spartans to regroup and get ready for a better effort on Senior Day at Breslin Center. In the meantime, I'll be rooting for Northwestern and Illinois--and try to remind myself that it's not the end of the world.
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