Couch: Strugging to resume his mojo, Msu Basketball goes to Illinois for a game that is always very interesting

Before Michigan State lost three of its last four games, the next Spartans match – this Saturday evening at Illinois – was the one I surrounded.

The first meeting felt two heavy goods vehicles, with MSU, the border of Illinois 80-78 on January 19. The Illini thought that the result would have been different if their first -year goalkeeper star Kasparas Jakucionis had not been in difficulty. Who knows? It certainly did not seem to be a game that the Spartans would have won without the support of the crowd of the Breslin Center.

Now, with Msu who has trouble finding the mojo he had at the time and in danger of falling from the touching distance in the race of the title Big Ten, and the fans of the Illinois take their mouths for Welcoming the Spartans at the State Farm Center to set the record straight, the game is just as interesting as ever. And, for MSU, it could be the right time for this match.

It could go horribly, of course. But Spartans could also be better at the moment so as not to face an opponent whom they are supposed to beat. They played so tight against Indiana on Tuesday evening with so many games and in front of so many people that they did not want to disappoint.

Now MSU (19-5, 10-3 Big Ten) potentially between a buzzing saw, a game that no one expects that Spartans win. It is a game that is a challenge that is its own, beyond the continuation of the Big Ten title. If Msu wins in a way, it will calm the waters, put the Spartans back in hunting and will invigorate all the possibilities of this season.

History says that it is not yet time to panic

It is important to remember that the bump on the sustainable MSU road at the moment is not out of the ordinary of the best seasons of MSU lately. In fact, almost all MSU basketball season that you could come back with tenderness in the past 15 years included similar fainting in February or end of January.

Do not forget that the MSU 2020 basketball season, the Cassius Winston-Xavier Tillman team who, without the pandemic, would have won a national championship, we all agree-here is how I directed my column of 3 speed sockets on February 8, 2020, after, after a defeat of 77-68 against Michigan, the third consecutive defeat of the Spartans, which left them at 16-8 and 8-5 in the Big Ten:

“This Michigan State team needs to find something that we do not see yet. It is only to return to the Big Ten championship race or a prolonged race in the playoffs. Right now, it’s a team that just doesn’t have enough – enough natural scorers, enough shooting, enough size, enough grain. »»

A month later, MSU played this memorable final on March 8 in Breslin to win a part of a conference championship.

A year earlier, the Spartans season ended in the Final Four, also after a Big Ten championship. But on February 5, after a third consecutive defeat, this time in Illinois, I wrote this on the Spartans after falling at 18-5 and 9-3 (a victory less than the record for this year):

“The state of Michigan does not seem good. It is the quick and dirty analysis after a game like this – a third consecutive defeat, a second against a disappointing enemy, this time raising the door against an opponent whose defense is designed to do exactly. The return of the second half of MSU during the defeat of 79-74 from Tuesday evening to the Illinois did not have the teeth of the races earlier in the second half. It is deeper than that, of course, because the Spartans try to understand how to recover who they were only two weeks ago. »»

It seems familiar.

Spartans also lost three of it in January 2016, despite the fact that Denzel Valentine is in good senior health. In 2015, long before this improbable Final Four of the MSU team, there was a lot of misery. In 2014, before the dominant tournament of Big Ten and took place towards the Elite Eight, there were six defeats in February. In 2012, the Spartans led by Draymond Green abandoned three of the five in late January, before winning a Big Ten championship.

In other words, the last four games and three defeats should not be reasons to think that this season cannot yet have a satisfactory finish and exciting moments in advance. For the best teams of this program in the Tom Izzo era, the recovery of a bad section of three games has become as predictable as the bad section itself.

Filming is a concern

The question is whether this MSU team has the goods to withdraw from its funk and continue to grow – as it did during the first three months of the season – and if it has the grain to take a ruthless calendar the rest of the path.

If this will happen as for these other MSU teams, these Spartans will need a constantly impactful playmaker of Jeremy Fears Jr. – More nights like Tuesday – and start to get from the perimeter to a clip they The most of the season took place. Or start taking a lot less than 3s.

None of these above-mentioned MSU teams that have recovered from mid-season collapses succeeded at 35.4% beyond the arc at a conference. Some of them got better collectively at 40%. MSU This Big Ten season draws 31.6% in the long term. It is the second to last and far from being good enough. It was clear Tuesday evening, because the Spartans missed a certain number of 3 open, finishing 4 for 23 in the long term, after having reached 5 for 22 and 5 for 15, respectively, in the two defeats in Los Angles.

The victory of Saturday compared to Oregon has been the only time since the beginning of January that MSU has made more than 33% of its 3 in a match, other than in Northwestern, when the Spartans took only eight and made four.

This is a legitimate reason for concern. You cannot win a League title or anything from the noun in March by pulling like this beyond the arc.

But the Spartans were also quite good, most of the season being exactly who they are. The Saturday’s match at Illinois will give us an idea of ​​knowing if it has a chance to be sufficient.

MORE: Couch: Inside Jase Richardson’s Road, from threatening career surgery to MSU basketball revelation

Contact Graham Couch at gouch@lsj.com. Follow it on x @graham_couch and on bluesky @grahamcouch.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Msu Basketball goes to Illinois for a game that is very interesting