1. MSU earns the right to keep fighting with white-knuckle win over Northwestern
EAST LANSING – A rock fight for their season — that’s what Michigan State’s basketball team won Wednesday night, 53-49, over visiting Northwestern.
There was no championship on the line. No legacy to be made. Just the possibility of embarrassment. Of getting dangerously close to missing the NCAA tournament. Of being that group to break the streak at a program that hasn’t missed the Big Dance since before any of them were born. Of having to celebrate senior night postgame when it would be hard to find anything to celebrate.
“You just can’t lose your last one here,” Tyson Walker said after his final game at Breslin Center. “That’s bad. It ruins the celebration.”
The Spartans shot horribly — 19-for-60 overall, 2-for-17 from deep. They did, however, fight, rebound and defend their butts off — and had to down to a hairy late Northwestern possession that felt ominous. But Ryan Langborg’s potentially game-winning 3-pointer with 11 seconds clanged off the back iron and Tre Holloman gave up his body for the rebound in a collision that could have knocked him out cold. Then buried two free throws.
That was enough. Not confidence inspiring. Not finished early enough for the seniors to kiss center court during the game. But job done. For the night. And, at 18-12 and 10-9 in the Big Ten, a step closer to locking up a 26th straight NCAA tournament bid.
MSU’s seniors showed how much they care by how they attacked the second half, with Walker scoring 12 of his 19 points after the break, Malik Hall scoring nine of his 15 (and pulling down 17 rebounds) and A.J. Hoggard scoring all six of his points in the final 20 minutes.
Holloman, the only MSU player to hit a 3-pointer (two of them), provided needed juice on both ends, finishing with 12 points on a night when Jaden Akins missed all seven of his shots and the Spartans’ four centers combined for one point, an early Mady Sissoko free throw (though did together have 10 rebounds).
In the final 16 seconds, it was Holloman, Hoggard, Hall, Walker and Akins trying to make one last stop. Not a center on the floor, symbolic of this team’s biggest shortcoming.
Northwestern is a good team — NCAA tournament-bound, the Wildcats beat the Spartans in Evanston in January, scoring 88 points on them that night. So holding them to 49 isn’t nothing. Grabbing 19 offensive rebounds isn’t nothing. Defeating Boo Buie for likely the final time isn’t nothing.
It’s also not everything. That game Sunday at Indiana is big. But a little less big after surviving this one. They probably need one more win anywhere before Selection Sunday to be sure they’re in.
“I do think our team is together,” Tom Izzo said. “I do think that we’ve got a lot of things we can build on. I do think we’re better than we’re playing. I do think we have a run in us. I hope everybody challenges me on it. I don’t blame them.
“We just didn’t seemed to have what I think we have. And we’ve got to find a way to get that. Because if we do, might be a chance for one of those runs.”
It didn’t feel like it Wednesday. But winning with grit and rebounding four nights after playing with grit and fight in a narrow loss at Purdue at least gives some credence to the notion that this team will go down swinging.
2. MSU’s senior class still has a chance to bolster its legacy
MSU’s fans seemingly all stayed for the senior day ceremony. They applauded and cheered with vigor for MSU’s seniors as they were announced. They like these guys — for the most part — even if they frustrate the heck out of them.
This MSU senior class has a chance to be remembered differently than they’re thought of now. But they’ve got work to do to get there, well beyond senior night.
This class — which is actually a mix of the 2019, 2020 and 2021 incoming classes — in all likelihood, will not have made a Final Four or won a Big Ten title or gone beyond the Sweet 16 when their time is done.
That doesn’t apply to Malik Hall, who did win a Big Ten title and perhaps would have made a Final Four in 2020. And if we’re not going to give him much credit for that 2019-20 season, because he was a freshman and a role player, then we shouldn’t ding this class for their younger years when the shortcomings largely fell on previous classes.
This group — like every group — should be judged on its last two seasons, its performance years. And, in that regard, its story isn’t entirely written. But, oof, too often in the last couple weeks, the finish seems obvious.
Still, this season is theirs and it’s not over. The NCAA tournament, provided MSU gets there — Wednesday’s win helped — is a chance to leave fans with a final memory that changes a lot about their legacies. Just like the postseason runs did for MSU teams in 2003, to some degree in 2005, and in 2015. And even last year. That Sweet 16 run in part created the hope that this team could be special, expectations that, to this point, haven’t been met.
This class should also not be viewed entirely as one. Tyson Walker, even in a slightly diminished state these days due to injury, has had a career that is anything but disappointing. Hall, when healthy, has mostly been really good the last two months. He was great Wednesday. “That was a man’s night for him,” Izzo said. A.J. Hoggard, well, he’s going to have to be special from here on out to alter how he’s remembered. But if MSU had a proper Big Ten center these past two seasons, maybe Hoggard would look like a different player, maybe these guys would have all won more, maybe we’d see them differently as a group. Part of their legacy falls on Izzo and his staff for not providing an interior presence that gave them a chance to compete for more. Part of it falls on them. They’re on the court. They’ve lost some games they didn’t need to.
Their MSU basketball careers don’t define them as people. Never should. That’s why the applause was so loud. They share something with the fan base. They chose MSU.
But basketball is why we’re watching and writing and, on the court, they’ve got work to do still.
RELATED: A look at the six Michigan State basketball seniors honored Wednesday night
3. Freshman thoughts — the Northwestern edition: Booker shows a raised floor
It is rare that a freshman’s growth is linear. And Wednesday, Xavier Booker was not the impact player he’d been at times in recent games. But he was also not the liability he once was. His floor on a given night is higher. And that’s not nothing.
Booker had a rough first half, with MSU minus-five in his four minutes. He missed a 3 — no big deal — and also gave up a post bucket and a rebound that should have been his. But Izzo went back to him in the second half and played him six straight minutes in the middle of the half. His best contribution was an offensive rebound he kept alive, which turned into a Tyson Walker layup. No small bucket in a game like this.
Most importantly for Booker, this game cemented that he’s a significant part of the rotation in both halves. MSU is going to need him to make a difference in the games ahead.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.
First appeared on www.lansingstatejournal.com