I begin by giving Michigan State a lot of credit. They played with a great force, determination, and they looked like a team that deserved a Big Ten championship. Their level of sacrifice for each other, they play, they have such great depth, and I'm sure all those guys would like to play 30-35 minutes, and they're splitting the game based on how it's going. So I will say very proud of how we competed in the second half. It was hopefully a good sign going forward where we managed to take care of the basketball and not give them easy baskets, and we didn't have near as many self-inflicted wounds, but there's a great, great divide between first and second place, and we saw that this year, and so we're going to attack this with some humility and try to figure out how we can make a big jump in the next week before we play in Indianapolis.

I didn't know there was a tradition where they're shooting a free throw, and we have guys standing at half court. There's not atradition that we can't stay at half court as the game's going on, so I'm not familiar with that one. Is that a tradition? Oh yeah, yeah, no problem with that. Obviously, it took longer than any ten F2 timeout monitors, you know, whatever the case, it took a while, but we're fine with that. They've earned the right for that. The seniors have poured their hearts out. As far as the whatever happened, are we not allowed to stay at half court while they're shooting a free throw? Is that what? Oh, you are, okay. So yeah, so they walked up and... I mean, look, they earned the right to rub our noses in it. That's what it is. We have to play better, we have to get tougher, and so we move on, and we got to compete for another championship this week.

Well, I have a lot of belief in our guys that we saw some things in the second half, the sense of urgency, the sense of desperation that we need to play with, and then I think if we can find a way, the last two days in practice, we've shot the ball better than we have all year, and so I think that gives us an opportunity to get our confidence back. You know, confidence, you know, it's not something you can just speak into existence. You know, you've got to put in your work, you got to, you know, there's some things we can do to help, but I thought we generated pretty good shots in the second half. Obviously, Vlad's such a load. Those kickout threes, I thought a lot of them were on line, they were straight back three. They're just not dropping for us right now, and, but if you're not shooting well, then you have to value the ball even more, or, you know, earlier in the year we were shooting well enough, we could overcome some of these turnover issues.

Impressive, that's the one word I'll say. His poise, his ability to draw fouls, they have the unique ability to play with extreme physicality, and then when you try to match it, because it's not, it's not coming down, when you try to match it, then they bait, then they bait you into it, and then they get the fouls, and so, but Jase, man, his, the big three late when, you know, we made a defensive error, I thought that was a huge shot. That's usually a shot reserved for seniors in that moment. We're on a, we're on a run. We were guarding as well as we have in a long time. We were, we were running good offense, not turning the ball over, and he stepped up and made a big play, but his, you know, he impacts the game in so many ways, and his poise is extremely impressive, especially factoring that he's a freshman.

Obviously, these aren't his better games. He's been in the film room, he's been in the weight room, he's trying to work his way out of it, and I thought he had some good looks, and we're not, you know, the shots, we want him to take those. We actually had talked to his staff and felt like he was turning down too many catch-and-shoot threes. I just, I want to talk about the pace of Michigan State. The speed, especially the first ten minutes that they played was impressive. It was great. I mean, they were running it down your throat, they were challenging everything, they were quick to the ball, and for us to get to the point where we can get over that hump and be at a championship level, those are ultimately the things that you need. It's, you know, the threes, whatever, but in the first half, they were much quicker to lose basketball, so they were more aggressive in the class, and so, I guess we're going to attack this with some humility and get better and see what we can do.

Yeah, I'll begin with giving him some credit. He played with a lot more force and determination in the second half, but also we were moving the ball much better. We were stuck on one side on one sideline for 15-20 seconds trying to attack a set load of defense, especially when Vlad's getting as much attention as he was. They had guards sitting behind him, so if we could have found a way to simply get to the second side quickly, I think our offense would have looked a lot better, but, you know, sometimes their intensity and their pressure keeps you from playing the way you're designed to play.

You know, Vlad's 9-for-12, 11-for-14 from the line. I thought as much as we can get him in a good scoring position, position we have to do, it's just when you come down and you stop every play, it gets challenging, but, you know, I think he generated a lot of fouls, open shots, for his teammates. I didn't feel like that was causing us to not be in any flow. We were turning it over before we got to half-court in the first half, and then in the second half, I thought we found a pretty good rhythm of inside and outside. We're not making the shots, but I think for this team to max out, we're going to have to bang in some shots.

You don't have a choice. We're not going to look and learn from this, but we're not going to look back and dwell. It's the same issues that have plagued us all season. Are we going to find solutions and fix them, or we're not? And if we're not, then we're going to have to shoot the ball better and continue to be better on the defensive end. Like I said, I believe in these guys. There's some buttons to push, there's some line-up combinations, there's something out there that can help us get over the hump. Like I said, I was very proud of our guys in the second half. I thought we looked like a good basketball team again for portions of the second half.

No, me personally, I think that the season gets going, and when you don't have the depth and you're in as many tough games as we've been in, you tend to overlook some of the mistakes because you're winning and you're in position. You just keep thinking, we're going to chip, chip, chip. Some of these things, they were rearing their heads throughout the year, but we're making shots and we've found some unique ways to close games. Some of this isn't a surprise, it's just when you factor in the turnovers have continued and then we're not making shots, then you get exposed for what you were doing this entire time. It's not all our, we were trying to hold it together times when we weren't playing as well instead of ripping the band-aid off. But also, Michigan State, they've got a lot of guys that have been through these wars, they have great, you just see the leadership on the court and the accountability that they hold each other to. I'm not taking anything away from them. Those guys went through a 20 game, Big Ten slate and earned it. They bounced back and responded from their tough stretch and became better for it. This was our tough stretch, we didn't play nearly as well as we need to, but I do believe in the response and the character of this group. We're excited to go play, flush this, there's nothing we can do about it now other than continue to find ways to be better. We're excited to get to Indy, we've done well on these extended road trips when our guys are together and we spend a lot of quality time.

---

Discuss this article with our community on our premium message boards

Not a subscriber to Maize & Blue Review? Sign up today to gain access to all the latest Michigan intel M&BR has to offer

Follow our staff on Twitter: @JoshHenschke, @Berry_Seth14, @TrevorMcCue, @DennisFithian, @BrockHeilig, @JimScarcelli, @Jerry_Diorio

Subscribe to our podcasts: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify

Check out Maize & Blue Review's video content on YouTube

Follow Maize & Blue Review on social media: Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and BlueSky