SPORTSWEDNESDAY
Wednesday, January 8, 2020 | michigandaily.com
32 pts, 9 asts, 11-19 fg
CASSIUS
Alec Cohen / Daily
Design by Jack Silberman
Wolverines
fall to
Spartans,
87-69, in East
Lansing
ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer
MEN’S BASKETBALL
EAST LANSING – This game was almost
exactly as advertised.
Cassius Winston and Xavier Tillman: stifling on
defense and prolific on offense. As advertised.
Tom Izzo: calculating game manager, passion-
ate coach. As advertised. The Spartan faithful:
loud. Like, really loud. As advertised.
Michigan, too, was just as advertised. The
Wolverines played with plenty of juice, the
excitement of this rivalry seeming to fuel them,
and for a while, they stayed with Michigan
State.
But eventually, it was too much for them. Till-
man and Winston were too dynamic on offense,
their arms and hands somehow everywhere at
once on defense. Izzo was too experienced with
this game and with this Michigan program, his
game plan capitalizing on the scoring droughts
that have plagued these Wolverines all season.
And so, No. 12 Michigan fell to in-state
archrival No. 14 Michigan State, 87-69, at the
Breslin Center on Sunday. The offense struggled
to put the ball in the basket and the defense could
not contain the Spartans’ top scoring threats.
Just as advertised.
“I think we hesitated a lot, and second-guessed
ourselves, which kind of helps us to miss,” said
sophomore forward Brandon Johns, Jr., who had
12 points and two rebounds on the day. “I think
we need to be more confident when we’re shoot-
ing. It’s a mental thing. We just have to stay
mentally strong, mentally composed.
“The more we do that, the more our shots
will fall.”
Michigan State jumped out to an early lead
as Michigan’s offense seemed to falter at
the beginning, scoring just six points before
the under-16 timeout. The defense also had
trouble containing Spartan point guard and
potential National Player of the Year Cassius Winston and forward
Xavier Tillman, allowing Michigan State to jump out to a five-point
lead around the 15-minute mark.
But by halfway through the first half, the Wolverines managed to
make it a two-point game behind a strong effort from senior point
guard Zavier Simpson and senior center Austin Davis. A quick-
er pace of play, something that rookie Michigan coach Juwan
Howard has continued to stress throughout his first season at the
helm for Michigan, seemed to be the key for the Wolverines, who
started to match the speed of the Spartans in transition.
Michigan’s success was short-lived, though. From there, the
Wolverines’ shots just weren’t falling; they scored just five points
between the ten- and six-minute marks. The loss of top-scoring
junior forward Isaiah Livers was painfully evident. At the end of
the first half, Michigan State led, 44-34.
“It was a big win for us, because the final score was not indic-
ative of the game,” said Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. “We got
that eleven, twelve-point lead, but we just couldn’t build on it. It’s a
credit to them.”
From there, the game was never really in question. The Wolver-
ines came out of the halftime break playing as physical as they have
all year, seemingly in an effort not to go too quietly, but even then,
it was too little, too late. The Spartans had found their rhythm, and
Michigan could not find a way to shake it. Tillman and Winston were
practically unstoppable, and in the entire second half, the Wolverines
found themselves within closer than ten points of the Spartans just
twice.
Every Michigan effort seemed to come up short as Michigan State
expanded its lead to the delighted cries of the rabid crowd at Breslin. Every
time a maize jersey broke away, he was surrounded by white in a matter of
seconds as Spartan shot after Spartan shot found nothing but net – and not a
Wolverine in sight to stop them.
“Unfortunately for us, we didn’t do a good job communicating on the open
man, and where he was, so that’s why they were able to score so much in tran-
sition,” Howard said. “There’s no excuses for that. We prepared for it. We just
didn’t do it. And at the end of the day, you have to do your job.”
In the end, it wasn’t that close. Michigan State’s talent and experience
proved too much for this Michigan team.
Just as advertised.