Michigan State vs Minnesota Basketball Recap

Michigan State 65, Minnesota 64

 
A great season became even greater for one team. A bad season got even worse for the other. There was no in-between vibe at the end of a significant Saturday in Minneapolis, Minn.

This game figured to be a difficult one for Minnesota to win. The Golden Gophers had already lost legally troubled post player and ballyhooed recruit Royce White earlier in the season, when White quit the team. Earlier this past week, coach Tubby Smith learned that point guard Al Nolen - due to an insufficient academic track record - would likely miss the rest of the regular season. With White and Nolen firmly entrenched in the starting five, Minnesota had a chance to be not just a decent team, but a superb one. But as the Gophers took the floor in their home building on Saturday for a date with league-leading Michigan State, it was hard to imagine how they could knock off the No. 7 team in the United States.

After 30 minutes, however, a lot of attitudes inside Williams Arena had surely changed.

Minnesota outworked Michigan State to create a 55-45 lead with 9:44 left in the second half. With superior movement and spacing on offense, combined with stellar rotations at the defensive end of the court, an enthusiastic group of Gophers - intending to climb back into the Big Ten race but also make a statement about its legitimacy - spanked the Spartans the way Tom Izzo's team normally dusts off opponents: with a superior work ethic. As everyone in "The Barn" settled in for the stretch run, Tubby's troops had a firm handle on the proceedings. For all their troubles on and off the court, the Gophers were about to claim the kind of conquest that makes a huge difference on Selection Sunday. They just needed to finish what they started.

That's exactly what they failed to do.

In the final 9:44 of regulation, Minnesota ceased to do the very things that had produced a 10-point bulge. The Gophers stood around on offense, often having a guard - either Devoe Joseph (Nolen's replacement) or Lawrence Westbrook - handle the ball at the top of the key and play one-on-one ball against an MSU defender. This approach stood in marked contrast to the beautiful and flowing sets that broke down Izzo's defense in the first half, but the pressure of the occasion certainly caused a lot of white-shirted athletes to think less clearly. The intensely felt need to win this game clouded the minds of the men from Minnesota.

Michigan State, to its credit, took advantage.

Spartan forwards Draymond Green and Raymar Morgan overwhelmed Minnesota big man Ralph Sampson III in the low post, and when Minnesota became focused on clogging the paint to address that problem, MSU guard Kalin Lucas was then given a little more freedom on the perimeter. When Lucas hit a ballsy 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1:29 left, the Spartans - once down by double digits - took a 65-62 lead.

Minnesota shaved the lead to one, but when the Gophers - down 65-64 - needed a bucket on the final possession of the game, Morgan stopped Westbrook's drive to the basket and forced a wild airball just before the horn. A tip try by Gopher guard Blake Hoffarber didn't draw iron, and the Spartans stayed perfect in the Big Ten. Meanwhile, Minnesota's discouraging season just took another wrong turn.

Michigan State will be a high seed in the NCAA Tournament. After this stomach-punch loss at home, Minnesota has a lot of work to do just to get back to the Big Dance.

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