Wisconsin vs Michigan State Basketball Recap

Wisconsin 67, Michigan State 49

The Michigan State Spartans got blown off the court for the first 29 minutes of Tuesday night's game against the Wisconsin Badgers.

And then their night got much worse.

Yes, Wisconsin thrashed Michigan State and handed Sparty its first Big Ten loss of 2010, but while the Badgers celebrate a significant conquest that will immensely improve their NCAA Tournament seeding, the only story anyone can talk about - in Madison, East Lansing, or anywhere else in the entire United States, for that matter - is the condition of Kalin Lucas.

The Spartans' superstar point guard - the central engine on a veteran team poised to return to the Final Four - wasn't having a great game midway through the second half. Lucas has been an assassin for MSU in 2010, but in the first 29 minutes of this matchup, the junior from Detroit misfired on a rather consistent basis. Lucas went just 3 of 8 from the field during than span of time, as the Badgers' defense made UW coach Bo Ryan smile on the bench. Wisconsin outworked and outfought MSU in every respect, comprehensively smothering the Spartans' offense and short-circuiting the plays MSU boss Tom Izzo loves to design in the heat of battle.

Yet, as awful as those first 29 minutes proved to be, it was the 30th minute which made Michigan State fans wail in agony... along with their felled point guard.

With 10:47 left in regulation, Lucas attempted his ninth field goal of the game, a 17-footer from the top of the key. When Lucas came down, his right ankle landed on the foot of a Wisconsin defender and rolled to the side. Lucas fell to the ground in agony, and he remained on the Kohl Center floor for at least three or four minutes before MSU's trainers helped him off the court. A lot more information will emerge on Lucas's condition in the next 24 hours, but for now, it's certainly reasonable to say that Lucas will miss a few games and require an appreciable amount of rehabilitation. Just how much is the true uncertainty, and Spartan partisans can only hope that their premier player will be ready for the NCAA Tournament.

Michigan State could have afforded to lose this game, given its undisputed place at the top of the Big Ten standings. What the Spartans couldn't afford was an injury to Kalin Lucas. We'll now see just how resourceful the Spartans can be.

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