WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Everything that went right and everything that went wrong for Michigan State basketball collided somewhere around the time Thursday became Friday.
A hot start, a near collapse, and a recovery that led to extra time — and another chance for the Spartans to prove their resolve was greater than their problems.
That all culminated to produce an ugly microcosm of their entire season.
The Spartans led by 14 in the first half and 11 at halftime. Then the defense withered.
They led by six with 4 minutes to play. Then the turnovers emerged.
They led by five with 1:29 left. Then the untimely fouls started.
They led by three with 1:10 to go. Then the shots stopped falling.
They were tied with 28.7 ticks. Then the tension began to smother them.
[ Don’t blame Tom Izzo’s fight with Gabe Brown for Michigan State basketball’s loss to UCLA ]
When Aaron Henry’s airball with 3.3 seconds remaining in regulation sent MSU’s NCAA tournament First Four game with UCLA into overtime, it proved to be a foreboding snapshot of what came next. The Bruins scored the first two baskets of overtime, and the Spartans’ mistakes continue to multiply.
And instead of going to Indianapolis, Tom Izzo and his team are heading back to East Lansing after an 86-80 overtime loss at Mackey Arena.
“That’s the way the season went,” Izzo said. “And you just can’t make the same mistakes over and over and over again. And that falls on me.”
UCLA (18-9), the 11-seed in the East Region, advances to face No. 6 seed BYU at 9:40 p.m. Saturday at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (CBS).
The Bruins dominated overtime, outscoring the Spartans 9-3 after closing regulation with a 10-4 burst following Malik Hall’s three-point play with 4 minutes to play.
MSU (15-13) and Izzo failed to make the round of 64 for the first time since 1996, the last time the Spartans failed to make the NCAA tournament.
A year unlike any other started with the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA tournament, which the Spartans were among the favorites to win after a third straight Big Ten regular season title won days before the pandemic shut down college sports. Izzo contracted COVID-19 just before the season began in November. So did 13 of his 15 players since last summer, including five infections that led to a 20-day shutdown. Two others had COVID-19 scares during games that forced them out.
And despite a 4-9 start to Big Ten play, MSU somehow clawed its way back into the 68-team field as the next-to-last at-large team. The Spartans earned Izzo’s 23rd straight appearance in the tourney by upsetting three top-five teams in the final two weeks of the regular season.
“Oh, it was tough, man. It was definitely a challenge,” said senior Joshua Langford, who added it was his final game as a Spartan. “I don’t think nobody would say this was the ideal season, facing all these different ups and downs. … Just so many different challenges this year and this season that we didn’t really expect. And it definitely was tough.”
It was MSU’s first postseason overtime game since its 76-70 Elite Eight win over Louisville sent the Spartans into the 2015 Final Four.
After MSU’s last tournament game, the 2019 Final Four loss to Texas Tech, Izzo said his players “looked like we were fatiguing.” Similarly, the 2021 Spartans’ legs looked heavy and their focus lacking late. And UCLA took full advantage.
HARD GOODBYE:Langford says ‘It’s my last college basketball game for Michigan State’
RECAP:Michigan State melts down, loses to UCLA in OT, 86-80, in NCAA tournament
“We looked tired. We looked fatigued,” Izzo said early Friday morning.
Johnny Juzang and Cody Riley, who was plagued by foul trouble all night, scored seven of UCLA’s nine points in overtime. The Spartans made just four of their final 15 shots, going 2 of 9 in the final 4 minutes of regulation and overtime combined. There were three airballs in that span.
Aaron Henry led MSU with 18 points, seven assists and five rebounds in what could be his final college game. He also committed four of the Spartans’ 12 turnovers. Langford added 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds, and Hall scored 10.
Jaime Jacquez Jr. led UCLA with 27 points. Johnny Juzang scored 23, including 17 in the second half and overtime before suffering a knee injury in the final minute. MSU’s defenders failed to stop them from driving into the lane and getting almost any shot they wanted inside or outside. The duo combined to go 20 of 40 overall and 6 of 13 from 3-point range.
“For those two guys to get 50 points, we said that would be the game,” Izzo said.
“It was the game.”
The Spartans came out shooting much better than they did in recent visits to Mackey, where they haven’t beaten Purdue since 2014. They made 5 of 9 3-point attempts in the first half, building its largest lead on Joey Hauser’s triple with 2:38 to play in the first half.
But the Bruins got a deep jumper from Juzang at the halftime horn to cut MSU’s lead to 44-33 going into the break, which led to a confrontation on the way to the locker room between Izzo and Gabe Brown about a missed defensive switch. UCLA came out and opened the second half with a 12-4 run.
[ Michigan State women’s basketball: No. 10 seed in NCAA tournament, will play Iowa State ]
As the Bruins heated up from outside, making 6 of 10 3s after the break, the Spartans’ outside shots stopped falling. They made just 1 of 7 in the second half and missed both attempts badly in overtime. Watts scored nine points but was just 4 of 12 and 1 for 6 from 3-point range.
“We huddled up at halftime as a coaching staff and tried to turn up the heat defensively in the second half and tried to make them uncomfortable as much as we could,” Bruins coach Mick Cronin said. “The kids responded, and I thought our intensity level obviously went way up in the second half defensively.”
With Langford saying he won’t be back for his extra season, the next expected departure could be Henry, who withdrew from last year’s NBA draft and likely will turn pro after this winter. Those two scholarships, plus one given this season to walk-on Jack Hoiberg, free up enough room to bring in the three-man class of five-star Max Christie, a McDonald’s All-American, and four-star prospects Jaden Akins and Pierre Brooks II. All three are guards.
And then there is “Emoni Bates” watch to see if the phenom from Ypsilanti plans to reclassify from the 2022 class and be eligible to join MSU next fall.
BORN TO BALL:Why Pierre Brooks II was destined before birth to be a sharpshooter
GOING OUT WITH A BANG:Emoni Bates ends season with 30 points, nasty dunk in Ypsi Prep win vs. SPIRE Institute
There would need to be at least one more scholarship to come open for that to happen, and it is unclear if all 10 of the remaining scholarship players will return and how many — if any — might be considering leaving.
Those who do come back got a departing message from Langford: learn from the difficulties faced and the ones overcome in the 2020-21 season.
“The biggest thing that you just have to take these lessons that you learned through persevere and use them for next year,” Langford said. “I told the guys, ‘Don’t let this time be in vain. Take the things that you learned and that we’ve all learned, and let’s use them for the rest of our life, whether you will be on the team next year or whether you’ll be like me and getting ready to move on.
“I think this season has really taught me a lot about perseverance and just how to keep fighting, even when you don’t feel like it, even when you just think you can’t go anymore.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
