PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Tom Izzo saw all of the things he demands from Michigan State basketball.
Commanding rebounding. Busting out in transition. Sharing the ball. Players diving after loose balls and defending with a fire and urgency as if every possession meant the game.
Pure swagger, from start to finish.
Only it wasn’t from his team.
Izzo talked about burning last year’s tape of a loss at Rutgers, but he might put Saturday’s 84-63 defeat at Jersey Mike’s Arena on a loop for the 13th-ranked Spartans the rest of this season.
He summed it up plainly as possible, calling the blowout loss “an old-fashioned butt-kicking.”
“I’m trying to write it off until I watch the film as just a bad day, a bad second half,” Izzo said. “I’m very disappointed that someone would take it to us like that. And I didn’t see us retaliate in any way.”
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The Scarlet Knights (13-9, 7-5 Big Ten), in their second straight home win over MSU, played with the kind of energy, intensity and desperation Izzo has been demanding from the Spartans (17-5, 8-3).
Unlike last season, when Rutgers stomped MSU, 67-37, on Jan. 28, 2021, Izzo’s team wasn’t coming off a three-week COVID-19 pause. But just like it, MSU found few answers — particularly after Izzo’s technical foul early in the second half that fueled the Scarlet Knights’ 27-10 salvo after halftime.
Gabe Brown scored 20 points on 7-for-9 shooting, making six of seven from 3-point range. Marcus Bingham Jr. had 12 points, while Tyson Walker — who battled first-half foul trouble — finished with nine points.
The Spartans were destroyed on the boards, 31-20, and outscored, 38-16, in the paint. Rutgers also had an 11-0 edge in fast-break points while shooting a stunning 61.5%. MSU made 44.2% overall and went 11-for-24 from 3-point range. The Spartans’ 15 turnovers led to 19 Scarlet Knight points.
“I mean, they were physical. Period,” said MSU freshman Max Christie, who made two first-half 3-pointers but missed his final six shots to finish 2-for-10 with six points. “Sometimes we didn’t get a lot of calls. But normally a team that’s more physical, more energetic, plays harder gets the calls. I think that’s the way it happened tonight, and they were physical for sure. That’s what their team is — just physical guys. They bang around, they wear you out.”
Ron Harper Jr. led Rutgers with 17 points, one of six Scarlet Knights to reach double digits. The Scarlet Knights’ star, though was guard Paul Mulcahy, who had 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting, 12 assists, four rebounds and a steal while playing with a moxie and confidence the Spartans failed to counter.
MSU returns home Tuesday to host No. 11 Wisconsin at Breslin Center (7 p.m./BTN).
Rutgers fed off the energy of its loud home crowd at the arena formerly known as the RAC all afternoon and barely missed in the first half, making 10 of its first 13 shots. That led to a 23-16 lead just over the midway point, capped by a 3-pointer and second-chance layup by backup center Dean Reiber. The Scarlet Knights also were cleaning up the boards at that point with a 9-4 edge and limiting the Spartans to a paltry 5-for-14 shooting effort.
“As dumb as it sounds,” Izzo said, “I thought the game was lost early.”
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The only thing keeping MSU in it early was the 3-point shooting of Brown and Christie. Brown found his rhythm with eight straight points during a 12-5 run on a tip-in and back-to-back 3-pointers. Bingham’s layup, off a needle-threading pass from Hoggard, tied the game at 28-all with 4:24 before half.
With Walker on the bench with three fouls, A.J. Hoggard split a double team for a driving layup and set up Joey Hauser for a 3-pointer with 40 seconds left, then found Brown for another from deep as time expired. MSU went into halftime trailing, 40-38, despite Rutgers shooting a scorching 61.5% and 4-for-8 from 3-point range.
Brown shot his way out of a six-game slump, going 4-for-5 from deep. The Spartans were 8-for-16 on 3-point attempts and worked their way back to just a 14-13 rebounding disadvantage after the sluggish start on the boards.
Things regressed almost immediately after halftime.
Rutgers opened the second half with a short jumper in the paint from Mulcahy. At the other end, Christie took a pass on the right from Hoggard on the run and drove to the basket. He got to the rim and took a hip-check from Harper, falling to the floor with no call.
“Maybe it was a foul, maybe it wasn’t,” Izzo said. “Who cares, they didn’t call it, so it wasn’t a foul.”
Rutgers pushed the pace as Christie propped himself off the floor. Caleb McConnell drained a 3-pointer at the other end, and a livid Izzo near midcourt got whistled for a technical foul as the shot swished.
“I probably deserved the technical. And I’d get another,” Izzo said. “I mean, I thought it was a very physical game. … (The technical) was probably my fault. As you know, I didn’t swear at him. I just kind of ran down the court. I guess those guys don’t like that. And so rightfully so.
Rutgers scored the first seven points of the second half as Harper hit the free throws after Izzo’s technical, then went on another 11-0 run to get the rout underway. MSU trailed by as many as 23 points and looked lifeless as the home crowd serenaded them goodbye as time ran out.
The Scarlet Knights improved to 11-2 at home this season, with wins over MSU, Michigan, Purdue and Iowa.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
