What’s different about this Michigan State basketball team? Ability to close games counts

COLUMBUS, Ohio — So much has changed in a year.

In the early days of 2024, Michigan State basketball couldn’t figure out how to win in the Big Ten. The Spartans opened conference play with four losses in their first five games, three of those coming on the road after dropping the opener at home against Wisconsin.

Those problems persisted as MSU limped along to a 3-7 finish in road games and a 10-10 Big Ten record. Tom Izzo’s team also struggled to hold onto second-half leads, including blowing a double-digit lead and losing at home to Ohio State last February.

With Friday night’s grinding 69-62 win over the Buckeyes, the 15th-ranked Spartans already are perfect in two road Big Ten games this season. They opened conference play a month earlier with a road win at Minnesota. And the change is clear to everyone who was on last year’s team.

Michigan State Spartans guard Jaden Akins (3) sets to shoot the ball during the first half against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025.

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Senior captain Jaden Akins immediately told his teammates when they returned to the Value City Arena locker room for their postgame debriefing: A year ago, he felt, MSU “would have found ways to lose games like this.”

“Everybody’s on a mission this year,” sophomore forward Xavier Booker said Friday night. “Nobody liked how our season went last year, from the beginning to the end. … There were so many games where we could have closed out and won but we didn’t, and I feel like that’s kind of in the back of everybody’s mind.

“We don’t want to go back to what we did last year, we want to finish out games. And that’s what we did today.”

Friday night, MSU built a 14-point lead on the Buckeyes early in the second half with eight straight points from senior center Szymon Zapala — a dunk to end the first half and then three buckets with two more jams to start the second.

After a timeout by coach Jake Diebler, OSU responded with a 15-2 eruption over a nearly 10-minute stretch to take a one-point lead. The Spartans turned the ball over seven times, leading to eight of those points by the Buckeyes.

“There was a couple things that happened during that stretch,” Izzo said. “We had a couple big turnovers, some of them for touchdowns. You can’t even defend (the Buckeyes). They got two offensive rebounds, they scored a 3 and a two on that. I didn’t think our effort was very good there, I was disappointed in that.”

But during two timeouts, one called by Izzo with 11:58 to play after a casual pass from Frankie Fidler to Zapala got stolen by Sean Stewart for a breakaway dunk and the media timeout with 7:59 to play, Izzo sensed his team’s calmness in the face of potential doom.

Players were encouraging each other rather than pointing fingers. They clearly had been in this spot before and knew what it took to push through their problems. And the Spartans, who had 16 turnovers up to that point, did not give it away again.

“Just our togetherness. I don’t know,” said Akins, whose 14 points extended his run of scoring in double figures to five straight games. “We’re just really a close-knit unit, and we stay calm for their runs and just feel confident throughout the game.”

Michigan State Spartans forward Xavier Booker (34) dunks the ball against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the second half at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025.

Booker, who Izzo challenged to attack the ball after a stretch of passive play, picked up a loose ball and drove the length of the court and finished through contact for a layup and then hit the free throw. Jase Richardson, who struggled most of the night, delivered a whip-around kickout pass to Tre Holloman for a Buckeye-deflating 3-pointer. Then Jeremy Fears Jr. knifed into the paint and bounced a pass to Booker for a two-handed dunk to cap the 8-0 run and flip momentum back in MSU’s favor for good.

“When pressure got to us, we didn’t shy away from it,” said Booker, who had nine points. “Obviously, the pressure bothered us a little bit, but we overcame it and we finished out the game. And that was one of our struggles last year, finishing out games. So definitely this year, a big goal for coach is just finishing out games, especially in close situations.”

Diebler said he felt the Spartans showed the type of resolve he is trying to get his inexperienced team to discover.

“A lot of those guys have played a lot of games together, and they’ve been in that situation before,” Diebler said of MSU. “And that’s been the challenge for us all season, to speed up that growth. I think there’s a lot of truth and what (the Spartans) are saying.”

MSU (12-2, 3-0 Big Ten) looks to extend its perfect start to Big Ten play and a seven-game win streak Thursday with a visit from new league member Washington (10-4, 1-2). Tipoff on Big Ten Network is 8 p.m. at Breslin Center, where Izzo’s team has won all seven games so far this season. Both losses have been on neutral courts, to Kansas at the Champions Classic and to Memphis at the Maui Invitational.

Michigan State Spartans guard Jeremy Fears Jr. (1) celebrates after the game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025.

The Spartans also will try to keep their road record unblemished Sunday when they visit Northwestern (tipoff TBD). They also have bicoastal road games ahead, first on Jan. 25 against Rutgers at Madison Square Garden in New York, with a long Los Angeles swing to follow early next month Feb. 1 at USC and Feb. 4 at UCLA. Five of MSU’s final nine games are at home, though tough back-half road trips will remain at Illinois, Michigan, Maryland and Iowa over the final month.

“It’s hard to win on the road, wherever you play,” Zapala said after his 15-point game at OSU. “The Big Ten, to (win) a championship, you gotta take care of the business at home and then you gotta find a way to win on the road. We found a way to win today.”

Izzo said he is “growing” but “not there yet” on how he feels this team stacks up in terms of both mental and physical toughness.

” I think physically, (the Buckeyes) really came at us today. … Mentally, I think probably we’re better mentally than physically. And we weren’t bad in either one,” he said. “We’re making progress in both.”

Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.

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