Tom Izzo has echoed one sentiment multiple times this season: Streaks are meant to be broken. For most of the year, Michigan State jeopardized its NCAA Tournament streak, but by beating Illinois, Ohio State, and Michigan, it likely extended such a feat to 23-straight years. However, losing the first matchup against the Wolverines gave Izzo his first-ever losing Big Ten season. And since the Big Ten Tournament started in 1998, Michigan State was the only team to have played in the quarterfinals every year. Unfortunately for Spartan fans, that’s no longer the case following another loss to Maryland. MSU started strong, making six of its last seven field goals, going on a 13-2 run, and leading 17-6 with just under 15 minutes remaining. Rocket Watts played under control, Aaron Henry picked his spots, and Marcus Bingham Jr. was instrumental on both ends. However, a substantial foul discrepancy allowed Maryland to keep it close. The Spartans were called for 14 first-half fouls and averaged one per minute in the final 10 minutes before halftime, including a technical foul issued to Izzo. The Terrapins shot 7-for-22 in the first half and somehow led by four points at the break, in large part due to going 15-for-16 from the charity stripe in the first half. But Michigan State didn’t help themselves. MSU missed 16 of its next 17 shot attempts following a bucket Joey Hauser made at the 10:21 mark of the first half. When the Spartans finally ended the dry spell, they were down by 11 with 13 minutes remaining. It was too much to overcome, but turning the ball over 18 times and shooting 37.9% from the field in the second half (42% overall) contributed to Michigan State’s struggles. Even so, it’s hard to imagine the committee leaves MSU out of the tournament field following this loss. Three top-5 victories in less than three weeks should still be enough to extend an already impressive streak. Want the latest breaking MSU news delivered straight to your email for FREE? Sign up for the DAILY Spartan Nation newsletter when you CLICK THE MAGAZINE ICON at the top left of the page or the FOLLOW button back on the main page. Don’t miss any of the latest up to the second updates on Michigan State Sports when you follow on Twitter @HondoCarpenter @McLainGrant1
All data is taken from the source:
Article Link:
#BigTenTournament #newsoftheday #newsworld #newstodaydonaldtrump #newstodayinusa #newstodayheadlines #
This article was gathered automatically by our news bot. We help YouTubers by driving traffic to them for free. The featured image in this article is the thumbnail of the embedded video.
