Michigan State Basketball: 5 Things on the Spartans’ 2018 Christmas wish list
By Justin Thind
2. Avoiding Turnover-Heavy Games
Tom Izzo’s teams have always had a consistent Achilles-heel throughout his tenure: turnovers. Most games, the Spartans can overcome this issue. However, this problem is brought to the forefront in marquee games. For example, the last two times that the Spartans played the #1 team in the country, Duke in the 2017 Champions Classic and Kansas in the 2018 Champions Classic, they committed 17+ turnovers each time and lost by a few points. The same can be said about MSU’s other 2018 loss this year against Louisville.
The Big Ten is very deep this year. The conference currently has seven teams ranked in the Top 25, with a couple other programs that have the ability to make some noise in conference play. If MSU wants to win the Big Ten title again, it cannot let this turnover problem surface in some of the big games remaining on their schedule.
Furthermore, Michigan State will need to play cleanly in March as well. The Spartans haven’t made it past the second round since their 2015 Final Four appearance. Having another 14-turnover performance on a day you can’t make many shots, like against Syracuse in the Round of 32 last year, will only yield another disappointing tournament run for MSU.
While it is unlikely that Michigan State avoids having a single game like this for the rest of the season, it’s not unreasonable to assume they’ll have far less of them down-the-stretch than the past couple years. Both starting guard positions are occupied by very experienced juniors, Cassius Winston and Josh Langford, and Winston currently holds a much-improved 7/1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
As long as the turnovers don’t flare up in Big Ten games that could drastically hurt the Spartans’ tournament seeding, or in the early games of the NCAA tournament itself, this Spartan team could very well get Tom Izzo his 8th Final Four appearance.