NCAA Basketball: Top 16 reveal, Tennessee’s hidden flaw, and more weekly takeaways
By Brian Rauf
5) Michigan State‘s struggles show their visible ceiling
I wrote a bit about this tough stretch Michigan State has gone through earlier this week, and there’s no denying that their performances over the last few weeks have raised major questions about this group.
The most alarming loss came on Tuesday against Illinois in a game where turnovers sunk the Spartans. They gave it away 24 times, led by Cassius Winston’s nine turnovers, which is easily the most he has had in a game. Michigan State has really struggled in this area in past years, but it wasn’t a glaring problem until they faced the Fighting Illini’s pressure defense.
Because of that, I’m going to write off that loss as simply a bad matchup for the Spartans. Instead, I want to focus on something else – their limited efficiency on both ends without Joshua Langford in the lineup.
Langford, Winston’s starting backcourt mate, has not played in 2019 due to a foot injury, and we learned last week that will keep him out for the rest of the season.
Obviously, losing your third-leading scorer is going to hurt anyone. Without him, Winston is the only player on Michigan State’s who can create any offense outside of their sets. That makes them more predictable and easier to defend, forcing players to take tougher shots and forcing the ball to be in Winston’s hands even more (hence the increased turnovers).
Furthermore, not having his length and athleticism on the wing has hurt them defensively. They have allowed 73 or more points three times in their last four games, something they only did twice in their previous 13 games.
Michigan State is too talented for them to completely fall apart. They’ll rebound and be fine moving forward, and we saw the first step of that on Saturday against Minnesota. However, their weaknesses in those areas aren’t going away because Langford isn’t coming back, and that puts a limit on how far they’ll go in the NCAA Tournament. I see them making the second weekend, but they’re not good enough without Langford to make the Final Four.