Michigan State Basketball: How can the Spartans fix itself for rest of 2023-24 season?
Michigan State Basketball has been struggling so far this season. How do they fix themselves and start playing like the preseason top 5 team they are?
By Bryan Mauro
The Big Ten Basketball conference has been struggling this season outside of the conference. The league has already taken losses to Chicago State, Davidson, Princeton, James Madison, San Francisco, Bucknell, UAB, and Long Beach State. That has not reflected well and the league outside of Purdue has not performed well in their opportunities against the ranked teams. There is one team who is the focus of most of the talk in the Big Ten. That is the Michigan State Spartans.
The Spartans opened the year as a top 5 team country and were a team that was set to finally provide some competition for Purdue at the top of the league. The first 9 games of the year for Michigan State and head coach Tom Izzo have not gone according to plan. On Opening Night, the Spartans lost to James Madison. That loss doesn’t look as bad given that the Dukes are currently undefeated. The only power five team that Michigan State has beat through the first 9 games is Butler. They have lost to Duke, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. The wins have come against Butler, Southern Indiana, Alcorn State, and Georgia Southern. There is not much to get excited about right now in East Lansing.
Nebraska was the latest team to beat the Spartans and that loss is the one that has the Spartans fans questioning if this team is good or are they bad. The Huskers are much better this year than they have been in years past, but Michigan State should have beaten Nebraska as they have the last 11 times they have played. The Spartans have more talent but right now they are broken. Can they be fixed? Sure, they can be fixed but it is going to be challenging for coach Izzo to get this team back to where we all thought they were going to be. So how do you fix Michigan State?