Michigan State came up empty against the top two teams in the Big Ten last week. The Spartans open this week against the conference team with the longest winning streak.
The Spartans lost to Purdue 77-61 and Rutgers 61-55 in their last two outings. Michigan State (14-9, 6-6 Big Ten) now hosts Maryland on Tuesday night in East Lansing, Mich.
The Terrapins (16-7, 7-5) have won their last four games, including an 81-46 thrashing of Minnesota on Saturday. They’ve also defeated Wisconsin, Nebraska and Indiana by double digits during that stretch.
Michigan State shot just 34.5 percent from the floor and 19.0 percent from 3-point distance in its loss to Rutgers at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The Spartans also committed 14 turnovers, five by guard A.J. Hoggard.
“It’s a concern and I think some of it is your quarterback,” coach Tom Izzo said. “He’s got to be dynamic. But I think we’re still a work in progress. We have been all year, but we’ve got to take care of the turnovers.”
The Spartans have lost five of their last seven games and haven’t surpassed the 70-point mark during that span.
“I think we did everything we were supposed to do in our game plan. We just didn’t make shots and didn’t do what we were supposed to down the stretch,” Hoggard told reporters.
It’s not going to be easy to turn things around against the Terrapins, who have held opponents to fewer than 60 points 11 times this season. The Golden Gophers couldn’t even reach the 50-point mark at home against them, as they shot 34.2 percent from the floor and committed 16 turnovers.
In contrast, Maryland shot 52.4 percent and had just five turnovers.
“We wanted to come out and really defend at a high level and offensively get the ball moving side to side,” Terrapins coach Kevin Willard said. “I thought we got a lot of good open looks early and the ball movement was really good.”
The trio of Jahmir Young, Donta Scott and Julian Reese lead Maryland in scoring and rebounding in conference games. Young has averaged 18.3 points and 5.2 rebounds in Big Ten play, Scott 10.9 and 6.2, and Reese 9.8 and 5.9.
–Field Level Media
