No. 2 Michigan State 'played really, really bad and lost' to No. 1 Duke

CHICAGO – Tom Izzo couldn’t hide his anguish. He really didn’t try to.

He needed to vent. About his team’s light-weight rebounding. About its “foolish” turnovers that turned into quick buckets. About self-admitted mistakes in substitutions and preparation.

It was a chance for Michigan State’s Hall of Fame coach to beat Duke Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski for just the second time. And the second-ranked Spartans were in a dogfight until Grayson Allen asserted himself as the alpha.

But close didn’t matter. Not to Izzo. “Embarrassed” and “disappointed” were his words of choice. He was in no mood to focus on the things that went right, only on what went awry in an 88-81 loss to No. 1 Duke on Tuesday in the Champions Classic at United Center.

“Probably some positive things that maybe I’ll figure out in a couple days,” he said. “But it won’t be tonight. … I’m gonna have to live with that. We had an opportunity.”

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Allen hit clutch shot after clutch shot late, none bigger than the three-pointer he buried from the corner with 2:25 to play after a miscommunication between Miles Bridges and Jaren Jackson Jr. left the shooting guard wide open.

In a head-to-head matchup between two of the leading candidates for national player of the year on the court, Allen left no question that he got the best of Bridges.

The Blue Devils senior scored 37 points to break the Champions Classic record, previously held by former MSU star Denzel Valentine (29), and finished 11 of 20 shooting and a perfect 8 of 8 at the free-throw line. Allen added another of his seven three-pointers with a little more than a minute to play, crouching to watch it swish through, and scored eight of Duke’s final 10 points.

That came moments after Bridges blocked Allen’s triple try with a little more than 3 minutes to go and the game tied. However, the ball swung around to Gary Trent Jr., who hit a three that gave the Blue Devils (3-0) the lead for good.

“Someone’s beaten me, someone’s beaten him. Not many people have beaten him, and not many people have beaten me,” said Krzyzewski, who improved to 11-1 against Izzo. “Next time we play, they’ll probably beat us by 30. But you don’t get any banners for the record against one school or against another coach. Our program is about winning against everybody if we can.

“It’s an honor to play against Tom’s program. They bring out the best in you.”

Bridges kept MSU (1-1) in the game with 16 of his 19 points in the second half. But he also missed a deep three-pointer with the Spartans down 3 points just before allowing Allen to squirm free for his open triple.

The 6-foot-7 swingman, after going just 1 of 3 in opening half, finished 7 of 15 from the floor. That included going 5 of 10 from three-point range, adding five rebounds, four assists and four blocks.

Nick Ward and Jaren Jackson Jr. also each had 19 points for MSU. Cassius Winston had 11 assists. However, Jackson, Winston and Bridges combined for 14 of MSU’s 17 turnovers, which turned into 19 points for Duke.

Krzyzewski’s 2-3 zone defense, which often flowed into double-teams against Bridges, caused havoc all game. MSU's 17 turnovers turned into 19 points for Duke.

“We’re just disappointed because we gave the game away,” Bridges said. “We lost on effort-related stuff – turnovers and offensive rebounds. That’s the stuff that we can control.”

At the other end, the Spartans struggled to keep the Blue Devils off the glass – 25 of their 46 were offensive rebounds, and they turned those into 17 second-chance points.

“I’m embarrassed to be honest with you that a team would get 25 offensive rebounds against us. I don’t care how big they are,” Izzo said. “We had two keys to start the game. We said turnovers, foolish ones – we knew we were gonna get some, that zone is pretty good and it’s long – and rebounding. And never in a million years did I think we’d get outrebounded like that. ”

The game was tied 11 times, including with inside of 4 minutes to play, and featured nine lead changes. MSU shot better than 50% from the field and held the Blue Devils to under 40% on defense.

Jackson was asked what positives MSU could draw from coming close.

“How much did we lose by? Seven?” the freshman countered. “We played really, really bad and we lost by 7. That’s about the only thing I can think of. … If we play a little better, if we make one or two less silly mistakes down the stretch, we win the game.”

The Spartans have a few days to digest the lessons before they host Stony Brook on Sunday (4 p.m./Big Ten Network) in the campus game of the PK80 Phil Knight Invitational tournament. They’ll shift to Portland, Ore., for the rest of the tourney that begins against DePaul on Thanksgiving night (11:30 p.m./ESPN).

The loss against the Blue Devils showed the Spartans plenty of problem areas to put work into. It also showed they have the ability and talent to compete against the nation’s top team punch for play for play.

Even if Izzo preferred to focus on the future fixes first.

“This is about building a team. This is about getting better every day. This is about learning where your warts are,” Izzo said. “I’m gonna go home, and I’m gonna have a book full of warts.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari