Couch: Epic comeback shows Michigan State is peaking again as March looms

Graham Couch
Lansing State Journal
Michigan State forward Jaren Jackson Jr. smiles as he celebrates with teammates after guard Cassius Winston made a 3-point basket in the second half Saturday.

ROSEMONT, Ill. – If Michigan State tries to pull this off again in the NCAA tournament, it might be headed home early.

But, man, there aren’t many teams in college basketball that can do what MSU did on Saturday against Northwestern. Another sign of a gifted team becoming great.

Twenty-seven point deficits are death sentences, certain defeat. Never a five-point victory. Not in a game you trail by 21 points several minutes into the second half, unable to make headway out of the break. Most teams fade. They rush, they get discouraged. If they make a run, they tire.

Instead, MSU smothered Northwestern on one end and chipped way on the other — scoring 24 straight points over 11 minutes on its way to a 65-60 win that’ll likely send the Spartans to a Big Ten title, perhaps outright, while keeping a No. 1 or 2 seed in the NCAA tournament within their grasp.

“They started playing like Michigan State. We got tight,” Northwestern wing Vic Law said. 

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They started playing like so many MSU teams have done this time of year – as late February takes hold and March looms. Nobody manages the arc of a season and the evolution of a team better than MSU’s coaching staff. 

Four times in the last five seasons — including now this season — MSU has found a different gear at the perfect time after stumbling for several weeks. In three of those years, the Spartans were arguably the best team in the country in December, only to be humbled and have to find it again. 

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This MSU team now is more solidly great than it was when it looked close to invincible two months ago. It’s tougher. It’s deeper — real depth this time. It knows it can survive a punch. The players know they can challenge each other without anyone taking offense.

“We’re finally comfortable enough to talk among each other in a confrontational way, but knowing that we’re not getting on each other in a negative way,” MSU junior forward Kenny Goins said.

Goins was referring to the second-half huddles as the Spartans mounted the fifth-largest comeback in Division I history.

Tom Izzo said he didn’t let in to his players at halftime, as they trailed 49-27. He just let them know “how disappointed” he was in their defense. No need to yell. The scoreboard was doing that for him. Besides, it’s always worse when someone says they’re disappointed in you. You’d rather they be angry. 

By the end of the game, Izzo couldn’t stop talking about how “ecstatic” he was — by the comeback, at the character his guys showed. At how they’ve handled the off-court distractions, which aren’t going away.

There are two reasons MSU suddenly again looks like a team that should be favored to be in San Antonio at the Final Four. One is that character, which includes a resolve, a mettle that I didn’t know if this group had in them. The other reason is all about basketball — defense, length, depth, shooting and a point guard who can control the game, though still sometimes doesn’t. 

MSU won Saturday for the second time in three games because point guard Cassius Winston took over — with 13 second-half points and a career-high nine rebounds — and because its role players were some of the best players on the court.

Goins and junior guard Matt McQuaid spearheaded MSU’s second-half defense, which crushed Northwestern’s confidence and held the Wildcats to 3-for-26 shooting, including 1-for-10 on 3-point attempts.

“They changed the game,” MSU assistant coach Mike Garland said. “They wouldn’t let them score. They just wouldn’t let them score.”

“Early on, everybody was saying we’re playing too many guys,” Garland continued. “Well now, too many guys is an asset. Those same guys, back then (struggled), because of course they’re not as good as those guys that play (ahead of them), but they can play, too. You give them time. And now when it’s crunch time and you’ve got to use them, they’re accustomed to playing. If you look at it, the last five games, our guys coming off the bench have been unbelievable.”

Goins gives MSU the ability to switch instead of having its guards fight through screens on defense. “That one time he got caught on (Scottie) Lindsey, (Lindsey) couldn’t score on him, he couldn’t go around him,” Garland said. “He’s 6-7, he’s got athletic ability.”

That was, at times Saturday, more valuable than having Miles Bridges or Jaren Jackson Jr. on the floor.

Michigan State Spartans forward Kenny Goins (25) grabs the ball against Northwestern Wildcats center Barret Benson (25) during the second half at Allstate Arena. The Spartans won 65-60.

MSU missed that when it fell so far behind against Middle Tennessee State two years ago in the NCAA tournament. Goins was injured early in that game. MSU struggled to guard stretch-4s and guards coming off screens. And, like in the first half against Northwestern, an opponent that couldn’t miss.

That could happen again. It happened Saturday. Some of that was on MSU’s admitted lack of focus out of the gate Saturday. The Spartans would be wise never to let that version of themselves show up again. There’s a decent chance it won’t, given the growth we’ve seen over the last two weeks and given the determination we saw in the second half Saturday.

That comeback wouldn’t have happened a month ago. Look at what happened at Ohio State six weeks ago and compare it to Saturday. The Spartans might have been shaken at halftime Saturday. But they still believed. That’s fairly new. It’s not a false confidence, either. They know what they’re capable of. Not just talk. They’ve seen it. Even more so now than before being down 27 to Northwestern.

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And so this trying season rolls along, right on schedule, per usual, with March just ahead.

“It seems like as we get closer, every day in practice, we’re getting better,” Goins said. “Being able to spend that full year with the young guys, with the old guys. We’re moving as one unit and firing on all cylinders. Sometimes we have lapses. But once we put it all together it’s hard to stop.

“Coach Izzo says it himself, we want to be playing our best basketball in March, not now.”

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.