Couch: You can't trust these 'temperamental' Spartans yet, as NCAA tournament looms

NEW YORK – In some ways, Michigan State’s basketball team is almost everything you want heading into an NCAA tournament.

In other ways, you don’t want this. 

Saturday’s 75-64 Big Ten tournament semifinal loss to Michigan depicted these conflicting ideas. We saw why the Spartans might still be playing in four weeks in San Antonio and also why they might be done before the Sweet 16.

To their detriment, more than anything else, “We’re a temperamental team,” MSU assistant coach Dane Fife said Saturday. 

Temperamental from game to game and minute to minute. An early season loss to Ohio State took weeks for MSU to overcome mentally. A second-half shooting slump Saturday left the Spartans cutting corners and effort on the defensive end, ruining everything they’d established late in the first half.

“Part of that can be attributed to youth,” Fife continued. “I think another part is we’re still not a player-led team as much as we should be. We’re still relying on coaches to motivate. We’ve got the pieces. We’re getting better.”

Unfortunately for the Spartans, there are no games on the schedule in mid-April. This is it. The time remaining with Miles Bridges and Jaren Jackson Jr. on the roster can be measured in weeks. 

And to that end, Saturday’s loss should be discouraging. After all, the data at this point more than suggests the Wolverines are the better basketball team — a more cohesive crew on the floor, an older group, with the consistent focus and complementary skills MSU sometimes seems to lack. 

At the very least, it’s a matchup that confounds the Spartans. That’s probably underselling what Michigan has become overall. The Wolverines — with an ideal mix of drivers and shooters and guards who can defend — are a matchup nightmare, period.

In a lot of ways, so is MSU. The Spartans just aren’t as refined. Their roles aren’t as defined, “because there are so many guys just scratching the surfaces on their potential,” Fife said. “You sit there and you see that. Jaren Jackson will make plays that are mesmerizing." 

Jackson’s play Saturday was a prime example of this constant evolution. His four offensive rebounds were more than he’s had against any opponent other than Oakland or Southern Utah. He scored on three of them, using his awesome reach and showing grit, while surrounded by Wolverines.

“That’s a sign of growth,” Fife said.

Bridges’ second-half work in the post – spinning baseline over his right shoulder to score, finding open shooters —  kept MSU in the game and was the most comfortable he’s looked in that spot this year.

“In his whole career,” Fife said.

Perhaps that explains why MSU didn’t go to Bridges inside more often earlier. Bridges has never shown such a knack for it so consistently.

“The guy that’s used to being the man goes in and posts up and tries to get a foul,” Fife said. “I thought Miles did a good job of that today for the most part. That’s a sign of growth.

“(Joshua) Langford hasn’t been shooting well the last two or three games. He’s still doing a helluva job checking (defensively). And that’s a sign of growth. (That wasn’t the case) last year and half of this year.

“(The potential) is limitless, but we’re just not there to where we can show up and just win like some of these great teams (in college basketball) of years past.”

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There is a chance that in three weeks time, Bridges on the block offensively will become a staple of MSU’s NCAA tournament run. As will Jackson’s offensive rebounding. Maybe he’ll begin demanding the ball more. Perhaps something else will click for the Spartans. Progress in college basketball can come at you fast, its timing unpredictable. A sense of desperation as time winds down can change a player. Ask Travis Trice, for example. MSU’s roster is still as gifted today as it was in November. 

But, like then, you can’t quite trust this team yet. 

“We won, I don’t know, 13, 12, 13 straight,” sophomore point guard Cassius Winston said Saturday. “So we’ve got that ability as a team to make runs and put wins together.” 

Just as true is MSU’s first half against Northwestern, its struggle at Iowa, its escapes against Wisconsin and its two losses to Michigan — one of only two NCAA tournament teams the Spartans have played away from home since November. The other being Ohio State on Jan. 7, a disaster that lingered. 

Saturday’s loss could well prevent the Spartans from beginning their NCAA tournament trek in Detroit. Only the top two seeds closest to an arena are assured preferential placement. 

That might be best for this temperamental MSU team — to be away from the zoo, to be somewhat isolated.

Fife shot me an agreeable look when I suggested that.

“Coach (Tom Izzo) is big on playing close to home, as we all are,” Fife said. “It’s just hard to say. Still trying to get to know this team’s temperament.”

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