Michigan State tired after heavy schedule, but plans to 'just keep pushing it'

DES MOINES, Iowa — Three days in Chicago worked major magic for Michigan State basketball’s mojo.

Three wins in consecutive days.

A third win over Michigan, a first for one season in the history of the rivalry, delivering a Big Ten tournament championship.

Three days later, the fifth-ranked Spartans took the court at Wells Fargo Arena to practice for their NCAA tournament opener against Bradley. They carried with them the focus from the past week, but also the fatigue that comes with playing that much basketball in that short a window.

“I want to say 75 percent out of 100,” sophomore forward Xavier Tillman said Wednesday. “We’re good, but you can see we got little nicks and bruises from the (Big Ten) tournament.”

The treatments from trainers and rest from the wear and tear are important as MSU (28-6), the No. 2 seed in the East Region, faces No. 15 seed Bradley (20-14) around 2:45 p.m. Thursday (CBS).

As is the hope to play three more whirlwind weekends ahead.

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A year ago, the Spartans entered the NCAAs after more than a week off following their Big Ten tournament semifinal loss to U-M, the result of a tourney rescheduling to play at Madison Square Garden in New York.

It’s the opposite extreme this year, coach Tom Izzo said — the benefit of winning a record sixth Big Ten tournament title and third game over the Wolverines in three weeks, coupled with the downside of having an injury-hampered roster  playing major minutes. Izzo played four of his five starters for 30-plus minutes, including all 40 for senior forward Kenny Goins.

“I’d like a little more time if it was a perfect world,” said Izzo, who was critical earlier this week of the bracketing process. “But it’s not a perfect world, so I’m satisfied with where we are and what we are.”

Cassius Winston, the Big Ten Player of the Year, is one of the Spartans playing with a variety of ailments — ongoing tendinitis in his knees, a sprained big toe, twisted ankles. His 3-point percentage has plummeted from 45.1 percent in the first 25 games to shooting just 9-of-39 — 23 percent — from behind the arc since Feb. 17, the game in which MSU lost Nick Ward to a hand injury.

Still, Winston started attacking the basket more in those nine games and made critical plays down the stretch, scoring in traffic or setting up his teammates. Izzo managed his minutes for the first two games in Chicago, including a season-low 22 in the opener, but in the final, the junior point guard played 38 minutes of the 65-60 win.

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“At points where you feel like we couldn’t go anymore, we found a way to just keep pushing through,” Winston said Wednesday. “Kenny played 40 minutes in the last game. You just think we’re gonna give out or get tired — nope, we tell ourselves we’re not and just keep pushing it.”

MSU returned late Sunday night from Chicago, got some quick rest, then started preparing for the game against Bradley. That meant a walk-through and film work Monday (senior Matt McQuaid called these the most important things during NCAA time), a practice on Tuesday that Izzo felt was strong, hopping back on a plane to Des Moines and then practicing early Wednesday at a local gym before taking the court at Wells Fargo Arena.

In other words, an exhausting schedule for the past three days.

“Sometimes, you’re not gonna be fresh, especially with what you go through,” Goins said. “You just gotta push through mentally and just make it through a weekend. … At this point, it’s kind of like every rep matters. Sometimes it’s more of a mental rep than a physical rep.”

Goins believes the Spartans are playing their best basketball right now, which also helps on the mental side. Championships breed confidence, with the goal to win six more games for a national title.

“Last weekend really helped us with that, because we never thought like, ‘Oh, man, we need to win this game or we’re going home,’” Tillman said. “We just had the mindset that we need to get better today. That was it. And with getting better, we wanted to compete as hard as we could, and that led to wins.”

And unlike a year ago — when they were the third-seeded darlings of many experts and casual fans, only to fall to 11-seed Syracuse in Detroit — there has not been big external expectations. Not with all the injuries, from Joshua Langford going down in November to losing Kyle Ahrens on Sunday, and Ward and Winston both playing through their own injuries.

Which might be good, because the pressure is off, with Winston saying he thinks it’s “not that high.”

“A lot of people feel like we’re gonna wear out, die out eventually,” he said. “We’re playing with probably the least pressure that we’ve had. We’re just focusing on each game at a time and just proving people wrong, one step at a time. …

“It can be tough. We’ll see tomorrow what we look like. But I’ve got faith in this team. We’re gonna find a way. We’re gonna dig deep, like we have been all year, and just keep fighting.”

80 more minutes of winning basketball in three days would mean a trip to Washington and a return to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2015.

That team defied expectations and went to a Final Four. McQuaid, a fourth-year senior without a Final Four trip so far, knows it will take two more championship-level weekends to make it to a third in Minneapolis.

“It’s tournament time. I feel like if you’re tired, you just gotta suck it up because it’s that time of year,” he said. “It’s win or go home. For me and Kenny, it’s win and we’re done.

“We just gotta come out here with that mentality and stay strong.”

Contact Chris Solari at csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.