Michigan State basketball pounds Minnesota, 70-50: Observations
Chris SolariDES MOINES, Iowa — At times, it was beautiful basketball. At times, it was some of the sloppiest Michigan State basketball has played in a while.
None of the mistakes could keep the Spartans from moving on to their first Sweet 16 since 2015.
Cassius Winston had 13 points and nine assists, including a critical seven-point stretch in the second half, to lead No. 2 MSU to a 70-50 victory over No. 10 Minnesota in the East Region of the NCAA tournament Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena.
The three-year drought without a Sweet 16 appearance was the longest in coach Tom Izzo’s 24 seasons. The Spartans (30-6) advance to face No. 3 seed LSU on Friday in Washington, D.C.
MSU won the earliest matchup of Big Ten teams since before the NCAA tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, and the first intraconference matchup since Izzo beat Wisconsin in the 2000 Final Four.
It is the Spartans’ fifth 30-win season and 14th Sweet 16 berth under Izzo in his Hall of Fame coaching career. His 50th NCAA victory broke a tie for fifth-most in tournament history, trailing Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, North Carolina’s Roy Williams, former North Carolina coach Dean Smith and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim.
Observations from the game:
[ I played for Tom Izzo at Michigan State. Here's why I'm glad I did ]
Winston takeover
It was the Big Six who guided the Spartans out of the first weekend for the first time in four years.
Along with Winston, sophomore Xavier Tillman had a team-high 14 points with six rebounds. Kenny Goins, Matt McQuaid, Aaron Henry and Nick Ward each scored nine points.
The Spartans committed 22 turnovers that led to 26 Gopher points. However, their defense and rebounding helped offset the turnovers.
Minnesota shot 30.5 percent for the game and made 2 of 22 3-pointers, going 0 for 6 after halftime. The Spartans finished with a crushing 45-19 rebounding edge.
MSU led by as many as 20 points in the first half and 17 early in the second, after a pair of free throws by junior point guard Winston.
However, the Gophers (22-14) — playing with Jordan Murphy (back) on the bench for most of the game — took advantage of MSU turnovers and summoned up an Amir Coffey-led 8-0 run that riled up its fans, who made the 3½-hour drive from Minneapolis in abundance.
That’s when Winston showed why he was the Big Ten player of the year and likely consensus first-team All-American.
With the Gophers deploying a full-court trap and intensifying their defense in the half-court, MSU struggled to find rhythm. Winston tried to drive and met three Minnesota defenders with the shot clock winding down. He stepped back and rattled it in to end the drought.
At the other end, Winston chased after a loose ball and banged his head hard into Minnesota’s Gabe Kalscheur, with the freshman picking up his fourth foul. Winston drained another jumper at the other end. Then Winston got his hands in and stripped the ball from the Gophers’ Brock Stull and ran, collecting a pass on the wing from Aaron Henry in transition and burying a 3-pointer. MSU’s lead swelled back to 16 as Minnesota called timeout with 12:26 left.
The Spartans shot 57.1 percent for the game with 6-for-15 3-point shooting.
Sizzling start
After two days of noise after Izzo and Henry’s heated discussion blew up into a national conversation, the Spartans dialed up their focus for one of their best starts of the season.
Nothing was going wrong early. Henry opened an 11-0 run with a dunk less than a minute into the game. That included buckets from four different MSU players, as well as a dunk in transition by Matt McQuaid.
Murphy — who averages 14.9 points and 11.3 rebounds — was in the starting lineup, but it was clear the back injury he suffered Thursday limited what he could do. He did not play the final 15:51, standing on the sidelines at times to stretch. He took one shot and did not score.
The Spartans attacked with their big men. Ward, Goins and Tillman combined for 14 points over an 8-minute stretch in which MSU expanded its lead to 31-11. That forced Minnesota to call timeout to quell the Spartans’ 17-2 run.
[ Michigan State back where it belongs in the Sweet 16. The streak is over ]
Turnover trouble
Turnovers by MSU kept the Gophers closer.
Minnesota converted 11 giveaways into 12 points in the first half, forcing five turnovers in the final 3:39.
The Gophers finished the half on an 8-2 run and kept the Spartans scoreless for the final 4:46. However, Minnesota was ice cold the entire half, going 2 of 16 from 3-point range and 7 of 32 overall, as MSU took a 33-19 lead into the locker room.
Coffey led the Gophers with 27 points.
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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.