No. 5 Wisconsin too much for Michigan State

Madison, Wis. — A few days ago, Michigan State was playing its best basketball of the season.

The Spartans had an outside chance at making a run at the conference championship and after winning six of seven, they looked like a lock to finish in the top four while solidifying their spot in the NCAA Tournament.

By Sunday evening at the Kohl Center, all of those good feelings had evaporated as Michigan State closed an abysmal week by getting run off the floor for much of the game by Wisconsin, falling 68-61 after making a late surge.

While the fifth-ranked Badgers celebrated at least a share of the Big Ten championship, the Spartans suffered their second straight loss after an overtime defeat at the hands of Minnesota on Thursday.

"I'm very disappointed," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "We would have had to play real well to win. We didn't play real well. We didn't quit. I'll take that. I'll look at some shooting that we did a decent job of. I thought (Travis) Trice played awfully hard and pretty well both defensively and offensively. (Bryn) Forbes shot it well. And Denzel played OK, he had his work cut out for him. He was trying to guard different positions and play a lot of minutes. There were some positives for us.

"I mean (Wisconsin) is a very good basketball team. But the rebounding thing (35-24 in favor of Wisconsin) is kind of a telltale on where your team is at mentally, and hangover from Thursday would be a good way to put it. We didn't not come off that (loss) very well."

And now Michigan State (19-10, 10-6 Big Ten) finds itself back in a logjam for fourth place with Iowa and Ohio State while it has also started to creep back to bubble territory for the NCAA Tournament with two games to play — at home against Purdue on Wednesday and on the road against Indiana on Saturday.

"This time of year it's all about momentum," Trice said. "We've got to get it back going again. I felt like a week-and-a-half ago everything was going in the right direction and now we've hit the skids. Our thing is putting this back together and getting rolling in the right direction, and it needs to happen now."

Trice said the Spartans had a players-only meeting after the Minnesota loss and will again when they return to East Lansing. He said it's imperative to get back to the way Michigan State was playing when it won four straight and six of seven.

On Sunday, that streak was a distant memory as Wisconsin (26-3, 14-2) used the game as a 40-minute celebration of a conference championship.

Frank Kaminsky, a leading candidate for Big Ten and national player of the year, scored a season-high 31 points while Nigel Hayes added 14. The Badgers' lead reached 22 early in the second half before the Spartans' late surge cut the lead to single digits in the final minutes.

"I thought we made some adjustments at halftime and did play better the second half, just defensively, in fact a lot better," Izzo said. "But wow, Kaminsky had a couple of critical shots that when we had that 1-in-20 chance to get back in it, he either buried a three, he hit the left-handed one, the one coming across the middle. God, if I wasn't coaching against him, I would have started clapping they were so good."

It was the second straight time Kaminsky played well against Michigan State. He scored 28 in the Big Ten tournament semifinals last season.

"He did some things today I hadn't seen," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. "I hope he's got more in the bag."

Forbes was one of the few bright spots offensively for Michigan State, scoring a season-high 21 points, including 11 in the first half. Trice added 16 points and Valentine scored 10.

Branden Dawson was replaced in the starting lineup by Marvin Clark and was virtually no factor, scoring four points and grabbing two rebounds while committing three turnovers.

"We're good enough to be as good as most teams in the league, not all," Izzo said. "But you've got to have your three best players play well. It's beating a dead horse."

Michigan State hung close early in the first half and actually led 13-11. But a 15-4 run from the Badgers gave them a 26-17 lead with 4:24 left in the first half. The lead eventually got to its biggest, 36-25, at the break when Kaminsky hit a jump-hook over Matt Costello.

"They earned it, they deserve it," Izzo said. "Bo has done a helluva job. It's a good team, a team that I think is a Final Four team."

mcharboneau@detroitnews.com

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