IU Falls To Michigan State

Spartans coach Tom Izzo was told he should schedule more games on Valentine’s Day even though his star is in his last season of college eligibility. That included a flyer that said, “Happy Valentine’s Day, You’re all that … and ONE!” plus about a million references to it during the game. The Hoosiers just two days between today’s game and Thursday’s emotional win over Iowa. The Michigan State Spartans have won 16 of their last 20 home games.

Shockingly, despite their top-10 ranking and Sunday’s huge win, the Spartans are still just tied for sixth place in the Big Ten standings at 8-5 in the league, 21-5 overall. Denzel Valentine had 27 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists to lead the way. “And, you hope that’s the way it’s supposed to be”. They went on a 24-3 run to go ahead by 17 points midway through the second half.

“We anticipated (their start) but we just didn’t handle it very well, ” Anastos said. “The markers of the game that we had to make sure didn’t happen, they happened”.

A year later, Valentine and the No. 8 Michigan State Spartans were back home, this time welcoming in the Big Ten leading yet unranked Indiana Hoosiers. They infer a lack of success during that period equates to Tom Crean being out schemed by his counterparts because Knight was often quite good at it.

Crean was more disappointed by his team’s defense, which allowed Michigan State to shoot 57.6 percent.

“From what my teammates and my coaches have been saying, it makes it so much more hard when you’re playing on that Thursday”, Harris said.

IN led 33-23 thanks to Bielfeldt, who scored 10 points before the break.

Izzo, though, lamented how poorly Costello played early in the game at both ends of the court before reminding himself of how well his game looked on the box score.

“That was a better ending for me”, said Valentine, who notched his 14th career double-double while shooting 11 of 19 from the field, including a 5-for-8 performance on 3-point attempts. “Hartman has really improved”, Izzo said.

The Michigan State Spartans (20-5) are coming from a 82-81 OT loss to Purdue on Tuesday. Most of the time, I dismiss them as fans who watch and react with passion to what they see and understand about basketball, which often is not much. “It’s a shame because he’s been playing good”. Gavin Schilling missed 11 games to start the season with a toe injury, Clark missed the first two games of the season with a foot injury, Denzel Valentine missed four games with a knee injury and Tum Tum Nairn missed seven games with a foot injury before returning on Sunday.

In the quiet MSU dressing room, senior captain Mike Ferrantino said “we got outworked and outcompeted”. IN doesn’t have to be a great defensive team to win, but it needs to be better than what it has shown over the last three games.

NO. 18 KENTUCKY 71, VANDY 55: Alexis Jennings had 18 points and nine rebounds to lead the visiting Wildcats (17-6, 6-6 SEC). Totals 26-69 6-10 69.

Bryn Forbes had 14 points, giving the team a third double-digit scorer to go along with Valentine and Costello. 0-1 0-0 0, Clark Jr.