Divine Ugochukwu got hurt and MSU's big men struggled again. Tom Izzo has a lot on his mind after Michigan State basketball's second straight loss.
MINNEAPOLIS — There’s Jeremy Fears Jr. And then there are the other big issues for Michigan State basketball.
Starting with who might be Fears' backup. Even if that is nowhere near the top of coach Tom Izzo’s list of major concerns after his team’s second straight loss.
Divine Ugochukwu suffered a left foot injury during the 10th-ranked Spartans’ roller coaster 76-73 loss at Minnesota on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at Williams Arena. The sophomore guard was in a walking boot after the game, and X-rays were planned once the team returned to East Lansing.
Ugochukwu left the game with a little more than 6½ minutes left in the first half. He went to the locker room and returned to the sideline in the second half but did not play, after coming off the bench for the first time since MSU’s loss to Duke on Dec. 6.
Izzo said he did not know the severity of Ugochukwu’s injury, “but it doesn't look good.”
Ugochukwu, who had three points in 8:17 of court time before that, split time as Fears’ backup at point guard and the other guard spot. Freshman shooting guard Jordan Scott made his first career start and scored a career-high 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting with three 3-pointers, at times playing on the wing with Fears and Ugochukwu.
Izzo pulled Fears twice in the second half, the first at 13:28 after his technical foul for kicking Minnesota’s Langston Reynolds in the groin. The second came after a Scott foul call on a Reynolds drive, as Fears simultaneously hit the Gopher in the head on another questionable play.
Senior Denham Wojcik took over running MSU’s offense in those two instances, playing for 4:36 with Fears on the bench.
Asked if the potential loss of Ugochukwu and increased attention to his own play might alter his aggressive approach, Fears, a redshirt sophomore and captain who had 10 points and 11 assists in 32-plus minutes, said it likely wouldn’t.
“I already really play a lot of minutes, so I don’t really know how much that could change or that would change," Fears said. "Overall, I don’t think that probably would change much. I know the coaching staff will figure it out and do what they need to do, whether (Ugochukwu) is back tomorrow or he’s out a day or two.”
Said Izzo: “Right now, I've got some problems at the other end of the court. So to have that [Ugochukwu injury] happen during the game, it was a little harder. Moving forward, we'll adjust.”
Those defensive woes Izzo mentioned dovetailed into problems from his two post players, Carson Cooper and Jaxon Kohler.
Cooper went scoreless and missed all three of his shots, getting five rebounds in 20:14 as the Spartans got outscored by 16 with him on the floor, the worst plus-minus in the game by far. Ugochukwu was second at minus-7.
“There's gotta be a gut check with a couple guys,” Izzo said. “They gotta play harder. They gotta play better.”
Kohler, meantime, finished with nine points and nine rebounds, but scored just two first-half points as MSU scored a season-worst 21 in the period. He grabbed just three rebounds after halftime.
Both Kohler and Cooper struggled defensively with ball-screen coverages, and Minnesota’s three forwards Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, Cade Tyson and Bobby Durkin combined to go 10-for-19 from 3-point range.
“We need to learn from our mistakes, but we also need to get a fresh jumpstart of energy,” Kohler said. “Try not to let our mistakes beat us up anymore, so that we can have the ability to play our best in these upcoming games. Because we can’t afford the time to look back and beat ourselves up over games that we can’t change the outcome of.”
The Spartans trailed by as many as 11 in the first half and never led against the Gophers. That came after falling behind by as many as 18 in their loss to No. 2 Michigan on Friday, and going 12 down early before a frantic overtime comeback win at Rutgers on Jan. 27.
“That slow start in the first half is just a beast to overcome no matter who you’re playing, where you’re playing,” Fears said. “Early in the game, you kind of set the tone.”
MSU's starters were 3-for-16 shooting and scored seven points combined in the first half, including 0-for-4 from Coen Carr. But the junior forward turned up his intensity after halftime, and nearly willed the Spartans back by scoring 13 of his 14 points in the final 6:09 as they cut a 16-point deficit down to two with 19.6 seconds to play.
“I don't know what it was,” Izzo said of Carr, “but there was a lot more energy the last half than there was the first half.”
Two of MSU’s bright spots offensively were Scott and senior Trey Fort, who went 4-for-7 from 3-point range including two in the final minute after Scott drained his third from long distance with 59.6 seconds remaining.
MSU (19-4, 9-3 Big Ten) returns home with all of the questions and concerns, and must try to right things against league-leading No. 6 Illinois (20-3, 11-1). Izzo said “some people think Illinois is the best team in the league right now,” and the Illini showed that Wednesday by throttling Northwestern, 88-44, to move a half-game in front of U-M (20-1, 10-1).
The Spartans now have as many Big Ten losses as they did a year ago – all of which came in the first two weeks last February – en route to winning the league title by three games.
Dropping a game to the Gophers, who had lost seven straight entering Wednesday, adds a major road bump toward MSU’s quest to repeat as champs – especially with the only foe remaining with a losing conference record being the 2-10 Scarlet Knights, who just took Izzo’s team to the brink.
The Spartans’ other seven upcoming opponents – Illinois, Wisconsin, UCLA, Ohio State, Purdue, Indiana and U-M – enter Thursday a combined 57-23 in Big Ten play.
“It’s never over,” Carr said. “We’re just gonna try to come with a totally different mindset and self-evaluate. Just everybody look at themselves in the mirror and just rethink how we want the season to go and how we want the season to end.
“So at the end of the day, it’s on us how the season ends and how it goes.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball has more questions, concerns for Tom Izzo
Category: General Sports
