Wisconsin a chance for MSU to build momentum after huge Illinois win
· Yahoo Sports
EAST LANSING – Seven games remain for Michigan State basketball to try and repeat as Big Ten champs.
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Four of them are on the road, starting with Wisconsin. It's a game of growing importance, as their last road trip to Minnesota put the 10th-ranked Spartans in a hole and Michigan continues to pull away from the pack.
“Going on the road is always difficult,” coach Tom Izzo said Wednesday ahead of the trip to Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin. “Going to Wisconsin, it’s been kind of games that we’ve played big-time over the years and one of the better places to play in the league.”
The Spartans (20-4, 10-3 Big Ten) then return home Tuesday to face UCLA and host Ohio State on Feb. 22 before an extended trip to the Hoosier State for games at No. 12 Purdue on Feb. 26 and Indiana on March 1. Rutgers visits Breslin Center on March 5 before the Spartans and No. 2 Wolverines close the regular season March 8 in Ann Arbor.
U-M is 13-1 in conference play after rallying to win at Northwestern on Wednesday. Four teams have three losses, with No. 7 Illinois alone in second at 11-3 and MSU, the Boilermakers and Nebraska all tied for third at 10-3. The Badgers and Bruins are lurking at 9-4.
“Our goal and our mindset is to try to win every game in this last stretch,” Jeremy Fears Jr. said Wednesday after practice. “Just come in, focus on your scouting report, focus on your job. Put in the most time and work you can, and let’s try to finish the regular season out 7-0. Just so you can give yourself a chance to have a shot at the Big Ten.”
Here's a look at what to watch when MSU tips off at 8 p.m. against the Badgers (17-7) on Fox.
Midseason bump
Fears was named to the midseason Wooden Award watchlist for national player of the year. The third-year sophomore point guard is one of five Big Ten players among the 20 on the list, including U-M’s Yaxel Lendeborg, Purdue’s Braden Smith, Illinois’ Keaton Wagler and Iowa’s Bennet Stirtz.
Over his past five games, Fears is averaging 22.6 points with 11.8 assists to 2.6 turnovers while shooting 92% on free-throws. He also is averaging 34.2 minutes a game in that span and is projected to play more moving forward with backup point guard Divine Ugochukwu done for the season with a left foot fracture.
Fears is coming off a career-high 42 minutes, 30 seconds in Saturday’s 85-83 overtime home win over the Illini. He had 22 of his 26 points after halftime while sitting just 1:11 over the final 20 minutes of regulation and playing all five minutes of overtime.
“I didn’t know how many minutes I had until later on that night,” Fears said. “The coaches do a great job of subbing – when they sub, how they sub. We had a couple stops and breaks in the game where I had time. Some of things were able to steal me a couple minutes (of rest), and that’s part of the game. So I felt pretty fine overall.
“But at the same time, whatever I need to do to win. No matter how many minutes, how much time or any of that, I’m willing to do it all.”
For the season, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound native of Joliet, Ilinois, leads MSU with both 15.1 points and 31.3 minutes a game. His 9.1 assists are slightly ahead of Purdue's Smith (8.8) for the most in Division I, and Fears, according to KenPom.com, ranks fourth in the national player of the year race, just ahead of U-M's Lendeborg.
Still, Izzo said he wants to try and limit the number of minutes Fears is playing, which would mean getting senior Denham Wojcik in to give him a break.
“It was too many minutes for him. I mean, he handled it well, as well as he could handle it,” Izzo said of Fears’ workload against Illinois. “What we need out of Jeremy, what I’ve been preaching to him lately, he’s gotta become just a dawg defender. … I mean, how many things do you need out of him? A lot. But that’s the position he plays.
“And I think for him to take his game to the next level, that part is gonna be important, too. So when you play that many minutes, you can’t push it, you can’t do all those things.”
Starting slow
For the fourth straight game, the Spartans stormed back from a sluggish start and a big, early deficit.
At Rutgers on Jan. 27, MSU stormed back from a 12-point deficit to pull off an overtime win. At home against U-M on Jan. 30, the Spartans trailed by as many as 18 and came back to take a late second-half lead before falling. Then at Minnesota, they were down 11 in the first half and as many as 16 before pulling within two and eventually losing.
Against the Illini, MSU trailed by nine points early in the second half before Fears led another comeback to force overtime and get the win.
The five days between facing Illinois and Wisconsin, Izzo said, gave him, his staff and their players a chance to recalibrate.
“We needed a little break,” Izzo said. “We got a chance to really look at ourselves, and I got a chance to have some meetings with players. I think I got a lot out of it so far.”
Wisconsin update
Greg Gard’s Badgers have been up and down in the last few weeks, from losing at home to USC on Jan. 26 to going to Champaign on Tuesday and stunning the Illini in overtime, 92-90.
Izzo expressed rare recruiting regret when talking about Brother Rice grad John Blackwell, a 6-foot-4, 203-pound junior guard who averages 18.7 points and 5.0 rebounds while shooting 37.3% from 3-point range and making 2.6 per game. Blackwell scored 24 against the Illini and has had 22-or-more points in three of his last four games.
“Unfortunately, if I wasn’t playing against him, I think he’s one of my favorite players,” Izzo said of Blackwell, whose father played at Illinois. “Because he guards it, he’s tough, he’s strong, he gets to the rim, he can shoot 3s, he can pass it. He’s definitely one of the better players in the league. … I think he’s a guy that’s gonna play basketball a lot when he’s done (in college) because of his size, strength, smarts. And he just controls the game his own way. He’s never out of control.”
Senior guard Nick Boyd, a Florida Atlantic/San Diego State transfer, leads Wisconsin at 20.2 points a game with 3.4 rebound and 3.7 assists while shooting 35.3% from 3-point range. Junior Nolan Winter, a 7-foot forward, averages 13.9 points and a team-leading 8.9 rebounds while also hitting 32.9% from behind the arc.
Six Badgers average more than a 3-pointer made per game and Gard’s team is 11th in Division I in 3-pointers made (11.0) and attempted (31.5) per game. They are making 35%, which is 124th, and contributes to their 83.3 points a game which ranks 46th nationally. Wisconsin also is 14th at 77.9% free-throw shooting.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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Next up: Badgers
Matchup: No. 10 Michigan State (20-4, 10-3) at Wisconsin (17-7, 9-4).
Tipoff: 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13; Kohl Center, Madison, Wisconsin.
TV/radio: Fox; WJR-AM (760).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball heads to Wisconsin looking to build momentum
