Michigan State Basketball: MSU 59 - Iowa 76 Kneejerk Reactions

Iowa blew the doors open and led by 22 at halftime. Not much you can do after that especially when you don't win a single one of the Four Factors. Time for some overreactionary (don't give me that little red line, overreactionary is totally a word) bullet points.

• Costello had a great game offensively with 15 points on 7-9 shooting. He's almost definitely been MSU most consistent player this year and his post game along with his touch around the rim has been nice.
• Valentine was mostly fine too but in the end, MSU doesn't have enough talent if Valentine plays like 2014-15 Valentine. 14, 4, and 5 is a nice stat line for just about anyone except it's pretty below average for Valentine.
• Nairn was somewhat able to compensate his lack of shooting by getting to the rim at times. However, do you know what's better than being able to somewhat compensate for your lack of shooting? Being able to shoot. His pressure defense is about as fraudulent as can be as he never actually forces his guy into a mistake. His lack of size means he can't contest jump shots against 6'2" Clemmons.
• McQuaid had two of the worst turnovers with one of them coming in transition where he jumped in the air before he decided what to do and the other being a no-look pass to Wollenman who was semi-posting up.
• Bryn Forbes can't handle athletic wings that stick with him. However, he still had 2-3 jump shots that were pretty open and he couldn't knock them down.
• Harris went to the basket a couple times but had no plan once he got there. He had two of his 3-pointers blocked.
• Iowa is terrible matchup for MSU due to their long, athletic wings but they're a legitimate team. They're projected to go 15-3 in the B1G with no one else going better than 13-5.

Yeah this tweet probably goes here

That’s the worst half of basketball for MSU in a long, long, long time.

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) January 15, 2016

Chris also said some things about shortening the rotation and he's absolutely right. Wollenman and Ellis aren't the answers when you're trying to get back in the game. On the plus side Izzo said he's going to be playing more Davis tonight which appears to be a good thing for both the short and long run.