Michigan State forward Malik Hall points to defensive woes, lack of energy as reasons for 78-71 loss to Iowa
East Lansing, Mich. – Coming into Tuesday’s matchup with Iowa, Michigan State didn’t expect to get “absolutely killed” in the paint – as Tom Izzo put it – against a Hawkeye team that spaces things out and has a collection of quality three-point shooters.
But that’s what happened in a 78-71 Michigan State loss to the Hawkeyes at the Breslin Center.
Iowa outscored Michigan State, 40-28, in the paint. Valparaiso transfer forward Ben Krikke scored 18 points and grabbed 14 rebounds against the Spartans. Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes shot just 4-of-13 from three (30.8 percent), an area of Iowa’s game that Michigan State prepared to slow down.
“We put a very high emphasis on them shooting threes, but we knew that their motion, they kept moving pretty much the whole time,” said Michigan State forward Malik Hall. “There’s back-cutting, flare screens, drip screens, pin-downs. We needed to do a better job with handling their motion and switching and making sure we were talking. We didn’t do as good of a job. In the post, they kind of got some of those catches deep and they just went right into their shots.”
Hall scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds on 7-of-13 shooting against Iowa, but Izzo would have liked to see more from him on defense.
“Malik’s stats were good, but defensively, he wasn’t great,” Izzo said. “We just didn’t handle it well. We let them get the ball in (the post) and when it got in there, we didn’t do much. They went at it.”
No Spartan defended particularly well on Tuesday, according to Izzo. The switching and communication issues that Hall pointed to resulted in easy driving lanes for Iowa. The Hawkeyes made 13 of their 19 layup attempts, as well as three dunks.
Hall also credited the threat of Iowa’s outside shooting ability as a reason Michigan State struggled to defend in the post.
“They create kind of a unique problem with their motion and then just having a bunch of guys who can really shoot the ball well,” Hall said. “We wanted to make sure we didn’t let them get a chance to shoot many shots, and that kind of left us one-on-one in the post and we didn’t handle the matchups in the way we should have.”
On offense, Hall felt like Michigan State struggled at times against Iowa’s matchup zone.
“It was a little funky as far as trying to find other people shots and knowing where I can go because when you catch it in the middle, I don’t really know the people behind me,” Hall said. “I don’t know where they’re at exactly, most of the time. So just trying to figure that out.”
It all resulted in a let-down home loss for Michigan State one game after the Spartans beat rival Michigan on the road.
Hall agreed with Izzo when he said that Michigan State played flat. Hall and his teammates will now work to find some of that missing energy before their next game against Ohio State on Sunday.
“I know that every last game matters,” Hall said. “We only have three home games left, so I’m going to go out and play as hard as I can. I think we just, as a whole, have to pick it up no matter how you feel, no matter what you’re thinking.
“It’s really just about making sure that we’re focused for every single game and we’re ready to go for every single game so that something like this doesn’t happen again.”
Hall said that the team has to “self-reflect” in the four days before Sunday’s matchup with the Buckeyes.
“Everybody has to take time to see what they can do better, if there’s something else they can bring to the table, so that we can go in the direction that we want to go,” Hall said. “We keep having good games – we’ll stack a couple and then we’ll have a set-back. And then we’ll stack a couple and have (another) set-back.
“We have to find a way for everybody to be consistent, for everybody to be on the same page on offense, on defense and just holistically, with energy and everything to be able to move forward. I think in the next couple days we need to take the time to learn from what happened in this game and make sure moving forward that we’re showing up every single day.”
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