SHEEHAN: Michigan State’s early exit in the Big Ten Tournament was frustrating - but I’m not panicking yet

I’ll be honest - I was hoping Michigan State’s stay in the Big Ten Tournament would last a little longer than one game.

Instead, the Spartans’ run ended quickly with an 88–84 loss to UCLA, and it left me walking away from that game with a mix of frustration, questions, and just a little bit of cautious optimism.

Let’s start with the obvious part: that was not a good loss for Michigan State.

However you want to frame it, it’s disappointing. The Spartans were favored. They had beaten UCLA by 30 points earlier this season in East Lansing. And when you reach March - when everything gets tighter, more urgent, more physical - you want to see your team sharpen up, not slip defensively the way Michigan State did in Chicago.

And that’s really where my biggest concern comes from.

Where was the defense?

If Michigan State has had a calling card all season, it’s been defense.

This team has survived rough offensive stretches because they could guard. They could rebound. They could grind games down and stay in them even when shots weren’t falling.

Against UCLA, that identity just didn’t show up.

The Bruins shot 56 percent from the field and knocked down 13 three-pointers. That’s the highest effective field-goal percentage Michigan State has allowed all season. When you allow numbers like that, it becomes very hard to win - even when you’re doing other things well.

And to be fair, some of that is just basketball. Sometimes teams shoot lights out.

But if you watched the game, a lot of those shots weren’t heavily contested. UCLA got clean looks. Michigan State’s defensive rotations weren’t tight enough, and the Bruins took advantage.

What made it even more puzzling to me was that Tom Izzo had already pointed to this exact issue earlier in the week.

After the Michigan game, he talked about how the Spartans were crashing too hard when teams attacked the paint and leaving shooters open on the perimeter.

That’s exactly what UCLA exploited.

When a coach identifies a problem and then you see the same thing happen again a game later, that’s where the concern starts creeping in.

The game was still there to win

The frustrating part is that Michigan State did a lot of things well enough to win the game.

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