I watched us lose in East Lansing, and I saw the most dejected team I've seen in a while. MSU covered the spread in the first 14 minutes, and the game was over with 10 minutes to go. The body language was terrible. No leadership, no cohesion, no buy-in. We looked like a kid that sat down for dinner and got a plate of broccoli set in front of them.
The scouting report against us is freaking obvious. We're one dimensional, i.e. we need Kofi. If you just look at stats, you could argue that Ayo is a threat, but he gets a chunk of garbage points, can't drive at a high level, and can't shoot at a high level. And as good as we are at rebounding, when it came to hustle and determination on the boards, MSU got the most "effort" rebounds. And MSU knew to go at Kofi, even as good as he is. He was bound to pick up some fouls, and now we're toast. Some of the line-ups we had out there were atrocious. And the ball went through Da'Monte WAY too many times. Izzo is no slouch, for all the hate he gets on this board.
Based on what I've seen, I see the opposite of a winning streak. And this isn't a tournament team. We're very good at pushing around mediocre teams, but don't do anywhere near enough of the little stuff that allows you to compete at a high level. As much as I want these guys to turn it on and play, the analyst in me thinks we're cooked. I think we'll be in every home game. But I think we'll be inconsistent, even at home. When we do have a good stretch, we don't handle success well.
This team needs a major change in attitude, buy-in, and effort to get to the dance. We're too one-dimensional to succeed in conference play without getting the offense right both mentally and effort-wise. If all we do is complain about missing 3s, and can't dial up the defense or probe for better 2p attempts, we won't see the post-season.
In fairness, MSU looked like a FF team. They made mistakes, but most of the time they made smart plays, and had us figured out. They knew when to push down on the pedal, and we rolled over. They're flawed IMO, and not as deep as you'd like, but this is a year where a team like MSU could actually go all the way.