Michigan State 85, Illinois 82 OT Postgame

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#452      
Definitely sucks we couldn’t pull this out but fought damn hard with a lot going against us. I think we can all agree the ultimate goal was to get out of this without an injury and that was achieved (despite the attempts).
 
#453      
That was a tough time for Wagler to lay his first egg -- driving into their double team under the basket over and over wasn't great. And we still could have won it if we'd gotten that rebound up 1 at the end of regulation. I actually thought their defense was so hyperfocused on Wagler that it allowed Mirk and Andrej to thrive. Their defense looked lost when Wagler was resting on the bench -- makes you wonder if we should have just kept resting him until MSU adjusted. Agreed on continuing to play zone.. protect the rim and make them shoot.

Fears is crazy -- I can't believe he tripped Mirk while he's under scrutiny -- I don't think he's fixable, guys. As for jumping into defenders and getting fouls, that was TSJ's signature move.
 
#455      
Yes he traveled. Dragged the pivot foot more than once.
 
#456      
After a long time to digest (including my traditional night-duty commute some 5 hours ago to now) -- here's my honest breakdown on some of the calls/no calls in this game.

To begin, the officiating was advantage MSU for.... pretty much the entirety. The first half was IL: 8 fouls. MSU: 4 fouls (note: it ended up 8 to 6 because they used their fouls to give in the final 10 sec). Remind you, Illinois is one of the least fouling teams in America, and MSU played extremely physical.

Absolutely no idea why the Fears trip wasn't called. Izzo had a completely unhinged tantrum when they went to go take a look -- wonder how much that factored into their decision.

All in all, while the first half was discouraging, I don't think it was nearly as bad as where it got to at the end of regulation / start of overtime.

There's 5 plays specifically that I'd like to point out, all occurring in the timeframe of 2H 1:59 and OT 1:47. Would guess most of these are on X by now (if you have the game saved you can obviously rewatch).

#1:

Screenshot 2026-02-08 035853.png


Replay shows Wagler getting absolutely HAMMERED by Jordan Scott of MSU on a layup attempt -- no call.

To me personally, this was the worst no-call of the entire game because it results in a 4pt swing, as MSU immediately comes down and gets a rebounding foul on Mirk and converts 2 FTs. Was it a foul? Probably yes (not a great angle, didn't see a replay). But don't think it warrants a whistle if the one on Keaton didn't seconds ago.

#2:

Screenshot 2026-02-08 035924.png


I think this one is the most excusable of these five plays. It's basically the same exact thing as the IU-WISC game, just as Jason Bennetti acknowledged. I think it warrants a call, as Cooper clearly trips him, but MAYBE you could make the argument Wagler's first to lose his balance. Haven't seen a slomo, but broadcast does show a replay.

#3:

Screenshot 2026-02-08 040052.png


First play of overtime, 100% a foul on Fears. Simply couldn't be a more blatant. Wraps up Mirkovic, flings him as he attempts a shot... but no call.

#4:

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Just a flat out hysterical call to foul out Tomi. Literally no orange jersey touches Fears as he falls to the ground. We can see he was actually bumped by his teammate Kohler.

Very, very critical play as we had a 2pt lead, and pretty much unraveled afterwards.

#5:

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EXTREMELY soft and-1 foul given to Fears, called on Stojakovic. With the amount of stuff they got away with on our end, genuinely comical this gets a whistle.

Overall, this was the stretch the zebras took over -- totally swallowing the whistle on our end, and handing out touch fouls on theirs.
 
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#457      
After a long time to digest (including my traditional night-duty commute some 5 hours ago to now) -- here's my honest breakdown on some of the calls/no calls in this game.

To begin, the officiating was advantage MSU for.... pretty much the entirety. The first half was IL: 8 fouls. MSU: 4 fouls (note: it ended up 8 to 6 because they used their fouls to give in the final 10 sec). Remind you, Illinois is one of the least fouling teams in America, and MSU played extremely physical.

Absolutely no idea why the Fears trip wasn't called. Izzo had a completely unhinged tantrum when they went to go take a look -- wonder how much that factored into their decision.

All in all, while the first half was discouraging, I don't think it was nearly as bad as where it got to at the end of regulation / start of overtime.

There's 5 plays specifically that I'd like to point out, all occurring in the timeframe of 2H 1:59 and OT 1:47. Would guess most of these are on X by now (if you have the game saved you can obviously rewatch).

#1:

View attachment 47321

Replay shows Wagler getting absolutely HAMMERED by Jordan Scott of MSU on a layup attempt -- no call.

To me personally, this was the worst no-call of the entire game because it results in a 4pt swing, as MSU immediately comes down and gets a rebounding foul on Mirk and converts 2 FTs. Was it a foul? Probably yes (not a great angle, didn't see a replay). But don't think it warrants a whistle if the one on Keaton didn't seconds ago.

#2:

View attachment 47322

I think this one is the most excusable of these five plays. It's basically the same exact thing as the IU-WISC game, just as Jason Bennetti acknowledged. I think it warrants a call, as Cooper clearly trips him, but MAYBE you could make the argument Wagler's first to lose his balance. Haven't seen a slomo, but broadcast does show a replay.

#3:

View attachment 47323

First play of overtime, 100% a foul on Fears. Simply couldn't be a more blatant. Wraps up Mirkovic, flings him as he attempts a shot... but no call.

#4:

View attachment 47324

Just a flat out hysterical call to foul out Tomi. Literally no orange jersey touches Fears as he falls to the ground. We can see he was actually bumped by his teammate Kohler.

Very, very critical play as we had a 2pt lead, and pretty much unraveled afterwards.

#5:

View attachment 47325

EXTREMELY soft and-1 foul given to Fears, called on Stojakovic. With the amount of stuff they got away with on our end, genuinely comical this gets a whistle.

Overall, this was the stretch the zebras took over -- totally swallowing the whistle on our end, and handing out touch fouls on theirs.
#3:


#4:


#5:

 
#458      
Fears did’t trip and won’t trip again and anyway he has a 3.1 average.
 
#459      
don't get the channel so couldn't watch the game.... but kept checking the score....had a funny feeling things were not going to work out for the good guys.....when watching the "full game highlights" on the university website can they for once show what actually happens during a game rather than sanitizing the broadcast to always make it a highlight film?
 
#460      
Last night when Tomi fouled out I’m 90% sure when the ref went over to Brad he apologized for the call. I don’t have replay but I’m fairly confident he knew he or one of the other refs screwed up.

The worst part is they continued to call a horrible OT.
 
#463      
I have always been a fan of Tom Izzo for his competitiveness, but I get tired of looking at his crumping, crying face. He and his team is always getting the worst calls. Poor babies.
Anytime you go to Breslin you are going to be playing 5- against 8. Whiny Tom gets the refs to call every little touch against his team a foul while on the other end it always seems the refs don't have enough wind to blow the whistle. I have said this all year nobody wants to go and watch the refs perform.
I am proud of the Illini squad that seems to get no respect going into Mackey and Nebraska and pull out wins against top opponents. This game is hard to swallow because there were so many phantom fouls against Fears [oh by the way he did trip Tomi intentionally.]
My hat goes off to Mirk for carrying this team on a night when Keaton was off. I am not ragging on him, he has carried this team all season, the offense was pretty bad in the 2nd half.
Suck it up go home and take down Wisconsin and Indiana. You still control your own destiny.
 
#464      
Asking Santa for an early xmas gift and we see these clowns again in the big ten tourney since we dont get them at home this year. This is what I hate about 18 team conference.
 
#466      
Missed FTs, missed shots at point-blank range in OT, and lane violation on Fears' missed FT would have made a win possible.
 
#467      
Izzo was screaming his !!! off to the officials about "how the refs were labeling Fears". Dirty play is the culture with Izzo's teams

Probably the most blatant lopsided officiating that I've ever seen, glad that we got out of there without any obvious injuries. Hate the loss, but we will recover and benefit from it
 
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#468      
Unlike most, I do not want to play these thugs in the post season. We escaped East Lansing without a debilitating injury. May not be so lucky next time.
 
#469      
Games like this make you question integrity of sports

One guy flops around
Trips people
But gets all the calls

That's ok
We will be better for it
And sportsmanship is the rationale for sports no less. Integrity in golf prevails - so let's run the table good guys.:hailtotheorange:
 
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#470      
Set aside all the bullsh@t we knew we'd face tonight....

Mirkovic at the point was absolutely insane in the second half. I knew he could pass but my word. If we can trust that down the stretch when Bam get's back...we are almost impossible to guard without help from the refs.
They both got hammered with no calls so many times.
The old freshman not gonna get calls bs.

We have two of the most special freshman in our programs history.

It took 8-5 and a really tough night for Wagler to beat us.
This is my thought as well. MSU came in DESPERATE. Wagler had his worst game of the season and we obviously didn’t have BAM still - add in the ref factor on the road and it’s seriously impressive we almost won still.

It would’ve been great to win because we could have really started the 1 seed conversation, but all of our goals are still in front of us.
 
#471      
Refs have to be more attune to the Fears flopping - how is a guy with his reputation getting every call down the stretch! It’s insane

That said we have to guard that pick differently we known Fears is going to turn the corner and draw contact- need to get the ball out of his hands down the stretch

Still, we get one offensive rebound we likely win the game- I never got the feeling we were going to lose until that possession. Wagler forced a ton of shots - we didn’t need him to score tonight just delivered and dish and we would have been fine. It seems he was pressing to score when we didn’t need him to
This is what I continue to not understand.

Fears’ dirty play and flopping were all over national college basketball media this week. The conference has to know about all of the negative publicity.

A good officiating coordinator and assignor gets this crew on a Zoom call Saturday morning and says we cannot have what has occurred this week happen tonight. It’s a Fox national game. The national media has been all over us this week. You guys need to deal with it quickly. That clearly didn’t happen. It’s like everyone ignored the events of this week.

I’m a high school and former small college soccer official. I watch video and talk with officials to know about “problem children” in my games, and I deal with them. I don’t understand how a major college basketball conference can’t deal with a problem like this, except to only assume they don’t want to deal with it.

The officiating coordinator and assignor should honestly lose their jobs over this. The new assignor should tell Jeff Anderson that he can take his fake high knees ref show to the Horizon League. The conference looks like a joke right now, but they won’t do a thing about it.
 
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#473      
Guys, I get the frustration, but was anything really that surprising? Before the game if anyone told me we’d lose with subpar officiating, I would not call them crazy one bit.

I think every one of us knew the zebras weren’t going to be in our favor. It’s what you face going to Breslin, at least for as long as Izzo’s there.
 
#475      
The fouls and FTs were about even though.

IL was 20-24
MSU was 20-23

IL shot 12 more threes.

I don’t see officiating factoring in here. It was about as even as it gets from the stats.

IL- 21 fouls
MSU- 19 fouls
As I said before the game started, Jeffrey freakin Anderson. He loves to keep the foul count about even, regardless of what is going on on the court, and calls fouls inconsistently to do so. I hate him. Awful ref. Consistently awful. Even moreso because at the end of the game, people looks at the box score, and say, "I don’t know what all the fuss about the refs was, the fouls were pretty even"
 
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