At Michigan State brushes right up against the "bad loss" category in the way the game was lost. Yeah, yeah, E Lansing and Izzo, etc. etc., but we got outscored by 16 in, what, the last 5 minutes or so? That's a huge deficit in a small amount of time and is, in and of itself, "bad". At Northwestern not great, either; I guess the home games against Marquette and Purdue are more missed opportunities than bad losses.
This is one of my two lingering concerns as we approach March:
1. Will we have the right people at the free throw line with a slim lead late? I will be devastated if a team this talented and with this good of team chemistry goes down in March Madness from missing several unguarded free throw attempts that should be free points.
2. Do we have another MSU or even PSU meltdown in us? I would like to think not, but man ... the following were concerning:
1/11 vs. Michigan State: Went up 64-56 with 5:29 to go. Were only up 69-68 with 35 seconds to play. Thankfully made our FTs, but we could have put them away! We also didn't have TSJ.
2/4 vs. Nebraska: Went up 72-62 with just 3:29 to go off of a TSJ three. Were outscored 11-1 in the next 3 minutes and found ourselves down 1 with 9 seconds to go. Thankfully Domask got bailed out and forced over time with a FT, and we hung on in OT.
2/10 at Michigan State: Went from up 72-64 with 7:38 to play to tied with 4:10 to play. Retook a 1-point lead with 2:29 to go and ended up being outscored 13-4 the rest of the way to lose by 8.
2/21 at Penn State: Nobody needs a reminder, but we were up 11 with 3:30 to go, 7 with 1:17 to go and up 4 WITH THE BALL with 35 seconds to go ... lost in regulation. Epic collapse.
3/5 vs. Purdue: This one is way less concerning than the others, but we went up 66-64 with just 3:25 to go, and we got outscored 13-5 down the stretch. Purdue hit clutch shots, give them credit, but we certainly "folded" a bit.
However, on the bright side ... we closed out and stifled runs in these games:
2/28 vs. Minnesota: Went up 89-79 vs. Minnesota with 5:34 to go and never let them get closer than 6 again, even as they rained down threes on us, lol.
3/2 at Wisconsin: Wisconsin tied it at 68 with 5:44 to go with the crowd energized and us seemingly on the backfoot. However, we went on an 8-1 run to go up 76-69 with 3:10 to go and never let them get much closer than that, eventually winning 91-83.
3/10 at Iowa: Although we literally never trailed, Iowa got it to 51-47 with 11:15 to go and then again to 59-53 with 6:59 to go, and we scored 8 unanswered to go up 67-53 and the game was never in doubt.
3/16 vs. Nebraska (BTT): After overcoming the initial deficit to tie it at 68 with 9:20 to go, we outscored them 30-19. Once we got our lead up to 77-73 with 6:36 to go, we never let them get closer than 6, and we won by 11 (98-87).
3/17 vs. Wisconsin (BTT): This game was a battle, but after an 82-82 tie with 3:32 left, we outscored them 11-5 to win 93-87. Wisconsin tied it again at 85 briefly, but TSJ immediately responded with his own three, and we competently extended our lead for the last 1:29.
TL;DR
If you will notice a trend, 4 of the 5 "concerning" finishes occurred before the February 24th Minnesota game - our first win after the PSU collapse that kickstarted our current 7-1 streak. The only "concerning" finish in the last month was against Purdue, and even then ... we simply just lost to a #1 seed because they made HUGE plays. Conversely, all 5 of our "competent" finishes have occurred in the last month, with 3 of them coming in the last 10 days. We are getting better!
