EAST LANSING, Mich. — If you’re looking for a play, sequence or coaching decision to sum up Michigan State basketball’s season, you’d have many to pick from Saturday afternoon, when Iowa gave Tom Izzo the worst home loss of his career in an 88-58 beating.
There was the slow defensive rotation on the Hawkeyes’ first made 3-pointer. The hesitation when Rocket Watts badly missed a jumper at the elbow. And the benching of center Marcus Bingham Jr. less than two minutes into the game, followed by the benching of center Julius Marble a minute after that.
There was the Spartans’ first offensive possession, where they ran a motion set on the perimeter, passing again and again without much purpose, wasting 26 seconds on the shot clock before Joshua Langford bailed out the meandering set with a desperate drive to the rim.
He scored.
Almost accidentally.
There was the Aaron Henry shot that missed the rim entirely after he took a pass near the elbow, turned, found no one — and no one moving — and turned again before heaving it. A lonely young man, alone on an island.
And the Henry benching, when Tom Izzo sat his best player for almost eight minutes as Iowa pulled away.
Henry wasn’t in foul trouble. Or hurt. Or tired.
Yet, he sat.
So did Gabe Brown, after making a couple shots — including a 3-pointer — as Izzo and his staff kept rotating player after player, searching, tinkering … for what?
I’m not even sure they know at this point. Certainly, they haven’t found it.
"We are going to keep trying to find the guys who want to play (with consistent energy)," said Izzo, who lamented his team's lack of energy early, and who said he sat Henry that long because he thought he wasn't playing with his usual spark.
And, finally, there was the fast break led by Langford, when MSU was down 17 late in the first half; the fifth-year senior tried to lob to Brown in traffic, choosing the spectacular over the simple, which leads to this question: If your most mature and experienced player makes that play in that situation, what does that say about the state of your team?
Not that Langford is the issue with this year’s Spartans. He is not. He has overcome a lot to find his way back to the court.
The lack of point guard play is the issue. The lack of consistent center play is the issue. The inability of Izzo to figure this team out is the issue.
"It's embarrassing," said MSU's coach.
He was talking about the performance Saturday. But he was, in some ways, talking about his own effort, too.
"Blame should go on me and solely on me," he said.
Izzo was down and frustrated after another humbling loss. To his credit, he pointed inward. And he should.
Because too many of his players already show slumped shoulders and sagging faces and hesitant shots. That often carries into MSU's offensive sets, that unfold in fits and starts, where players aren’t always sure where to go. It carries to the defense, too, where the rotations were slow and unsure.
This isn’t just a team without an identity. It’s a team that too often isn’t sure what to do from one possession to the next, or even within a possession.
The Spartans look lost. Izzo looks subdued, by his standard, and has admitted he hasn’t quite been himself during games because of the surreal and uncertain times we are in.
Should I yell?
Should I pump my fist?
Should I stomp and prowl?
He isn’t sure. And the team isn’t sure. And while you can point to a roster that isn’t as talent-rich as in most seasons in East Lansing, that doesn’t fully explain it, either.
This wasn’t supposed to be a title team. But it wasn’t supposed to break Izzo’s NCAA Tournament streak.
There is a middle. MSU is nowhere near it.
Izzo and his players swear there is time to recalibrate, to find something, to string some wins and chase the postseason as other teams at MSU have done this time of year.
"I've got to do a better job," he said. That means meeting "with guys and find(ing) out where their heads are."
Langford, for one, believes there is still time. He is as optimistic as they come, partly because of his faith, partly because of what he has survived.
"As a captain, I have to step up even more," he said.
Saturday’s loss to Iowa was the third time the Spartans have trailed by almost 30 points this season. Think about that for a moment.
And then think about how odd this feels, how strange it is that MSU is in this spot. It’s almost unthinkable. That’s the Izzo standard, what he has built.
True, the Spartans can’t win the Big Ten every year — even though it sometimes seems that way.
But this?
It’s hard to imagine this is what Langford thought he was fighting for the last two seasons, enduring surgery, working through rehab, trying to find his way through bad luck and tough breaks.
Yet he is also grateful to be playing again. This makes it easy, he said, to keep moving forward.
"It doesn't stop here," he said.
In most years, the return of a player such as Langford would be a feel-good story, and he’d get the chance to find a niche on a Big Ten contender, followed by Izzo shedding a few tears on Senior Day talking about Langford’s journey.
What he has meant. And how he made a few shots and plays, here and there, to help a team headed to another NCAA tournament.
Izzo will still celebrate Langford’s journey. He deserves it.
But when Langford is being asked to do things he can no longer do, and be a player he no longer is, that tells you everything about a season that went sour long ago.
Saturday was another reminder. Not that anyone needed one.
