Indiana played spoiler in the Big Ten title race on Tuesday night by knocking off No. 11 Michigan State at the Breslin Center. It was the first loss this season for the Spartans in East Lansing.
Here are five takeaways from the win against Michigan State:
Malik Reneau was dominant off the bench
It’s been an up-and-down season for junior forward Malik Reneau. The fit with Oumar Ballo hasn’t always been easy and an injury also kept Reneau out of the lineup for a significant stretch last month.
On Tuesday, Reneau delivered his most impressive performance of the season.
The 6-foot-9 native of Miami, Florida, came off the bench and led the Hoosiers with 19 points and 12 rebounds in 29 minutes. Michigan State didn’t send help to Reneau when he got it in the post, which proved to be a poor strategy.
Reneau got to his left repeatedly and made the Spartans pay. He scored 16 points in the second half and was 7-for-11 from the field.
“I can’t say enough about Malik because I went to him before the game and told him he wasn’t starting,” Mike Woodson said postgame. “That didn’t sit well with him, but he said, ‘coach, whatever you need me to do.’ He came in and played his ass off. That’s all you can ask for. It’s about team.”
Indiana goes zone, which proved to be a game-changing adjustment
After Michigan State raced to a double-digit lead early, Indiana adjusted defensively. Woodson and the Hoosiers went zone.
The Spartans are the lowest volume 3-point shooting team in the Big Ten and are among the worst perimeter shooting teams in the country.
Tom Izzo admitted postgame that the Spartans haven’t run into many zone defenses this season.
“They (Indiana) haven’t zoned much all year,” Izzo said. “Maybe minutes. We haven’t run into much zone but then when you run into it, your shooters have to make shots. And guys that have made shots didn’t make shots.”
Michigan State shot just 4-for-23 on 3s and only 38.2 percent from the field in the loss.
“We played it (zone) against Michigan in the second half and held them to 21 points,” Woodson said. “This team really gets up and down the floor. So we just felt like the only way to slow them down was to play zone.”
Michigan State’s bigs were in foul trouble all night
The Spartans have made a habit of getting to the foul line regularly this season and own the best free throw rate (FTA/FGA) in the conference.
But Indiana relentlessly pounded the ball into the post and ended the game with a free throw rate of 56 percent compared to 45.5 percent for the Spartans.
The Hoosiers finished 20-for-28 from the stripe and were only outscored by one at the line by the Spartans.
“They didn’t hardly take a shot the second half, they just pounded the ball inside, pounded the ball inside, pounded the ball inside,” Izzo said. “We were in so much foul trouble that we didn’t guard it very well.”
Jaxon Kohler played just 18 minutes and had four fouls for Michigan State and Carson Cooper fouled out in 16 minutes. Because of those foul issues, there was plenty of space for Reneau to operate in the second half and he took advantage as the Hoosiers pulled off the upset win.
Indiana plays spoiler as Izzo’s Big Ten record will have to wait
Izzo was expected to make history Tuesday night. A win against Indiana would have put him past Bob Knight for all-time Big Ten wins.
Izzo tied the mark of 353 Big Ten victories last weekend with a win against Oregon at the Breslin Center.
The record will have to wait until at least this weekend when Michigan State goes on the road to take on Illinois at the State Farm Center.
More importantly, however, Michigan State has lost its grip at the top of the Big Ten standings. The Spartans were 9-0 in the league on Jan. 28 but have dropped three of four since.
After Michigan’s 75-73 win against Purdue on Tuesday night, the Wolverines are now a game ahead of the Spartans and Boilermakers in the loss column in the league standings.
Hoosiers seal the win at the free-throw line
Indiana scored its last field goal, a Reneau layup, at the 3:14 mark of the second half.
Rather than playing it out and attempting to get stops, Izzo opted to foul immediately after Kohler’s bucket with 2:57 to play and the Spartans trailing 61-54.
That pressured Indiana to convert at the free-throw line to close out the win. For the most part, Indiana delivered.
Over the final 2:41, Indiana went 10-for-14 from the line, including 10 of their last 12. Over the game’s final 30 seconds, Indiana scored eight points from the line.
The Hoosiers finished the game with six straight makes from the stripe, including four from Mackenzie Mgbako and a pair from Anthony Leal that pushed the lead to four with just over four seconds to play.
(Photo credit: IU Athletics)
Filed to: Malik Reneau, Michigan State Spartans
