College Basketball

Michigan State returns to defensive roots, stifles USC star to advance

Updated Mar. 17, 2023 6:25 p.m. ET

College Football and College Basketball Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The second consecutive 3-pointer in less than a minute prompted USC head coach Andy Enfield to call timeout, the referee's whistle granting star point guard Boogie Ellis a merciful reprieve. Ellis, the Trojans' leading scorer, gasped for air on the opposite end of the court — chest heaving, breath wheezing, shoulders drooping — as the collection of stools where his teammates sat seemed so close and, yet, so agonizingly far. He staggered into Enfield's huddle long after everyone else and pounded his chair in frustration.

This type of fatigue was unusual for Ellis, an 18-point-per-game scorer whose average climbed north of 20 over his last 12 outings, a first-team all-conference performer in the Pac-12. Nearly 17 minutes elapsed before he scored his first point against seventh-seeded Michigan State on Friday. His streak of 16 consecutive games with at least one 3-pointer was shattered after three off-target heaves. The only team that limited Ellis to fewer points than the measly six he mustered on 3-for-12 shooting was Cal State Fullerton, on Dec. 7, in a game the Trojans won anyway.

"They did a good job," Ellis said in the postgame news conference. "I let my teammates down today. I didn't make shots. And they made things tough for me. Just team defense, jumping to the ball. Being on all the gaps, pretty much."

"They" was a reference to Michigan State's pair of sticky, stubborn and suffocating guards — Tyson Walker and Jaden Akins — who disrupted Ellis from the opening possession until the moment he received his fifth foul, with 33 seconds remaining in the second half, at which point he finally escaped their clutches through the agony of disqualification. Ellis shrouded himself in a towel along the bench as the clock melted toward elimination, toward a 72-62 defeat. He yanked it from his head to his shoulders while commiserating with a teammate. He was still wearing it when head coach Tom Izzo briefly stopped him in the handshake line for some kindhearted consolation.

Izzo had spoken glowingly about Ellis during his pregame news conference on Thursday, and he would do so again after a victory that sent Michigan State to the Round of 32 for a second consecutive year. He recognized how dangerous a quick-shifting, volume-shooting guard could be for a group of Spartans whose defense was withering down the stretch. Large chunks of his media sessions in recent weeks were spent pleading with his team to exert more effort, more intensity on that end of the floor. A prolonged hot streak from beyond the arc could only paper over the problem for so long, and eventually Michigan State would need an alternative to simply outshooting its defensive shortcomings.

"No secret that I haven't been pleased with our defense," Izzo quipped after the game.

But against a USC team that finished third in the Pac-12 standings, Izzo's springiest and most athletic guards answered the call with startling aggression as the Spartans "got our mojo back," as Izzo later described it. The winning formula against the Trojans was closer to what Michigan State can resemble at its peak: a guard-oriented team that defends with zeal and makes timely 3-point shots, as power forward Joey Hauser did by shooting 4-for-6 from beyond the arc on Friday. A balanced scoring effort produced five players in double figures at one end of the floor, and the spirited defense forced USC to commit 11 turnovers on a day the Spartans only gave it away seven times.

The undersized Walker attached himself to USC's star beyond the 3-point line and masterfully slid his feet to counter the flashy isolation drives by Ellis, who hoisted more than 13 shots per game this season as the focal point of Enfield's offense. Every perimeter jumper was challenged, every drive to the basket walled off and flummoxed as the 6-foot-3, 185-pound Ellis needed aerial contortions just to fling the ball toward the rim. When it was Akins' turn, his vacuum-sealed defense forced Ellis into a double-clutch fadeaway from the baseline that barely grazed the rim.

Together, Walker and Akins guarded with a relentlessness that ripped breath from the lungs of a player accustomed to logging 33.1 minutes per game. Each drive Ellis attempted, every sliver of space he sought to create further drained a battery that expired well before the final buzzer. With 1:42 remaining, Ellis' mouth gaped as he placed hands on head to more quickly regain his wind. Then Ellis doubled over and grabbed a fistful of shorts in either hand.

Moments later, after Ellis misfired from beyond the arc, Izzo huddled with his snarling guards during a stoppage in play. He pulled their heads close to his in an intimate embrace among competitors, a fire-spewing coach expressing admiration for some unflinching defensive venom.

"We knew coming into the game he can really score the ball," Walker said. "Makes tough shots. Just tried to make every shot he took tough. Keep your hand up, no fouling, no reaching because he's really crafty with the ball. He plays with it. Just trying to lock in and just play solid defense. And we did a good job. Every shot he took was contested."

Fatigue seeped from Ellis in the locker room shortly thereafter, the simple act of removing his sneakers transforming into the most arduous of tasks. He untied both shoes but could only muster the strength to remove one of them. Seconds turned to minutes as Ellis remained motionless in his team's cramped and sullen space — one shoe on, one shoe off, towel still cloaking his head, glance perpetually lowered.

When word came that it was USC's turn at the dais, Ellis labored to his feet and ambled through the tunnels at Nationwide Arena. He sunk into a chair in the media holding area while Izzo finished a postgame news conference.

"These guys, especially these two guards, the job they did was incredible," Izzo said of Walker and Akins, who sat beside him on the dais. "We haven't played against many guards as good as Ellis."

But across the hall, Ellis placed both hands over his ears while three Trojans waited their turn. He couldn't hear what Izzo said as the towel pressed deeper and deeper into his skin.

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.

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