No. 2 Michigan St. looks to rebound vs. Stony Brook (Nov 19, 2017)
The showdown between the nation's top-ranked college basketball teams was mainly decided by Michigan State's poor rebounding.
That came as a shock to Spartans coach Tom Izzo, who not only emphasizes rebounding but has plenty of quality big men dotting his roster. No. 1 Duke grabbed 25 offensive rebounds and outrebounded No. 2 Michigan State 46-34 in the Blue Devils' 88-81 victory at the Champions Classic in Chicago on Tuesday.
Following four off-days to stew about the loss, the Spartans return to action with a home game against Stony Brook on Sunday.
"Embarrassed, to be honest with you, that a team would get 25 offensive rebounds against us," Izzo said. "I don't care how big they are. We had two keys to start the game. Turnovers, foolish ones, we knew we were going to get some. That zone is pretty good. And rebounding. Never in a million years did I think we'd get outrebounded like that."
The Spartans' much-heralded frontcourt of sophomores Miles Bridges and Nick Ward and freshman Jaren Jackson combined for 17 rebounds. Duke's Wendell Carter alone had 12 rebounds.
"In order for us to win what we want to win this year, we have to get better with our physicality, our rebounding, our turnovers, just the way we play out there," Bridges said.
Izzo has other issues to correct while playing less talented opponents. Michigan State (1-1) had 17 turnovers and forced only nine, while Blue Devils guard Grayson Allen destroyed its perimeter defense with a 37-point barrage.
"Give Duke credit but I give us some blame," Izzo said. "We're going to have to live with that. We had an opportunity. We were up two and we just didn't rebound like we could. We did a little better job in the second half than the first, but in general we did not do a good enough job."
The Spartans' frontcourt should have an easier time against the Seawolves (0-3), who have only two players taller than 6-feet-7, neither of whom plays major minutes. Stony Brook has lost to two big-name opponents, falling to Maryland 76-61 and Connecticut 72-64. The Seawolves fell to Ball State 87-76 on Friday.
The Cardinals outscored them 53-34 in the second half.
"I thought it was a tale of two halves. We knew that the most intense team that had the most energy and the most heart was going to win the game, and that was us for the first 20 minutes and it was them for the last 20 minutes," coach Jeff Boals said. "We competed for 40 minutes in each of our first two games. When shots aren't falling, you have to get defensive stops and no one really stepped up, we need to get better at that."
The Seawolves gave the Huskies a major scare on Tuesday, leading most of the way before a late UConn surge.
"Once they amped their pressure up, we lost our poise and turned over the ball uncharacteristically," Boals said. "We missed a couple of wide open shots and missed a couple of free throws and that all adds up against a good team."
Stony Brook's leading scorer is sophomore guard Akwasi Yeboah at 12.7 points per game. He also averages 5.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.
The Spartans will be without backup forward Kenny Goins, who suffered a mild left knee sprain on Tuesday.
