Nothing remarkable happened Tuesday night in Assembly Hall.
IU hit its free throws, handled the ball decently and lost 72-58 to a better, more experienced team in its seventh-straight loss.
The Spartans had 10 players score and gained separation when it went to the bench because of foul trouble.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo has a vantage point of IU basketball that few do as a friend of IU coach Tom Crean and the longest tenured Big Ten coach. He said experience was the difference for his team, which has 10 upperclassmen on its roster.
"They played hard, they're missing a player or two," Izzo said. "I saw Creek at the end of the game. I asked him how he could do that to my buddy by getting hurt."
The Hoosiers looked more like their midseason selves, challenging the Spartans for much of the first half. The seasoned Michigan State team simply grinded out the game until fans looked up and saw a 20-point lead.
Several players standing well above 6-foot-6 challenged IU in the post and midrange game for 40 minutes.
"They got some big bodies and some talented players that could probably start anywhere else in the nation," junior guard Jeremiah Rivers said.
Izzo's club took advantage of significant returns from turnovers and points in the paint. It scored 40 points within the key and used 8 steals and 16 IU mishaps to produce 23 points off turnovers.
IU did not fair as well within the paint with only 18 points of its own for the game. They also saw the methodical Michigan State only turn the ball over a total of eight times.
"I think they may have taken advantage of us in some key instances," Rivers said. "But I think at the end of the day, if we just do the things that we talk about and that we did at certain spurts in this game, I think we'll be OK"
