The score could have been a lot worse. Michigan State tied the Jayhawks in knots the first half, holding KU to only 23 points on 32% shooting. At the start of the second half, the Spartans pushed that lead to 23 point, 51-28, with 14:40 to play. It looked like it would be a very ugly thrashing.

The Jayhawks, though, showed some real character, stepped up their defense, and went on a 19-2 run over the next 7:30 to cut the lead to 6 points, 53-47, at the 6:40 mark. The Jayhawks couldn’t sustain the effort, though. With the momentum in their favor and MSU back on their heels, the Jayhawks seemed to run out of gas. Michigan State pushed the lead back to 11 points and then the Jayhawks failed to convert on three straight possessions when they could have cut the lead back down. Desperation shots by the Jayhawks in the last two minutes didn’t fall, and the Spartans killed the clock for a hard-fought 12-point win.

The Jayhawks got into such a big hole not so much because they played badly but because Michigan St. simply played better. The Jayhawks didn’t miss a lot of easy shots. Michigan St. just didn’t give the Jayhawks many easy shots. The Jayhawks didn’t play all that poorly on defense and in fact showed the best sustained defensive effort of the season in my opinion. But Michigan St. played with patience on offense and continued to work and work and work their offense until they were able to get a shot. Still, Michigan State only shot 39% for the game.

The problem was that 16 times after KU forced Michigan State into misses the Spartans got the offensive rebound. The Jayhawks, by contrast, got only a handful of offensive rebounds (7) and only twice put them back in for an easy score. For the game the Spartans out-rebounded the Jayhawks 47-35. That, more than any thing else, was the story of the game.

<>The Spartans out-muscled the Jayhawks all evening on the blocks. They simply blocked out better than the Jayhawks did. Part of that was due to Michigan State being more disciplined in digging down and consistently making the effort to block out. Part of it, though, was that Michigan State’s front line, despite being shorter than KU’s, was much stronger and was able to push around Chenowith, Gooden and Collison. That will be a Jayhawk vulnerability all season. Gooden and Collison simply don’t have the maturity and the time in the weight room to be able to out-physical many seasoned power forwards. To be successful they will have to execute the fundamentals of positioning and blocking out on every play against top-flight post players.

Chenowith for whatever reason, even as a junior, is still not strong enough to bang with many opposing big guys. That hurt him on offense where he was unable to establish position. Few of the 6 shots he took tonight were easy ones. Usually he was attempting to shoot a guarded turnaround from 8 feet or more. They weren’t falling and he scored only 6 points on two fieldgoals and two free throws.

KU’s offense was stifled in the first half for two reasons. Partly it was because the Spartans played smothering defense that didn’t give KU many open shots. Good teams don’t wait for the opposition to give them shots, though. They create open shots by running the offensive sets religiously. KU tended to stand around a bit too much on offense tonight. The screens weren’t crisp and the player being screened for wasn’t aggressive enough cutting off the screen.

Jeff Boschee was effectively taken out of the offense by Michigan State’s strategy of defending him with their off-guard, who had a good 5 inches on Boschee. Boschee got very few open looks at the basket. He scored only 3 points and took only three shots on the evening, despite playing 23 minutes. Jeff didn’t or wasn’t able to compensate by attempting to drive to the basket to create open passes off of penetration, and the rest of the team wasn’t able to spring him open with screens. Because he was handcuffed and because the motion offense wasn’t springing players open, he had only 2 assists.

Kenny Gregory led the Jayhawks with 14 points, but he got most of those in transition. He hit a nice three-pointer in the first half, but almost all of the rest of his points came in transition in the second half during the Jayhawks big run. He played hard and his decision-making and defense were solid.

Luke Axtell was the only other Jayhawk in double figures with 12 points on four-of-seven shooting. He hit two of three three-pointers, including one several feet behind the NBA line. That he only shot three three-pointers, though, speaks both to Michigan State’s defense and KU’s inability to create open shots. With the Jayhawks down as far as they were much of this game one had to think that Luke could have been an equalizer. But he got very few open looks behind the arc. He did create some nice shots for himself inside the arc and was something of a spark for KU in the first half.

KU’s big guys struggled on offense overall. Chenowith scored only 6 points on two-of-six shooting. He got very few easy shots at the basket because Michigan State’s front line pushed him off the blocks most of the evening and he wasn’t strong enough to go up and over them. He grabbed 10 boards, but committed a team-high 4 turnovers.

Nick Collison was never a factor. Early in the game he got some nice open looks at the basket, but couldn’t get his shot to drop. The stronger Michigan State players quickly took him out of the game, though. He picked up three fouls in the first half and got his fourth only a minute into the second half. He finished with only 2 points on 1-of-7 shooting while playing only 15 minutes. The game should be a valuable learning experience for him.

Gooden was the most effective of KU’s big men on offense, scoring 8 points on 50% shooting. He made several very nice plays, but on several occasions pressed a bit on offense attempting to create a shot for himself by taking his man one-on-one when the better play would have been to kick the ball out to try to find a more open shot.

Coach Williams was relatively philosophical about the loss, and I find myself feeling much the same way. It was painful to see KU trailing by 23 points in the second half and being thoroughly dominated. But it was quite heartening to see that the team didn’t give up and made the game quite competitive with a thrilling, if ultimately doomed, 19-2 run. After the Middle Tennessee St. game Coach suggested that the team was getting by on talent rather than basketball smarts.

Those chickens came home to roost tonight. That isn’t a bad thing. The sooner this group goes from running the plays because that’s what the coach wants to running the plays zealously because they know in their hearts that that is the way to win games, the sooner this team will start playing to its potential. In the first half they got spanked because Michigan State was playing with much greater discipline and intensity. In the second half the Jayhawks mostly matched that intensity and they were rewarded by out-playing the Spartans in the second half.

If this loss is difficult to swallow for the team, hopefully it will motivate them to take the next step and religiously do everything the coach asks. I can’t help but think of last year’s team, which played some very ugly basketball the first half of the season before knuckling down, embracing the concepts Williams was preaching, and playing some fine basketball down the stretch. If this team, with far more talent, can do the same thing they won’t get outplayed by a team of Michigan State’s caliber come March.