MSU Women’s Basketball: Spartans Facing a Big Ten Gauntlet
- Tobias Webb
- 12 hours ago
- 5 min read
MSU Women’s Basketball has been dealt some recent adversity in Big Ten games, and are 2 and 2 in their last four outings, as they’ve hit the extremely tough latter part of conference play. Half of their remaining opponents are ranked in the top 25; Big Ten basketball is as good as it’s ever been. The Spartans’ recent losses came against the 8th ranked Michigan Wolverines in overtime at the Breslin Center, and a tough away game against the 10th ranked Iowa Hawkeyes. The recent wins were against unranked Big Ten Schools, a USC team that is middling without Juju Watkins, and the 11-10 Purdue Boilermakers that are now fighting to be one of the last Big Ten teams invited to March Madness.
Despite the losses MSU still ranks 12 in the AP poll, and 8th in the NET, which is the March Madness selection committee’s primary ranking list, with data driven efficiency metrics.
Physical play is a huge part of Robyn Fralick’s game plan, and this team’s identity. Attacking the paint for short range shots is how they have maintained a high field goal percentage, nearly 50%, ranking us 8th in the country at that stat. On defense our tough play has led to a turnover margin of +9.5 per game, which also ranks 8th in the country.
On the other hand, we force defenses to play us physically in turn, and we rely on referees to call the fouls that happen when opponents get sloppy. For the most part this has worked in the Spartan’s favor, as they are 3rd in the Big Ten for free throw attempts per game. At Iowa, however, the home court advantage had the refs favoring the Hawkeyes’ star, Hannah Stuelke, who got away with some very questionable play and no whistle. In one instance Inés Sotelo was powering through a pair of defenders and Stuelke clearly slapped Sotelo’s arm as she started her layup, but it would have put Stuelke in foul trouble, and the refs let play continue. Coach Fralick, her team, and the rest of Spartan Nation were furious with the no call, especially as refs favored Stuelke with a quick whistle on the other end, which put VanSlooten in early foul trouble, but all are ultimately powerless against bad Big Ten referees.
Other mistakes were made; MSU allowed a long armed Iowa squad to disrupt the passing lanes and had a rare game where turnovers outnumbered assists. Shot selection was also an issue largely because the Spartans were not passing effectively. Despite all the problems with this game MSU had it within reach in the last few minutes, and only lost by 7. It’s likely that Fralick and her squad would welcome a rematch on neutral ground in the Big Ten tournament, or March Madness.
The Michigan game at the Breslin Center was the most hard fought, evenly matched game we’ve seen the Spartans play all season. 40 minutes was not enough time to determine a winner as Sotelo’s steal for a half court shot to win in the last second just barely rimmed out and sent the game to overtime.
A lot of things went right for the Spartans but just enough went wrong to tip the scales in Michigan’s favor. Most notably, the Wolverines were successfully trapping in full court defense and forcing risky passes, resulting in 7 turnovers from MSU’s young point guard Kennedy Blair. The Spartans looked a bit frantic in the first half trying to get the ball up the court, and the usually high turnover margin, that is a trademark of Spartan basketball under coach Fralick, was mitigated by their own misfires.
Michigan did take a few punches when the Spartans beat the full court press. Jalyn Brown was the beneficiary of several 1v1s and clean 3-point looks when the Spartans got the ball ahead of the defense. She managed to score 17 in the first half on 7 of 8 shooting.
The Wolverines’ star players Olivia Olson and Mila Holloway got the better of the Spartans this game scoring 49 points together. Olson is a great player and scored 23 despite strong defense from a committee of Spartans, primarily Shumate, Sotelo, and VanSlooten, all of whom played as tight of defense as you could hope for, but Olson would not be denied. On top of her regular attack from near the basket, she hit a backbreaking 4 of 7 from deep as a 30 percent 3-pointer shooter on the season. Holloway got way too many clean looks in the paint to score her game leading 26 points, taking advantage of switches and screens to speed her way to the rack.
Despite the turnover issues Kennedy Blair was able scor 21 and grab 10 rebounds, for her fifth double-double of the season. This team will go as far as Blair can take them.
On the brighter side of things, MSU has taken home a pair of recent wins, which means a lot in the Big Ten where no game is a given. The USC game was close throughout, and when the Spartans went on an 8 point run to lead by 12 with five minutes remaining, the Trojans had their own 10 point run to bring the game down to the wire. Ultimately, our team leading guards, Kennedy Blair and Rashunda Jones, powered into the paint for clutch layups and trips to the charity stripe to overpower USCs comeback attempt.
The Spartans struggled early in that game with shot selection, and they will need to reduce the number of wild shots going in to March Madness. Passing is a strength of this team and some players need to work on their patience to find better shots if they expect a deep run in the tournament.
The win at Purdue felt like a return to form as four Spartans scored over 10 points, Shumate hit 3 of 4 from deep, and over half of the Spartans buckets came from assisting passes. The defensive game plan came together and MSU regularly turned over the Boilermakers with help defense coming from the backside for a clean poke when Purdue tried to pass the ball in to their bigs. The 21 point victory was our highest margin so far in Big Ten play.
The Spartans next face Maryland at home. The Terrapins have struggled lately, losing 4 games in a row, two of them in overtime. They are still ranked 22nd as losses are almost guaranteed in this brutal Big Ten conference, where only UCLA has remained perfect.
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