No. 10 Michigan State is sliding down the standings and now attempts to escape from a mini-funk when it meets UCLA on Tuesday night in Big Ten play at East Lansing, Mich.
The Spartans have lost three of their past four games, including two road setbacks against unranked teams while falling into a tie for fifth in the conference race.
Michigan State (20-5, 10-4) was hammered 92-71 by host Wisconsin on Friday. The contest represented the club’s biggest margin of defeat this season.
“That was a good, old-fashioned ass-kicking, to be honest with you,” Spartans coach Tom Izzo said.
Michigan State has struggled over its past five games, including an escape to force overtime before winning at Rutgers on Jan. 27. and a dreadful showing in a loss at Minnesota on Feb. 4. The Spartans recovered with an impressive 85-82 home overtime win against then-No. 5 Illinois before the wire-to-wire loss against the Badgers.
“We’ll get better,” Izzo said. “It’s one game. Yeah, there’s some things you can look at for why you didn’t do this and why you didn’t do that. I also know how we played in most of the games this year.
“The one thing I will say about us: our margin for error is not high.”
The Spartans shot just 29.6% (8 of 27) from 3-point range while the Badgers connected on 42.9% (15 of 35) from long range. The Wisconsin backcourt of Nick Boyd (29) and John Blackwell (24) combined for 53 points.
Coen Carr scored 19 points to pace Michigan State. Jeremy Fears had 14 points and 12 assists for his eighth double-double of the season but made just 3 of 12 shots. Jaxon Kohler had just five points on 2-of-6 shooting.
Fears leads the Spartans with averages of 15.1 points and 9.2 assists. Kohler puts up 12.5 points and a team-best 9.3 rebounds and Carr averages 11.7 points.
UCLA (17-8, 9-5) resides in seventh in the Big Ten and has won seven of its past 10 games.
However, the Bruins were drubbed by Michigan 86-56 on Saturday in the first leg of the two-game trip. UCLA was outscored 46-18 in the second half when its defense evaporated.
“We were awful in the second half — we were God-awful,” Bruins coach Mick Cronin said. “We missed eight unguarded threes. If you are going to come in here, you’ve got to score. We have some guys who won’t pass the ball and that is frustrating.
“That’s the worst second-half defensive field goal percentage of my career, in 23 years. They were 18 for 23, shot (78.3) percent, the worst of my career, and I don’t have to look it up — I can promise you that. It’s not like I forgot how to coach defense.”
Trent Perry scored 14 points to pace the Bruins, while Tyler Bilodeau and Donovan Dent each added 10 points.
Skyy Clark returned from a 10-game absence due to a hamstring injury and scored eight points in 16 minutes. Clark’s average is 13.1 points in 15 games.
Tyler Bilodeau (17.9) leads UCLA in scoring and is tied with Eric Dailey Jr. (5.6) for the rebounding lead. Donovan Dent averages 13.5 points and a team-leading 7.0 assists.
The eventual increase of minutes for Clark will cause reduced action for some players but Perry (12.7 ppg) isn’t concerned.
“I just want to be a part of winning,” Perry said. “I just want to do whatever it takes to win. Like, I can’t have us being 30-pieced in an away game, you know?”
The Bruins recorded a 63-61 home win over Michigan State last season when Dailey drove for the game-winning basket with 7.5 seconds left. UCLA is 8-4 all-time against the Spartans.
