Michigan State men's basketball needs late-season turnaround to make the NCAA Tournament

"It's just such a shame for me," Izzo told reporters after the game. "The crowd was unbelievable. It's almost like these players, sometimes, they expect everybody to give to them, they gotta give something back to the crowd, and we didn't do that."

"I didn't, they didn't, and that was disappointing."

For Michigan State, the loss certainly is a shame. The Spartans (17-11, 9-8 in the Big Ten) fell to sixth place in the conference standings, 1.5 games out of fourth place — the threshold needed to ensure a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament.

Win out, and Michigan State still has a chance to earn a top-four seed in Indianapolis. But with a road date with No. 3 Purdue looming on Saturday, along with matchups against Northwestern and at Indiana, the Spartans' margin for error is slimmer than it was had they closed the deal against the Buckeyes.

Not only is it slimmer with regards to seeding for the conference tournament, it's also slimmer with regards to Michigan State's NCAA Tournament hopes. As of Monday morning, CBS Sports has the Spartans as a No. 9 seed, a reasonable position given their metrics (20th at KenPom, 18th at Bart Torvik, 24th in the NET Rankings and 42nd in KPI) and recent struggles — Michigan State has lost three of six, with all three losses coming to unranked opponents (Ohio State on Sunday, Iowa at home last Tuesday and Minnesota on the road on Feb. 6).

The Spartans don't have any legitimately awful blemishes on their schedule. Even their opening-night home defeat to James Madison (26-3, 13-3 in the Sun Belt) qualifies as a Quadrant 2 loss.

But Michigan State, with under two weeks to go in the regular season, simply doesn't boast enough solid wins to be a tournament lock. Across the first two quadrants, the Spartans are 8-11, and their lone Big Ten road wins have come against Maryland, Michigan and Penn State — all three of which are below .500 in conference play.

Michigan State clearly has some work to do. There would be no shame in losing at Purdue, but the Spartans would be best served if they finished the regular season 2-1, then made a mini-run in the Big Ten Tournament.

Izzo will try his best to help them do that. Given his track record, it's worth giving his team a shot.

"I'm just gonna have to look at the film and see," he said. "Some of the things we did I just thought were mind-boggling to me. It's under my tutelage, so I gotta figure it out."