Michigan State basketball is nation’s best team at holding leads

Per Evan Miyakawa on Twitter, Michigan State is No. 1 in the country at stopping opposing teams from going on scoring runs. This, in short, means that once the Spartans are leading, they don’t often give up that lead. One may not think much of this statistic initially, but it’s extremely important for a team’s success.

To win big games, a team has to be able to clamp down on defense. A contender can’t allow its opponent to get hot and stay hot, especially when said opponent is also a highly-ranked team. We’ve seen it happen to everyone — a team appears to have the contest in hand until the other group goes on a streak and incredulous fans watch the game slip away. It’s infuriating to watch, and if a team can’t stop a run, things can go south very, very quickly. Momentum can swing essentially instantaneously in a college basketball game, and being able to prevent opposing teams from cashing in on that is huge. Michigan State is very good at slowing down its competition and not allowing large scoring runs, and that translates to wins.

No one is going to pretend that this team has been perfect so far, but this is an extremely promising stat.

That’s the trademark suffocating defense of a Tom Izzo-coached team at work.