Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast: Previewing UCLA

USC Trojans On SI

Transcript

00:00When it comes to your green and white and your Michigan State Spartans, the place to

00:18be is Michigan State Spartans on SI with Aiden Champion.

00:23Joining Aiden today is me, Brian Anthony Davis, and it is the Michigan State Spartans Insider

00:29Podcast, courtesy of the Fans First Sports Network and Michigan State Spartans on SI.

00:35Aiden, how are you, my friend?

00:37Doing great.

00:38Having a great start to the week.

00:40How about yourself, Brian?

00:42Absolutely.

00:43And I can't wait to see how the Spartans erase the only bad part of my weekend when they

00:50lost 70-64 to USC out West to snap that 13-game winning streak, but they've got an opportunity

01:00with a very good UCLA team, Aiden.

01:04Yep.

01:05Unfamiliar territory, at least for a couple months for Michigan State.

01:12Hadn't suffered a loss since late November when they fell to Memphis in the Miami Invitational,

01:18but like you said, now they've got a great opportunity here, the second and last game

01:24of their West Coast trip with UCLA.

01:28UCLA, a hot team right now, won five straight and during that streak have defeated two ranked

01:37teams.

01:40They're looking as good as they were to start the year.

01:46They hit a rough patch there where they lost four straight and then they really have turned

01:52things around since.

01:56It's going to be kind of two very different situations for each team as they go up against

02:05one another.

02:06You've got one coming off a very large win streak, feeling high and mighty, top of the

02:11Big Ten still are, running into a team that's kind of feeling that right now, but they've

02:22experienced what consecutive losses can look like and how it can impact your season when

02:32those start building up, whereas Michigan State, this is, like I said, something they're

02:37not so familiar with.

02:41What they're trying to do is avoid a consecutive loss because they could fall into that same

02:48hole that UCLA did.

02:50Fortunately for UCLA, they were able to bounce back at a fitting time for Michigan State

02:59if they were to fall into, say, a four game losing stretch.

03:04It's not exactly the best time for it to be happening.

03:07It's February now.

03:08You've got to be playing your best basketball.

03:13It is very interesting, just kind of the two different circumstances these teams are playing

03:20under, but looking at them, UCLA, great defensive team, number one defense in the Big Ten, holding

03:28opponents to 64.5 points per game, going to be tough for the Spartans, who we're just

03:38tested defensively on Saturday, held to 64 points, second lowest total on the year.

03:49Another team that's not so great in the rebounding category, but we just saw that even though

03:57Michigan State out-rebounded USC by one, it felt like USC kind of controlled the boards

04:04for the most part in that game, and they're, I think they're the worst team in the league

04:11in the department.

04:12If not, they're at, they're towards the bottom.

04:16Yeah, they're at the very bottom, so, you know, that doesn't matter.

04:23So still, got to win the battle of the boards, as I always say.

04:31Got to be wary of this defense, because best in the Big Ten.

04:35Yeah, they are a very tough defense.

04:39Only two players for the Spartans were over, well, were over 10 points in this game.

04:47That was Jaden Akins and Jeremy Fierce.

04:50So you're looking at a team also that needs to be able to control UCLA offensively and

04:57defensively as well.

04:59And when you look at the fact that they gave up 19 points to Desmond Claude with USC, who's

05:05the score that you worry about the most on UCLA?

05:09Well, UCLA in this regard, they're a lot like Michigan State, where they're a very deep

05:15team.

05:19You know, number one who jumps out is Tyra Bilodeau, but their depth was very much evident,

05:27and the two games were, you know, their game against Washington, he went down early with

05:35an ankle injury, missed the rest of the game.

05:39And they still won without him.

05:42Some might say they, I mean, they should have, Washington, one of the worst teams in the

05:46conference.

05:47But then they turn around, beat their rivals, USC, who just beat Michigan State, at their

05:54place without Bilodeau.

05:56So, you know, they can win without their best player.

06:01The next you look at is Eric Daly Jr., who's, you know, been great this season, sophomore

06:12and is really coming to his own.

06:15This was a team with six transfers, and by all the newness, they've been able to gel,

06:23they've been able to succeed.

06:27Like I said earlier, they had a rough patch, but those are two bigs you got to watch out

06:34for.

06:36You got to, that's where rebounding will come into play, you got to be the more aggressive

06:39team down low, more aggressive team overall, really.

06:45And, you know, they got great guards, too, Dylan Andrews, and you got Sebastian Mack,

06:52and, you know, throw Kobe Johnson in there, and, you know, and then back down low, you

07:02got Ade Mara, who's, you know, seven-footer coming off the bench.

07:09So there's a lot of depth to this team, so there's a lot of weapons you got to watch

07:13out for.

07:14But, yeah, mainly I would say Tyler Bilodeau, because, you know, he's a stretch four, I

07:21mean, stretch five, really, who can shoot, who can dominate you down low, and that's

07:27not something Michigan State's seen a whole lot this season.

07:30They've had to deal with a lot of rough guards, not so much bigs yet, so.

07:36All right, so you've got a UCLA team here, Aiden, that was once the number 15 team in

07:44the entire nation, and now you look at a team that is probably going to be ranked once again

07:50after these five straight victories and seemingly finding themselves.

07:54If you're Tom Izzo and you are the Michigan State Spartans, what are you looking to do

08:02just on your side and looking at the other team as nameless gray faces?

08:07What are you trying to do?

08:08Is it just basically getting back to your game, getting back to Spartan basics?

08:14Yep, and that's part of it, but, you know, and this is tough because it's not exactly

08:22something you can just fix overnight, but shooting has got to improve.

08:27And it's, you know, we're in February now and it's a little too late to be saying that,

08:32but to be the worst three-point shooting team in the conference, I mean, that's going to

08:37be tough if you want to be finished as the top dogs and ultimately make a deep run in

08:42the tourney.

08:43And, you know, that's where USC was able to really expose Michigan State, forcing them

08:51to shoot outside the paint.

08:52So, you know, if you're Tom Izzo, again, that's not exactly something you can coach,

09:01but I guess in order to keep a team positive when they're in a, when, you know, they're

09:13having bad shooting performances is to find other ways to contribute.

09:19And you know, this team has been able to do that, whether it's defensively or grabbing

09:24boards either defensively or offensively.

09:30And yeah, so, you know, going into this game, clean up the turnovers because they had 13

09:36against USC, which was a huge part of the loss, I believe they're, I think they're top

09:46five, yeah, top five in the conference in turnovers, the fourth, averaging 12 a game,

09:56tied for third.

09:59So, you know, you're going to have to fix the things that you've been able to get away

10:04with because they're all going to start catching up to you now.

10:07And we saw that against USC.

10:09All right.

10:10So this is something that we are going to keep an eye on.

10:13And for all of your Michigan State needs, you have to keep it right here at Michigan

10:17State Spartans on SI, and also on the Fans First Sports Network, the Michigan State Spartans

10:24Insider Podcast.

10:26We're Aiden Champion.

10:27I am Brian Anthony Davis.

10:29Stay with us here.

10:30Once again, after the game, you are going to have interviews.

10:34You are going to have a complete recap with Aiden Champion as well, and everything Spartans.

10:40So once again, we appreciate it.

10:42And thanks for listening.

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