No Rally, No Rescue: Michigan State Routed by Wisconsin in Kohl Center Letdown
MADISON, Wis. - Michigan State’s season has been defined by comebacks. They’ve clawed their way out of double-digit holes, turned near-collapses into overtime thrillers, and shown flashes of resilience that made you believe they could weather just about any storm.
But Friday night in Madison? There was no rally.
No late-game heroics. Just a 92-71 drubbing at the hands of a Wisconsin team that came out swinging and never let up.
Tom Izzo didn’t sugarcoat it afterward. “A good, old-fashioned ass-kicking,” he called it. And honestly, that might’ve been putting it mildly.
From the opening tip, the Badgers blitzed Michigan State with a barrage of 3-pointers, ball movement, and hustle plays that set the tone early and kept the Spartans reeling. It wasn’t just the scoreboard that told the story - it was the body language. The Spartans looked stuck in quicksand while Wisconsin danced around the perimeter and rained down triples like it was a shootaround.
The numbers back it up: Wisconsin hit 15 threes from six different players, starting 5-for-5 from deep and never cooling off. Andrew Rohde hit two from long range before most fans had even settled into their seats. And while the guards led the charge, even 6-foot-10 Austin Rapp got in on the action.
MSU, meanwhile, couldn’t find an answer - not defensively, not emotionally, not tactically. The Spartans got within nine points a couple of times in the first half, thanks to a flurry of threes from Jeremy Fears Jr. and Jordan Scott.
Fears added three free throws after being fouled on a triple. But just when it looked like they might claw their way back, a missed box-out on a free throw - the kind of mistake that drives Izzo up the wall - led to more Wisconsin points and another momentum swing.
From there, it was a runaway. Michigan State trailed by double digits for the final 18-plus minutes.
The lead ballooned to as much as 24. And as the Badgers kept pouring it on, the Spartans’ energy faded.
Even when they scored, there was no spark, no urgency - just a team going through the motions.
“I did to start [the second half], but no, I didn’t [see the fight], as it went on,” Izzo said.
That’s not the kind of quote you want to hear in February - not with March looming, and not from a coach who’s built his legacy on toughness and resilience.
Defensive breakdowns were everywhere. MSU’s perimeter defense never found its footing, and their ball-screen coverages left shooters too much space. Senior forward Jaxon Kohler summed it up bluntly: “Every 3 was either wide-open or a tough contest - and it went in.”
And when Wisconsin wasn’t lighting it up from deep, they were attacking the rim. With all five Badgers on the floor capable of stretching the defense, help rotations were late or nonexistent. The Spartans were caught in no-man’s land all night.
“We just weren’t able to get a defensive stop and a spark,” Kohler added.
That’s been the difference in games past - a key stop here, a momentum play there - the kind of moments that flip the switch. But Friday, there was no switch to flip.
This was the fifth straight game Michigan State went into halftime trailing. And while they’ve made a habit of digging themselves out of early holes, there’s only so many times you can play with fire before you get burned.
“Every shot they needed to make, they made,” said junior forward Coen Carr. “We can’t keep getting down like that in the beginning of the game, in the first half. When it’s getting close to March Madness time, we can’t afford to do that.”
That’s the reality MSU faces now. At 10-4 in Big Ten play, their hopes of repeating as conference champions are on shaky ground. Losses like this - especially on the road, in a game they knew was pivotal - sting a little more in mid-February.
“We needed to get this one,” Fears said. “Dropping this one kind of hurts us, but at the same time, it’s over now.
There’s nothing we can go back and do. We gotta move forward, find out what we didn’t do right, and then how we can be better going forward.”
That next step starts now. Because if the Spartans want to make noise in March, they’ll need more than just the ability to come back - they’ll need the discipline to avoid falling behind in the first place.