WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – Of all his highlight-reel plays, even the ones that drew oohs from the hostile Mackey Arena crowd, Coen Carr’s final moments delivered something Michigan State basketball spent more than a decade longing for.
A win at Purdue.
Finally.
Carr switched to guarding reigning Big Ten player of the year Braden Smith on an inbound play with 3.4 seconds remaining Thursday, Feb. 27. He forced the Purdue point guard far away from the basket, then elevated to challenge a deep 3-point attempt that smacked off the backboard and rim. And as the ball floated back off the rim, through the air, and the fractions of a second disappeared in slow-motion, Carr rose up one more time and snatched the rebound.
Time ran out. The 13th-ranked Spartans celebrated their 76-74 victory over the eighth-ranked Boilermakers.
His fifth and final second-half rebound capped what Carr hopes will be more wins like this.
“It’s up to us to make it a building block,” said the junior forward, whose 11 points included three ooh-inciting dunks.
Though not officially mathematically eliminated from a share of the Big Ten regular-season title – No. 3 Michigan has it virtually locked up, needing just one more win to clinch it outright – the Spartans (23-5, 13-4 Big Ten) delivered one of their most comprehensive and deepest performances to date, two days before the calendar flips to March.
And yet, February it was, despite the March Madness atmosphere in Mackey Arena, where MSU snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Boilermakers (22-6, 12-5) in winning for the first time since Feb. 20, 2014.
“This one is huge, especially on the road,” said senior captain Carson Cooper, who had 15 points and six rebounds. “Historically this year, we hadn’t been great on the road and kind of had some nasty wins, some bad losses. … There were multiple times in that game we were down by a couple possessions and could’ve gotten away from each other or gotten on each other.
“But we stuck together. At this point of the season, you gotta continue to get better.”
Does MSU coach Tom Izzo feel like this makes his team ready for the postseason with three games left?
“No,” he said. “I love my team. The one thing I said to them at this pregame thing is they practice so hard every day, and I really appreciate that. But it’s like studying for a test, and you study your butt off. And then you go to the test, and you don’t take it very well.
“That’s what I hope this jump-starts us now. … It’s hard to win here. I think we took a big step.”
Izzo admitted feeling somewhat curmudgeonly while nitpicking MSU’s flaws afterward, the never-satisfied 31st-year Hall of Fame coach constantly trying to find the glass half-empty when things are going well or looking for hidden positives when they aren’t. But he promised to shed that at least for a few hours before turning his attention to the Spartans' return trip to Indiana to face the Hoosiers on Sunday (3:45 p.m., CBS).
“Now we go home, get a quick rest, a quick turnaround, and then go to Indiana,” Izzo said. “But we’re not gonna worry about Indiana on the flight home. When I get home, I’ll worry about them. We’re gonna try to enjoy this.”
Izzo shortened his rotation to eight players, seven of whom scored at least eight points. Cooper served as the surprising focal point on offense against the big Purdue front line, and he proved a defensive thorn in the sides of Boilermakers post players all night. Kur Teng came off the bench and hit three 3-pointers en route to 13 points. Jeremy Fears Jr. continued to orchestrate everything, penetrating deep into the paint for layups and pushing the pace in transition.
MSU committed just six turnovers. And while they forced Purdue into only nine, the Spartans turned those into 19 points. They also had an 8-0 second-half advantage in fastbreak points.
“We kind of looked in the mirror,” said Fears, who had 12 points and six assists. “And just understand how can we be better as a team, be better as a player, be better as a group. I think today, we built it and we bonded. Everybody had a big impact today.”
Jordan Scott continued to be a do-it-all stabilizing force, scoring nine points and using his length to pester Smith into 4-for-10 shooting and 12 points with 10 assists. Fellow freshman Cam Ward joined Cooper and Jaxon Kohler on the block to neutralize Purdue big man Oscar Cluff, who had eight points in the first four minutes as the Boilers raced out to an early seven-point lead but managed just one basket after that – and none in the second half – to finish with 10 points.
“Everything we did was in the scout,” Ward said. “We maybe changed different coverages, changed a few things. But the fact that we adjusted on the fly is why we won the game. We were able to do all these things.”
Even Kohler, who scored eight points on 3-for-10 shooting, provided a pivotal moment with his post-move bucket with 1:54 to play that proved to be MSU’s last – and winning – points.
“They got a lot of talent and a lot of physicality at every position,” Kohler said. “It was a hard-fought game. And going into this game, that was the biggest key. It was gonna come down to heart and who’s got the fight and who’s ready to play, who’s ready to battle. That’s what it really came down to.”
With the Wolverines all but locking up the top spot, this is one of those rare times in the past 20 years in which both MSU and Purdue know a Big Ten title is out of their reach in the final weeks. However, Boilermakers coach Matt Painter also knows the importance of both these late-season wins for seeding in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament that begins March 10 in Chicago – and for momentum heading into one-and-done time.
“You get in the NCAA Tournament, and to get to a Final Four, you’re gonna run into some heavyweights,” Painter said. “You’re gonna run into Houston, you’re gonna run into Arizona, you’re gonna run into Duke. You’re gonna run into the heavyweights, right? The 1-seeds, the 2-seeds, whatever. Well, we’re both trying to be that. …
“Both of us are in good positions. We’d just like to be in better positions and still compete.”
That's still a ways off on the basketball clock, even if Selection Sunday – March 15 – is only a little more than two weeks away. For the Spartans, they close out the regular season with three teams they’ve already played, starting with the Indiana team they beat Jan. 13. On Thursday, MSU hosts Rutgers, which it beat in overtime on the road on Jan. 27. It wraps up with a revenge matchup at U-M, which won the first meeting on Jan. 30 in East Lansing.
Two more road games remain after a Thursday night showcase that Izzo said he felt was MSU’s “best in a couple years.”
“I did think we played with a different mentality that we haven't been playing with as much lately,” he said. “So hopefully that can catapult us.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball 'bonded' for 'building block' win at Purdue