Stealing from my post on another board:
This game reminded me of some of the early big wins this year because there is simply no give up in this team. Plenty of good squads see MSU make that push and get overtaken. This team never did. They matched buckets, they eventually made a few plays to pull away. This isn't to say they have that "clutch" magic, but man, they do not back down at all.
And they needed that because woo boy did they do a lot of stuff you can't on the road. Just a litany of shitty offensive outcomes, missed open looks with some bad defensive miscues mixed in. Seven turnovers is great, but man did some look ugly. Not to mention the free throws.
It's also interesting to note that MSU has a ton of talent, but man, they are missing 1-2 motherfuckers. Like, lots of guys can be super on any night, but not a lot of guys are usually super. When your best player is a power wing who specializes in spot up 3s, that's not ideal.
But after that, if UW just avoids any slip ups, it very likely goes into that second-to-last game vs Purdue at home with a chance to either functionally or actually clinch a conference title.
Also, question for
@ELA : Is Houser a good post defender? I was under the impression he was a bad defender, but UW didn't try to punish him inside when he was at center.