MADISON, WI – Tom Izzo did not mince words.
That 92-71 thrashing No. 10 Michigan State basketball suffered at the hands of Wisconsin on Friday, Feb. 13?
The job the Badgers did from outside and inside to dominate from start to finish?
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The toughness they showed that the Spartans just couldn’t summon, even after showing the fortitude to come back from big deficits in the past month?
MSU’s coach simply called it “a good, old-fashioned ass-kicking.”
“Listen. We’ve played everybody good. Everybody. From Duke to Michigan, we played everybody good,” he said after the Spartans’ third loss in four games. “Tonight, we got beat by a team that I think is a little better than us. But we got beat by a team that played a lot better than us. … They outplayed us in every aspect of the game.”
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo argues a call during the first half of their game against Wisconsin Friday, February 13, 2026 at the Kohler Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
There were no comebacks this time, not like the ones the Spartans had in wins vs. Rutgers (on the road) and No. 7 Illinois (at home) and in losses to No. 2 Michigan (at home) and Minnesota (on the road). This was, however, a fifth straight game in which MSU (20-5, 10-4 Big Ten) found itself trailing by double digits. That, after playing the first 20 games of the regular season without trailing, at any point, by more than nine.
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The Spartans might have made a comeback, but every time they chipped into the Wisconsin lead that reached 18 in the first half, the Badgers either drilled a 3-pointer – getting the sellout Kohl Center crowd to erupt – or they attacked MSU in the post for a demoralizing bucket.
“Credit to them. They made us pay on everything,” said point guard Jeremy Fears Jr., who had 14 points and 12 assists but made just three of 12 shots. “Messed up coverages. Offensive rebounds. Loose balls. They got an and-1, they got a foul. We didn’t do our parts as players. The coaches gave us the answers, we didn’t come out and do what we needed to do.”
An example: After falling behind by double digits not even 10 minutes in, Fears hit a 3-pointer and assisted on back-to-back Jordan Scott 3-pointers in transition for a 9-0 run, halving Wisconsin’s lead with 4:54 to play before halftime. Badgers coach Greg Gard called timeout, and soon after, reserve guard Jack Janicki banked in a 3 to stop it.
Fears was fouled shooting another 3 moments later and made all three free throws, But Wisconsin 7-footer Nolan Winter drove down the right side of the lane around Cam Ward for a layup, drawing Carson Cooper’s second foul after Winter already had let go.
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Following the media timeout, Winter missed the ensuing free throw. But MSU guard Kur Teng failed to seal him on the box-out, and Winter angled around him for the rebound. Teng then drifted down the lane and fouled Winter again to put him back to the line. Winter made one of two to make it a 12-point game, and the Spartans failed to get within single digits again the rest of the way.
“That’s illegal at Michigan State, and so that kind might get put in jail for that,” Izzo said without naming Teng, citing how much he focuses on free throw box-outs as a coach. “Because that is unexcusable. … They gave us a chance by missing a couple of free throws and got the rebounds on it. I don’t know if we just assumed it was going in, but that kind of told the story of the night for me, to be honest with you.”
John Blackwell of the Wisconsin Badgers grapples for a loose ball with Kur Teng of the Michigan State Spartans during the second half at Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026.
MSU never led. The only other time that has happened this season was in the 76-73 loss at Minnesota on Feb. 4. The Spartans trailed No. 6 Duke by six on Dec. 6 and No. 8 Nebraska by nine on Jan. 2 in those losses, which were by a combined eight points. The Spartans rallied from 16 down to within two against the Gophers after coming back from 18 down in the first half to take a second-half lead before eventually falling in their Jan. 30 home loss to U-M, 83-71.
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Wisconsin (18-7, 10-4) handed MSU its first loss by 20 or more points since Feb. 22, 2022, at Iowa. The 91 points from the Badgers were the most by an MSU Big Ten opponent since the Hawkeyes’ miracle comeback to beat the Spartans in overtime, 112-106, on Feb. 25, 2023.
Junior forward Coen Carr, who led MSU with 19 points, said he could not recall a game in his three years when the Spartans got this outmanned, outworked and overwhelmed.
“Even my freshman year, when we lost 15 games, I don’t think we had a loss this bad. Maybe North Carolina in the (2024 NCAA) Tournament had that kind of vibe,” Carr said. “But I think this definitely, by far, the worst. I feel like, as a team, the way we played on defense made it even worse.”
Nick Boyd and John Blackwell combined for 53 points for Wisconsin while going 9-for-16 from 3-point range. Wisconsin shot 48.4% overall and hit 15 of 35 from behind the arc. The Spartans were outscored in the paint, 28-14, and they allowed 19 second-chance points on the Badgers’ 11 offensive rebounds. (The two teams were even on the boards, 38-38.)
Wisconsin guard Nick Boyd (2) hits a three-point basket during the second half of their game Friday, February 13, 2026 at the Kohler Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Wisconsin beat 10th ranked Michigan State 92-71.
Jaxon Kohler went scoreless in the first half and finished with just five points on 2-for-6 shooting, and he had just one of his seven rebounds in the second half. Cooper was 3-for-6 for six points with eight rebounds but was limited all game by foul trouble. MSU made just one of 7 layups and was 5-for-18 on 2-point attempts in the first half.
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“In the post, they had an aggressive double-team, and we weren’t prepared for that,” Kohler said. “And I take full blame for that. I was trying to be better at getting the ball out of the post, but I didn’t do a good enough job. I let everybody down.”
With six games remaining in the regular season, the Spartans’ hope of repeating as Big Ten champs are all but gone and certainly out of their control as they sit three games back of conference leader Michigan. MSU hosts UCLA (which first visits U-M on Saturday) at Breslin Center on Tuesday (8:30 p.m., Peacock). That starts a two-game homestand, with the Spartans knowing they need to get right in a hurry before the calendar flips to March.
“We gotta do some soul-searching, man,” Carr said. “Whatever we’re doing now as a team – in the locker room, in pregame, in practice – whatever we’re doing is not working. So we gotta figure something out.
“I think we gotta get back to our principles and who we are as a school. I feel like we’ve gotten away from that. Just play tough. No more thinking, no more indecision. Just everybody coming out there playing balls to the wall.”
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Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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Next up: Bruins
Matchup: No. 10 Michigan State (20-5, 10-4 Big Ten) vs. UCLA (17-7, 9-4 entering Saturday’s late game).
Tipoff: 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17; Breslin Center, East Lansing.
TV/radio: Peacock (online only); WJR-AM (760).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball ‘soul-searching’ after Wisconsin blowout
