Jan. 16, 2002
Purdue-Michigan State Box Score in PDF Format
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By LARRY LAGE
AP Sports Writer
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Tom Izzo criticized the Michigan State Spartans, publicly and privately. And they responded.
Kelvin Torbert scored a career-high 18 points and the Spartans beat Purdue 65-56 Wednesday night, in their first game as an unranked team in four years.
"Give our guys some credit because they met the challenge," Izzo said.
The Spartans (10-7, 1-3 Big Ten) lost to Indiana and Wisconsin last week, which snapped the nation's longest home winning streak at 53 games and ended their stay in The Associated Press poll at 71 weeks. They avoided their worst Big Ten start since 1980 and ended a four-game losing skid.
"It felt good," said Michigan State's Marcus Taylor, who scored 10 points. "We played a lot tougher and more aggressive than we have in the past, that made the difference."
Willie Dean led Purdue (9-10, 1-4) with 18 points. The Boilermakers are off to their poorest conference start since going 1-5 in 1966, 15 seasons before Gene Keady became head coach.
"Until we learn how to guard people, we're not going to win," Keady said. "Playing with energy, playing with enthusiasm and playing with emotion, we just don't do it."
How does Keady feel about that, when such qualities have been staples of his program?
"It's been a shock to all of us," Keady said. "Believe it or not, we were talking in October about going to the Final Four. It's one of those years where the predictors were finally right, it took them 22 years. They predicted we may be last and it's finally going to happen, it looks like.
"I hope it doesn't, don't want it to, we're going to go home and fight like heck to get our guys to play better defense."
The Spartans led from the 11:24 mark of the first half, but didn't put the Boilermakers away until late in the second half.
Michigan State scored 10 straight points - while holding Purdue scoreless for five minutes - to take a 56-43 lead with 4:30 left.
Chris Hill, one of three freshmen in the starting lineup, scored 14 points for the Spartans.
"There were some encouraging things," Izzo said. "But by no means are we ready to start challenging for anything."
Torbert, one of the top high school players in the country last season, finally played up to his potential. He scored from long range, on mid-range shots and layups.
"You always are waiting for what they call breakout games," Torbert said.
After several ties and lead changes, Michigan State built an 11-point lead with 1:18 left in the first half
Purdue's Maynard Lewis made consecutive 3-pointers in the final minute - after the Boilermakers missed their first eight 3-pointers - to pull within 28-23 at halftime.
That prompted Izzo to scream at his players about their defense as he walked into the locker room, despite holding Purdue to 28.6 percent shooting in the first half.
"That ranked up with some of his speeches from last year," Taylor said.
Torbert, who scored 11 points in the first half, opened the second half with a 3-pointer and a layup to pass his career high of 15 and give Michigan State a 33-23 lead.
"I thought Kelvin met the challenge early," Izzo said. "Then I thought he slacked off a bit, before really meeting the challenge in the second half."
Deane, who had two points at halftime, scored eight straight points to cut Purdue's deficit to 35-34 with 14:35 left, but the Boilermakers would never tie it.