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 With Valentine sitting out his fourth straight game after undergoing
arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, No. 5 Michigan State opened
up a 25-point halftime lead en route to a 79-54 victory over
Illinois on Thursday night at Breslin Center.
Valentine, a National Player of the Year candidate averaging 18.5
points, 8.3 rebounds and 7.1 assists, returned to practice and Izzo
had to resist the temptation to play him.
"He's just not quite there yet," Izzo said.
The Spartans (15-1, 2-1 Big Ten) have gone 3-1 without the senior
guard and on Thursday, they enjoyed one of their easiest wins of the
season. They shot 53.2 percent from the field while holding the
Fighting Illini to 29.8 percent from the field. They out-rebounded
the Illini 46-27 and outscored them 50-20 in the paint.
"I feel like everybody played well," said shooting guard Bryn
Forbes, who scored a game-high 17 points. "A lot of people got to
play and lot of people got to show what they can do. It was just
nice to see that with Denzel out, we were able to get a little more
from everybody."
Izzo knows they're much better with Valentine in the lineup. There's
a good chance he'll be ready by Sunday, when Michigan State plays at
Penn State.
"It might help our players and it might help our team in the long
run but it sure ain't helping me," Izzo said of Valentine's absence.
"He's a special player. They say one player shouldn't make a
difference and it probably shouldn't. But ours does. Thank God we'll
get him back soon."
Michigan State took a double-digit lead with 8:38 remaining in the
first half and held it the rest of the way. Junior point guard Eron
Harris tossed in 13 points, and center Matt Costello supplied nine
points and 14 rebounds. Freshman guard Matt McQuaid and freshman
power forward Deyonta Davis added 10 points apiece.
"At times, we played really well tonight," Izzo said. "We jumped on
them early and that was the difference in the game."
Junior center Maverick Morgan's career-high 15 points led the
Fighting Illini (8-8, 0-3). Junior shooting guard Malcolm Hill,
plagued by foul trouble, was held to 10 points, eight below his
average.
Illinois, which won the previous two meetings at Breslin Center, had
only eight scholarship players available and lost its third
consecutive game.
Illini junior guard Kendrick Nunn, the team's leading scorer, did
not make the trip in order to witness the birth of his child.
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"I didn't think our attention to detail was very good," Illini coach
John Groce said. "We played too much hero ball. Mentally, we just
weren't very good."
Groce's club was coming off a two-point loss to Ohio State.
"When you play a team like Michigan State, especially here, effort
is not enough," he said. "You've got to have effort and you've got
to have toughness but you also have to execute. Our execution was
just awful. We regressed from where we were on Sunday."
Illinois' other top threat, Hill, picked up two fouls in the first
2:25. Harris, who took a charge for Hill's second foul, fired in a
3-pointer to give Michigan State a 16-7 lead. Illini coach John
Groce then gambled and put Hill back in less than three minutes
later after the charge.
Hill didn't pick up another foul during the half but hardly
mattered. The Spartans finished the half on a 31-9 run to take a
47-22 lead. Their first-half point total was a season high.
NOTES: Illinois junior SG Malcolm Hill is one of two players
nationally to lead his team in total points, rebounds, assists,
steals and blocks, joining LSU freshman sensation Ben Simmons. ...
The Illini were 8-21 against Top 25 opponents under coach John
Groce. Their last road victory against a Top 5 team was March 5,
1989, a 70-67 win over No. 3 Indiana. ... Michigan State was 17-3
under coach Tom Izzo in Big Ten home openers. ... All but one of the
last 19 meetings were decided by 10 points or less. The all-time
series was tied at 58 apiece. ... The Spartans have 11 players
averaging at least nine minutes.
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