SHEEHAN: I keep coming back to the fact that MSU doesn’t need a miracle – it needs a defensive fix
After talking with Graham Couch, the path is still there, but the margin for error is thinner than it feels
I’ll be honest, I needed someone to talk me down, not in a dramatic, season-is-over kind of way, but in that very familiar March headspace where you start connecting dots that may or may not actually belong together, where a couple of bad defensive stretches suddenly feel like something bigger, something more permanent, something that might follow you into a single-elimination setting where there’s no time to correct it.
Because the numbers are there, and the film is there, and the feeling is definitely there.
Michigan State has given up 80-plus points in three straight games, and since the Divine Ugochukwu injury, the defense has slipped in ways that are measurable and visible, with lineups stretching into roles they weren’t necessarily built for, Jordan Scott taking on heavier defensive assignments that seem to be bleeding into his offensive rhythm, and even Jeremy Fears, as steady as he’s been, carrying a workload that occasionally shows up in the form of turnovers at moments this team can’t quite afford them.
So I asked Graham Couch the question as directly as I could, because there’s no point dancing around it this time of year: is this team actually peaking right now, or are we just telling ourselves everything is fine because it’s Michigan State and it’s March?
