Michigan State had shot 4-for-18 from the floor when referees stopped its exhibition against Marquette to fix a crooked backboard. Except it wasn’t the rim the Spartans were shooting on — it was Marquette’s.

An ice-cold start from Michigan State’s offense had no easy excuses as Marquette banked a 12-point halftime lead for a 86-79 win over the Spartans at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum on Sunday, Oct. 25. Marquette led by as much as 17 in the second half and shot 9-for-18 from 3-point range.

No. 6 Michigan State is a favorite to win the Big Ten this year, along with Illinois. The Spartans finish their exhibition schedule with a win over Incarnate Word, but losses against Big East foes UConn and Marquette. After an offseason full of hype, the showings prove there’s a lot for this group to work on before it can start throwing around championship talk.

Tom Izzo’s frustration with this Sunday’s performance was hard to hide. With 3:42 on the clock and his Spartans still trailing double digits despite a 14-3 run that made it a five-point game with 12:41 to go, Izzo took a technical foul for expressing his feelings to the officials. That’s usually a move he saves for the regular season, though you could hardly blame him with how bad his offense performed.

During a 7:42 shooting drought in the first half bookended by a Jordan Scott 3 at 17:11 and a Jasiah Jervis 3 at 9:29, the Spartans missed 10 straight shots. Jeremy Fears Jr. didn’t make a shot in the first half, and Kur Teng made one of his seven shots in the game.

Fears did make all four of his free throws in the first half, one with the second chance of a Marquette lane violation. He finished the game with 18 points, 12 of them off free throws. He had seven assists but six turnovers. Importantly, he looked no worse for wear after twisting an ankle five days ago in an exhibition loss to UConn.

The players who did hit their shots added a little bit of intrigue. Michigan State tinkered with its starting lineup after two outings. Out went Cam Ward and Anton Bonke. In went Bronx-born freshman Jasiah Jervis at shooting guard, shifting Jordan Scott to the other wing and Coen Carr out to power forward. Jesse McCulloch took over at center, where Bonke had shown nerves earlier in the week.

Jervis (19 points) and Scott (18) paced the offense with a combined 37 points, with Scott shooting 3-for-7 from 3-point range and Jervis shooting 4-for-6. Outside of them, the Spartans shot 2-or-12 from deep.

Marquette’s own point guard, Nigel James Jr., scored 11 points and dished seven assists. It helped that his Golden Eagles hit a ton of 3s swinging the ball around for ball movement. He also had eight turnovers, his team 24.