The Michigan State Spartans missed their last 14 shots in their upset loss to the Syracuse Orange on Sunday, and many will credit Jim Boeheim’s famed 2-3 zone for causing the Spartans all those problems.
Boeheim, however, thinks there was another factor in play — namely that the Spartans playing in Detroit in front of a partisan crowd hindered them as the pressure was cranked up.
Boeheim said he thinks Michigan State played tight down the stretch because it was essentially playing at home. Said that he’s felt that kind of pressure when his teams have played near home in the past.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) March 18, 2018
It’s an interesting view of things. Most would automatically assume having a crowd like that behind you in what is supposed to be a neutral site game would only help, but the Michigan State players may well have felt the growing tension in the building from their sizable following as they struggled to hit shots down the stretch.
Of course, many would argue that Boeheim’s late-game strategy had much more to do with the Syracuse win than any crowd factors.
