Three takeaways from Michigan State basketball's loss to Nebraska

It was an annoying night in Lincoln for Michigan State basketball, as the Spartans somehow had several chances to win a game in which they had 19 turnovers, but ultimately fell just short in the closing minutes, due to, you guessed it, a key turnover from Jeremy Fears. The Spartans fell to the undefeated Nebraska Cornhuskers 58-56.

Below, we put together three takeaways from a tough loss for the Spartans.

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1. Turnovers must be addressed

19 turnovers is high even for MSU, but it's also been an issue for most of the year. The Spartans are 146th in turnovers per game this year, and it's going to make their lives very difficult in Big Ten play. Some of that is on the spacing. Without much threat from beyond the arc, defenses are able to play more aggressively against MSU and force them to turn it over. It was especially painful on Friday night with the absence of Divine Ugochukwu. If MSU can learn to take care of the ball, they become even more dangerous.

2. Spartans need to figure out the Coen Carr problem

This year was supposed to be a major coming-out party for Coen Carr, but it's been taking some time for the staff to figure out how to deploy his immense talents on offense. Now a full-time member of the starting lineup, Carr is almost exclusively playing the three. The problem is that his three-point shooting is down from 33.3 percent last year to 21.7 percent. It is hurting the already limited spacing. However, the staff will just need to figure out how to unlock Carr. He is arguably the most talented player on the team and needs to be on the court, somehow.

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3. This was a weirdly encouraging loss

In a game where the Cornhuskers got six made threes out of 24-year-old center Rienk Mast, the home arena was absolutely on fire, and the Spartans turned the ball over 19 times, Michigan State still nearly won this game, and probably should have. While I'm sure that Tom Izzo doesn't believe in moral victories, it does feel like MSU would've won this game against a very good Nebraska team if they just turned the ball over a modestly bad amount instead of a ridiculously bad amount. 12 of Michigan State's 19 turnovers were unforced. There's a positive silver lining in there somewhere.

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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Three takeaways from Michigan State basketball's loss to Nebraska