No Michigan State basketball fan wants to use injuries as an excuse for a loss (or at least they shouldn't), but heading into a tough Big Ten matchup at Iowa's Carver-Hawkeye Arena, No. 7 MSU may have been playing with house money.

After all, any close loss could've still been written off as a function of Spartans' ever-present injury problems, namely the loss of post stalwarts Adreian Payne and Branden Dawson.

So what happened?

Just a hard-fought 71-69 overtime victory against the 15th-ranked Hawkeyes, injuries and hostile surroundings be damned.

The ingredients were familiar: Keith Appling's veteran leadership, Gar...

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