The Spartans advance to the round of 32
Michigan State got their NCAA Tournament underway on Friday night against the Bryant Bulldogs. MSU got off to a slow start, perhaps some rust kicking in as the team was picked to wait until 10 PM on the second day to get their run going. Bryant jumped out to a 5-0 lead and led for the majority of the first half. At the 4:06 mark of the first half, a layup by Coen Carr put MSU up 25-24. From then, the Spartans never relinquished the lead, and it grew exponentially in the second half. In the end, Michigan State secured an 87-62 victory to advance to round two; on Sunday, a game against 10-seed New Mexico awaits.
While the 25-point win is impressive, it was not always pretty. In fact, most of the first half was a display of basketball that was capable of giving Coach Izzo an aneurysm. If it were not for Carr netting 15 points in the opening stanza, the Spartans certainly could have been trailing at the break. No other MSU player had more than five points through twenty minutes. Turnovers and some rough shooting numbers had this writer feeling a little uneasy.
Fortunately, as they usually do, the Spartans took over in the second half and blew the game open. After scoring 33 in the first half, MSU put up 54 after intermission. Four more Spartans – Jeremy Fears, Jaden Akins, Jase Richardson, and Tre Holloman – reached double digits. Carr ended with a career-high, and team-high, 18. After committing eight turnovers in the first, MSU only had three more the rest of the way. MSU finished with a FG% of 44.3 and also went 10-26 from 3 for an impressive 38.5%. Don’t worry, the networks will still talk about how we are a poor shooting team ahead of our next game.
While MSU led by just five at the half, they grew that to a nine-point lead by the under-16 timeout of the 2nd half, 16 by the under-8, and 24 by the under-4. In those final few minutes, Tom Izzo was able to put in some of the guys who do not get to play every game. Kur Teng, Gehrig Normand, Nick Sanders, and Xavier Booker all closed out the game. Nick Sanders scored a layup on a nice looking dribble drive to give MSU their final points. He was the only one of the deep bench to get into the scoring column.
Let’s get to the lists.
3 Things I Liked:
1. Tre Holloman passing. Tre may have only had four assists in this game, but a few of them were things of beauty. His development in pushing the fast break and hitting his teammates in stride for easy baskets has been one of the most fun aspects of this year’s team. He hit Carr streaking down the lane for a finger roll and, a few minutes later, he connected with Frankie Fidler on the run for another layup. In the second half, he fed Fears for a dunk and then Richardson for a layup. He may not be a starter, technically, but he very much plays starter minutes and has the trust of Izzo to run the offense whenever he is in there.
2. Rebounding. 21 Offensive rebounds! 21! MSU won the rebound battle tonight 54-29. That 25-board difference led to a significant discrepancy in ball control. While both teams ended with identical 70 FGAs, some of those MSU rebounds led to trips to the free throw line, another category where the Spartans had a considerable advantage. This is Spartan Basketball.
3. The Carr Show. Coen stepped up when the rest of the team really needed it. He scored 15 in the first half and finished with a career-high 18. That would be enough to get in the likes list, but Carr also nine rebounds (6 offensive), 2 assists, and one rejection. Player of the game.
Bonus Like: Minutes Distribution. This should not be a surprise to those of you who have followed MSU over the years, but Izzo tightened up the rotation. This will probably be the case moving forward. Szymon Zapala started, but only played four minutes, all in the first half. Xavier Booker was relegated to mop-up duty. The other 8 players from the usual rotation all played over 15 minutes. Richardson was tops with 30 minutes, while Akins had 29 and Fears had 28.
3 Things I Did Not Like:
1. Free Throws. Nothing was easy for MSU early on, including free throws. At one point, MSU was 3-8 from the stripe. That included missing the front end of a 1-and-1. Fortunately, MSU converted their final 13 FTs, but this team should never have a FT% under 50 once they have had more than two attempts.
2. Game’s leading scorer was an appointment. Time for some less serious dislikes, but I like it when the leading scorer wears a Spartans uniform. Tonight, Bryant’s Rafael Pinzon led all scorers with 21 points. He did require 26 FGAs to get there, though.
3. No double-doubles. Despite having five players score ten or more points, none of them reached double figures in another category. In fact, no players at all got to ten in any category other than points. Three Spartans ended on nine rebounds – Kohler, Cooper, and Carr.
Okay, on to Sunday. The next opponent will be New Mexico, who dispatched Marquette. That game will be Sunday at 8:40 PM ET.
VICTORY FOR MSU!