Spartans use late run to move to 3-1 on the season
I came into this game expecting an easy day for the Spartans. After all, this was a home game against Bowling Green, a team from the MAC who had losses to Southern Miss and Davidson to begin the season. In fact, they were 1-2 with their win coming against an NAIA level team, the Taylor Trojans. It just had the feel of a comfortable game. Naturally, that is not what happened and I spent much of this game with a good deal of anxiety.
Of course, the story from the onset of the game was the change to the starting lineup, with Jaxon Kohler getting the nod at power forward in place of Xavier Booker. I know many of you had been calling for that in your comments. In conversations with friends, we debated if it was time for Coach Izzo to make a change; I had believed that he would want to give Booker a couple more games before making the move. With the switch, there were two questions. First, would Kohler maintain his high level of play as a part of the first unit? And two, would Booker play better as a part of the second unit? I think I can answer one of those questions affirmatively.
As I said, the game ended up being a tougher outing for MSU than I had anticipated. In the first half, Bowling Green led by as many as 12 before a late Spartan run tied it just before halftime. In the second half, the Falcons went up by as much as 8 before the home team shut them down to end the game. Let’s take a look at the good and the bad from this game.
3 Things I Liked:
1. Coen Carr spark plug. There is no more electric player on this team, and perhaps in the nation, than Coen Carr. The human highlight reel gets the arena excited every time the ball is in his hands. There is always the potential for something amazing to happen. And in this game, he did indeed do some amazing plays. These plays don’t just get the fans on their feet, but they also seem to energize Carr’s teammates. After each of his dunks, the defense either got a stop or Bowling Green had to call a timeout to settle down. Coen scored 11 points tonight on 5-8 shooting. The output is his second highest in his MSU career, being surpassed only by the 14 he scored in his first ever game for the Green & White. For his freshman season, Carr averaged a mere 3.1 PPG. So far this year, he is scoring 7.7 PPG. He has become a significant role player for this team, getting points, rebounds, and steals for his team off the bench.
2. Big Men free throw shooting. I know that it can seem like a backhanded compliment to put FT shooting as the second like, but with some of the free throw issues this team has had in recent years as well as the poor interior play in general, this feels like a significant development. In the game against Bowling Green, MSU was 28-32 from the stripe. Of that, Kohler was 6-6, Carson Cooper was 4-4, and Frankie Fidler was 10-10. While we classify Fidler as a wing player, I am including him here because most of his trips to the line were earned when he attacked the paint. I guess it is worth noting that Szymon Zapala and Xavier Booker did not attempt any free throws tonight. But the significance is the focus of the Spartan offense to get the ball inside to the big men. Last year, due to the unreliability of Cooper, Kohler, Booker, and the departed Mady Sissoko to score down low (or at the line), we had to take a disproportionate percentage of our shots from the outside. This year, the big guys are doing a much better job of scoring when the ball is in their possession, or at the very least are drawing fouls and converting that way. Kohler, Zapala, and Cooper combined to shoot 8-10 on their FGs today, and Booker went 1-3. If MSU can continue to be able to rely on the power forwards and centers for points this year, that takes the pressure off the perimeter players to have to carry the team in every game.
3. End of half runs. I mentioned this in the intro to this article, but it bears repeating. When MSU had their backs against the wall against the Falcons, they were able to flip a switch and go on big runs. After falling down 43-33 with 2:41 to go until halftime, MSU went on a 10-0 run to go into the locker room all tied up. Four different Spartans scored in that run. In the second half, Bowling Green led 64-56 with 10:53 to go. At the 8:08 mark, MSU went up 68-66 with a pair of Kohler free throws. The visitors took the lead back shortly thereafter and got it up to four, 72-68, with 7:11 remaining. From then, MSU scored the final 18 points of the game to earn the 86-72 victory. The defense clamped down. The offense began to click. And MSU finally looked like the team I expected them to look like for the entire contest. I did not like that we trailed as much as we did, but I appreciate the ability to raise the intensity when it was needed and dominate a lesser opponent.
3 Things I Disliked:
1. Three-point shooting. Let’s just begin with the broken record and get this one over with quickly. MSU went 4-20 from deep in this one. The Spartans made exactly two in each half, being 2-9 at the intermission and 2-11 after it. Frankie Fidler was 0-5 and Jaden Akins was 1-5. Tre Holloman and Xavier Booker were each 1-3 while Jase Richardson and Kur Teng both missed their singular attempt. Again, 20% on threes is not going to get it done against tougher competition. This team needs to hire a new shooting coach.
2. Interior defense. In the first half, Bowling Green scored 24 of its 43 points in the paint. For the game, 40 of their 72 came on the interior. The Falcons big men were regularly getting whatever shot they wanted. Marcus Johnson in particular was doing what he wanted down low, often making Kohler or Cooper look silly trying to defend him. Youssef Khayat and Sam Towns also were able to get some easy shots off in the post. MSU never seemed to make an adjustment to this, choosing never to offer some help defense down low and continuing to try defending our basket with just one man. It was not working. If these guys are not strong enough or skilled enough to defend the post by themselves, then the coaches need to figure out a different scheme to stop opponents from having their way against us in the paint.
3. Xavier Booker’s performance off the bench. I would have hoped that the move to the bench would have set something off in Booker and made him play with a new sense of urgency in hopes of earning his starting role back. Through one game that did not happen. In fact, after playing only ten minutes against Bowling Green, the least of any player other than Kur Teng, I think it is a possibility that Booker is in Izzo’s doghouse. We all had high expectations for the former McDonald’s All-American coming into his second season, but we were clearly mistaken. I am at a loss trying to understand Booker’s lack of development. Tonight, all three of Booker’s FG attempts were from behind the arc, so we are still not getting any interior play from him. I hope that the staff can solve this mystery. I still think he has the ability to contribute to a tournament run in March, but he won’t do that if he does not start playing harder.
What about you guys? What were your takeaways from this game?