Spartans lose 3rd consecutive game
This game turned out to be much closer than many of us thought it would be, myself included. In fact, Purdue only outscored Michigan State by three points in each half, ending in an 80-74 decision which secured the Boilermakers their second consecutive Big Ten regular season championship. And while a loss is a loss, there are a few things we saw in this game that can offer up a sliver of hope for our next game against Northwestern, and maybe even for a chance at winning a game (or dare I say two) in the Big Ten Tournament. Of course, with the good comes some bad and there were definitely some of that in this game too. I’m going to go backwards this time and start with those.
3 Things I Disliked:
- AJ Hoggard short game. The thing we have liked most about Hoggard’s game, especially in context of the 2023-24 team, is his ability to use his strength to back down most of the people assigned to defend him and get points down low. For a team that has received such little offensive contributions from the center position, this has become a vital element of MSU’s offense. And in this Purdue game, we saw plenty of examples of Hoggard doing just that. Unfortunately for us, his efforts were coming up empty. In the first half, Boss Hogg shot 0-7 on his FGs, and that included missing at least three layups and short-range runners. His second half was a little better, where he went 3-6 (including 1-2 from 3). Along with his 1-3 display from the stripe, he scored eight points after the intermission. If AJ had made just two of his attempts in the first half, and to be clear he put up at least two shots that he was expected to make based on where he was shooting from, that first half is just a little different, and maybe the end of the game is too. When you go on the road against the top team, you need to make your shots (see Iowa and Ohio State). AJ’s shooting hurt us in this one.
- Fouling Edey. In the first half, MSU was doing some good work defending Edey and it looked like in a few instances it was causing some frustration for the big man. Whenever the Boilermakers sent it into Zach in the low block, a Spartan defender would come from the wing and pinch in to try slapping it out of his hands before he made his move. This did lead to a few steals, but it also led to him passing it outside on a few occasions. That spared MSU’s bigs from collecting even more fouls early on. I feel like the Spartans went away from that strategy in the second half, maybe in an effort to not leave Braden Smith or Fletcher Loyer open from beyond the arc, but then the strategy by the defending player needed to change as well. There were way too many instances in the second half where Edey scored from in close and also collected the foul. And credit to Edey, he is shooting over 70% from the line this year and for his career. So if the plan is to cover him one-on-one, then the defender needs to be instructed to foul his arms before he goes up. He can not be given the opportunity for a three-point play, certainly not as often as in last night’s game; I believe I counted four &1 opportunities. Edey took 20 FTs, more than the entirety of the MSU team, and sunk 14 of them (exactly 70%). In a close game, MSU needed some of those points back.
- Overall shooting percentage. We can credit a good performance on the offensive glass for the fact that MSU took fifteen more shots than Purdue in this game. And still, the two teams made the same amount of FGs, 25 each. For the game, MSU shot 39.1% from the field, a number that was buoyed by their 9-21 (42.9%) display from deep. The usually reliable Tyson Walker led the sinking ship with a 5-15 performance. Hoggard matched him with ten more misses, going 3-13. Jaxon Kohler went 1-3 including a pretty horrendous airball from three. Coen Carr’s single effort in this game was an ill-advised one since it was not a dunk. The rest of the players were acceptable. Again, to slay Goliath, you need to be accurate. A little bit better shooting could have given MSU the upset on the road.
3 Things I Liked:
- Xavier Booker. Technically this could have slid into a dislike as the freshman was relegated back to the bench in this one and only had twelve minutes of action. But it was a hell of a twelve minutes. In his first shift, he sunk back-to-back triples to put Purdue on notice. This is what many of you TOCers had been calling for in the lead-up to this game. And when he was on the floor, it did have the desired effect of pulling Edey out of the lane. Booker finished 3-6 from the field and made all three of his freebies to end with 11 points. Maybe there will be a “reverse Ben Carter” and Izzo will suddenly play him 20+ minutes in the tournament games.
- Carson Cooper. If I am going to give out individual accolades, I think Cooper deserves one here as well. I do not ever expect an offensive eruption from him, but I also do not expect one from Sissoko or Kohler at this point either. What I liked about his game was his rebounding (five total, three offensive) and his defense. In his sixteen minutes, he rarely was out of position defensively. Certainly, just being in position is not enough to stop Edey, but Cooper was able to force Edey into a couple misses down low, even without fouling. To top that off, his six points was a much bigger contribution that the ones received from Kohler (2 points) and Sissoko (bagel). He also rarely gives up a bad foul away from the basket; in this game, he only was whistled twice and they were while defending Edey. Fortunately for the Spartans, Edey would miss both of those &1 opportunities.
- (Not basketball related) MSU is the Big Ten champions in hockey. I just felt that deserved another mention.
Okay, on to Northwestern for Senior Day. Any of you going to be there?