Spartans pick up first Big Ten win with road victory
Michigan State headed to Minnesota to kick off their Big Ten slate and came away with a solid victory, taking down the Golden Gophers, 90-72. I set my DVR for this one as I was not going to be home at the start. When I turned it on and began watching, for some reason the recording began six minutes into the game when it was knotted up at 9 apiece. While I know Minnesota did go on a 10-0 run to go up 12-9, from there it was mostly a display of Spartan domination. By the under-8 timeout of the first half, MSU was up by a dozen. By the under-4, it was 14, and then back to 12 at halftime. Izzo was getting contributions from all ten players in the regular rotation.
In the second half, the game never got closer than 11. The lead was stretched to as much as 20 points, before the final margin of 18. With the game very much in hand down the stretch, both teams began playing faster and not as disciplined on defense. I imagine had Izzo not allowed the team to relax, the Spartans could have walked away with an even more lopsided win. Garbage time gave us Gehrig Normand scoring five points on back-to-back possessions and Kur Teng added a pair from the free throw line giving MSU 12 different scorers.
Let’s get to the lists.
3 Things I Liked:
1. Rebounding. At one point in the first half, the broadcast showed the rebound stats; it was 18-3 MSU. Afterward, the commentator said that some of that was “by design” as Minnesota coach Ben Johnson instructed his players not to go for offensive rebounds because he was worried about the MSU transition game. So, on one hand, I am a bit surprised, maybe even shaking my head a little bit, that a coach would instruct his team to completely abandon an entire aspect of the game. But on the other hand, I do enjoy the fact that other teams recognize the potency of this part of MSU’s game and are adjusting their own game plans to the extreme as a result. By the end of the game, Minnesota closed the discrepancy to 39-27, but a lot of the Gophers’ rebounds came on long bounces off the rim or later in the game when MSU took their foot of the gas. Overall, MSU controlled the glass.
2. Active hands on defense. Michigan State recorded five steals and five blocks tonight. There could have been a couple more blocks, but there were some questionable foul calls on those ones. But beside those steals and blocks, I was seeing Spartan defenders regularly getting their hands on the ball to disrupt a Minnesota player’s dribble or to deflect a pass. Even if these touches did not result in a turnover, they still helped disrupt the Gophers’ flow. The defensive intensity was on full display in this game, and it was clear that Minnesota was struggling to run the plays they wanted to and get off good shots. On a side note to this, MSU definitely took their foot off the gas on the defensive end in the final minutes. Minnesota scored 12 points in the last four minutes, ruining my prediction of the Gophers only scoring 61 points in this game.
3. Big men internal scoring. I know you all were expecting me to give a shoutout to the fact that we went 11-22 from deep in this game, but I think this is even more important. Remember last year when one of our centers missing a layup was not a surprise? Remember leading up to this season when a lot of the talk on these threads was how Tom Izzo did not do enough to shore up the front court? After watching the last few games and especially tonight’s contest, those issues feel like ancient history. For the sake of this discussion, I am only looking at inside scoring and ignoring three-point shooting. Tonight, Jaxon Kohler was 2 of 3 in the paint. Szymon Zapala made 3 of 5. Xavier Booker hit his only inside attempt. And Carson Cooper brought up the rear, going 1 for 3. Combined, that is 7-12. At least one of those makes was a putback from one of these five missed shorties.
A quick tangent on Zapala, can someone explain to me how his stats were so low his first three seasons at Utah State? Why were his minutes so low there? Was he not as tall then? Did he just receive great coaching at Longwood last year? It baffles me that this player can come into MSU and not just become a starter immediately, but also be a positive contributor after such a lacklusterbeginningto his college career.
One last thing on the big men, I like how Izzo is able to deploy this foursome in any combination. There was one stretch at the start of the 2nd half where it went from Kohler/Zapala to Kohler/Cooper to Kohler/Booker to Booker/Zapala. This team did not feel like it was at a disadvantage on either end with any of those combinations.
Bonus likes:
4. Jeremy Fears’ new hairstyle.
5. Free throw defense. Aside from their star, Dawson Garcia, going 7-7 from the line, the rest of the Gophers shot 4-10 on their FTs, including two separate 0-2 trips.
3 Things I Did Not Like:
1. Jase Richardson only scoring 4 points. I was really surprised when I saw that in the box score after the game. It really felt like he was more involved. This kind of subpar performance is really going to hurt his scoring average and his chances of winning Freshman of the Year honors.
2. Minnesota’s color scheme. The black uniforms with the dark red lettering made it nearly impossible to read the players’ names. I mean, who thought that was a good design?
3. No Nick Sanders.
That’s it. MSU is 1-0 in conference. Next game is Saturday when we host Nebraska.