Spartans sweep wolverines, climb into top 4 of Big Ten
A win is a win. But this did not feel like a game that MSU won so much as it was a game that um lost… which has become their M.O. After um tied the game at 61-61 with just over eight minutes, the wolverines managed just one more field goal, which occurred with seven minutes remaining. After that, they lost seven turnovers, at least three of the unforced type. They missed a few good looks at the basket including a missed layup by their star player, Dug McDaniel. Michigan State, on the other hand, took advantage of their opponent’s mistakes, scored on some breakaways, got to the foul line, and pulled off the road win.
The whole game was a back-and-forth affair. In the first half, um got out to a small advantage, going up by four points on a couple of times before MSU went on a run and got out to a 31-22 lead. But the home team rallied back and took a lead in the final minute before four MSU FTs put the Spartans up two at halftime. MSU was led by the usual suspects of Walker and Hall, who had ten and eight points, respectively. AJ Hoggard only played four first half minutes as he picked up two early fouls. The surprise of the first half was an offensive outburst from freshman Coen Carr, who scored eight of his own before the break (cue the argument of him not playing in the second half).
In the second half, the wolverines came out strong and grabbed the lead. They went up as many as six, 53-47, before a quick handful of points by Walker brought MSU back in it. It took a couple more minutes before MSU would take the lead back, and after um tied it with 8:07, the wheels fell off for the home team, as is tradition. Watching um coach Juwan Howard drawing a play on the clipboard in the final minute, he certainly looked like a man who did not know what to say to his team; he looked like a man who knows his time may be running out. I know some of you would rather he stay coach and continue to lead that program downward. Let’s get to the list.
3 Things I Liked:
- Who was the home team? Even the commentators remarked on this. The loudest chants that were heard coming out of the Crisler Arena crowd were pro-Spartan cheers. “Go Green, Go White” was audible on a couple occasions. It was louder then than it was when um had its largest leads and biggest runs. The sound of a doomed season for um was music to my ears.
- Flying Carr! Coen was locked in in the first half of this one. He was moving well without the ball to allow himself to be the target of passes that would lead to easy dunks. Sidebar: that was a dirty play by Tschetter and was absolutely worthy of the flagrant call; the refs probably did not even need to review that, other than it is required by the rules. He also came up with a pair of steals, one that led to a dunk of his own and the other led to Davis Smith’s FTs at the end of the first half. This was arguably his best overall performance as a Spartan.
- Walker and Hall both with big games. This is exactly what MSU needs. If these two can both have high-scoring games together, that will make it harder for future opponents. Two hot hands will make slowing us down that much harder. While Tyson’s shooting was not remarkable in this one, only shooting 6-16, he earned some trips to the FT line where he added a 6-6 effort to his scoring total. Hall, conversely, shot a stellar 8-13, to end up with one point less than Walker.
3 Things I Disliked:
- That segment with um’s new football coach that seemed like it lasted ten minutes of game play. Aside from the subject matter being nauseating, they were ignoring the game that we were trying to watch, and I missed some of the action. Bad form, Fox Network.
- Three-point shooting. This was a combination of two issues we have seen at different parts of the season. There was the abysmal rate of making shots that we saw at the very beginning of the campaign along with the low number of attempts, again much lower than the opponent, that has been a running theme these last few weeks. The Spartans were 0-5 from deep in the first half and finished the game 2-14, with only Jaden Akins and Tyson Walker making one apiece. By contrast, um went a respectable 7-20 from behind the arc. Take more triples please, MSU. And make them please.
- Not shutting down anyone on defense. While MSU’s offense was carried by two players, um had all five starters reach double digits. As a group, um’s starters shot 50% (23-46) from the field. Their starters also outrebounded MSU’s top line 28-11. Fortunately for MSU, um only had two points by their bench.
Overall, this was not the best performance from MSU. The silver lining is that it was the Spartans’ second consecutive road win, and third in their last five. The win puts MSU into fourth place in the Big Ten, at least temporarily (NW plays tomorrow and can match MSU at 9-6 with the tiebreaker currently in their favor).
Up next, MSU returns home for a couple games versus Iowa and Ohio State.
VICTORY FOR MSU!