Spartans show some improvements in second game
Two games, two victories. The Michigan State Spartans defeated the Niagara Purple Eagles in the second of their tune-up games before the schedule gets considerably more challenging next week. There were noticeable improvements from the opener on Monday, but Coach Izzo will definitely have some coaching points to help his squad get ready for Kansas on Tuesday. The final score tonight was 96-60. Let’s take a look at this game’s positives and negatives.
3 Things I Liked:
1. Pace. It was clear that the game plan for this one was to really push the floor as much as possible. Izzo was rotating his lineup early and often to allow MSU to keep the tempo of their offense at a high speed throughout this contest. All of the ball handlers on this team – Jeremy Fears, Tre Holloman, Jaden Akins, and Jase Richardson – were actively pushing the ball up court in an attempt to score before the Niagara defense had a chance to get set up. The best example of this was an alley-oop from Holloman to Coen Carr four minutes into the game. The play happened off of a Niagara basket; MSU sent the inbounds to Holloman near mid court, and he turned and sent a distant lob to Carr, who finished the play with 27 seconds on the shot clock.
Not only were those four guys pushing the ball up court in a hurry trying to feed their teammates for easy buckets, but in the half-court offense, they all were using their own handles to attack the basket and score on their own. Izzo knows he has four guys on his team that he can trust to attack opposing defenses and make life easy for the MSU offense.
2. Jaxon Kohler. When you have career highs in both points and rebounds, you are going to show up on this list. Kohler finished with 20 and 13 against Niagara, easily leading all players in this game in both categories. He added a pair of steals to his stat line. We have always said that Kohler had some good interior moves, but on this night, he took those to a new level. Furthermore, he finished those post moves at a high rate, making 8 of his 10 shots from inside the paint (he missed his two 3-point shots). He also scored a few putbacks off of his six offensive rebounds. Oh, and he did this all in 18 minutes of playing time. If he keeps this up, Izzo is going to have to figure out how to keep him on the floor longer.
3. Jase Richardson. I mentioned in my write-up of the first game that Jase Richardson played 22 minutes in his first regular season game for MSU. In his second game, his minutes came down to 17, but he still was able to score a dozen points, good for second on the team. He was 4-7 from the floor including hitting his only triple, and he was also perfect from the line (3-3). As the commentators said about Jase repeatedly, he just knows how to play. He is great with the ball in his hand, he can attack the basket, he has great awareness of the game around him so he can also be a good passer, and he does not turn the ball over. He, too, is making a case for more minutes. Man, this team has some serious depth.
3 Things I Disliked:
1. Interior Defense. While we did hold Niagara to 60 points and defeated them by 36, it seemed like MSU was getting beat inside with regularity. Of the Purple Eagles’ (I tried to look up why that is their mascot, but found no answers) 60 points, 20 came in the paint. They repeatedly were making passes to an open man under the basket for an easy layup. A pair of those were highlight-worthy behind-the-back assists that I can forgive. But there were plenty others where a player got free of the defense and got an uncontested basket. Booker, Zapala, and Cooper were all guilty of getting lost at times and allowing Niagara to score underneath. Give credit to Niagara, too. They played well and obviously recognized and exploited the ability to get baskets in this manner. MSU will need to drill on this before the Kansas game or the Jayhawks will end up with a lot more than 20 points in the paint.
2. Blocked Shots. After blocking 8 shots in the opener against Monmouth, MSU only recording one block in this game, with that lone stat going to Jase Richardson. Against a team that only had one guy over 6’6” who played meaningful minutes (and that guy was limited to 12 minutes due to foul trouble), I would have liked to have seen more shots stopped before they even got in the air. Again, give credit to Niagara. Early on, they put on a three-point shooting clinic. And, as mentioned above, they had a number of uncontested interior looks. With the size on this team, it is criminal for us to only have one blocked shot. It is even more of a crime for Booker, Zapala, Kohler, and Cooper to combine for zero rejections.
3. No points for Normand. Okay, not really a dislike, but it was time to nitpick. Gehrig Normand took his first official shot as a Spartan late in this one but misfired from downtown. It seems like Normand is going to be playing mostly end of game minutes for MSU this season. Hopefully we get to see him hit some triples in those minutes as a sign of his future contributions for when he does become a bigger part of the rotation.
How about all of you? What did you see? What stood out to you?