Dissecting a fun night of basketball in Detroit
On the first play of last night’s game, Jaxon Kohler blocked an Oakland shot. On the second play, Kohler scored a jumper. And on the third play, he recorded his second blocked shot. In his 25 minutes of playing time against Oakland, the most on the team, Kohler produced 14 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, and one assist. But this stat line does not entirely explain his contribution last night. From the opening possession until he exited the game for the final time, Kohler was playing with an intensity level that permeated to the rest of his teammates and was integral to Michigan State winning this game.
We have all heard the criticism of Kohler’s game – he’s not athletic enough or he makes too many moves instead of going up strong for the basket. It is time to put those criticisms to rest and focus on what he does well, that being injecting energy into the team by playing with an unstoppable motor. On defense, he was a nuisance for Oakland throughout last night’s contest with his shot blocking, active hands, and physicality defending in the low post. His playing style more than makes up for his “lack of athleticism”. It is why Tom Izzo correctly made the decision to put him into the starting lineup, replacing Xavier Booker, and it is why he has become one of the most significant players on the team.
Certainly, Kohler did not start putting up massive numbers immediately upon getting the starting nod but he has certainly been settling in lately. He clearly struggled in the game against North Carolina, but in his defense that was his third game in three days so fatigue may have been a factor. In the trio of games since then, all he has done is average a double-double and has also contributed six blocked shots and seven assists. Perhaps even more impressively, he has only been whistled for two fouls in the last three games, meaning he is showing great fundamental discipline guarding the inside and not committing infractions. He now has four double-doubles on the season including one in the last game he did not start, the loss to Kansas in the Champions Classic.
The reason I am going on about Kohler right now is because there was a discussion in the post-game thread last night arguing about what to do with the lineup, keep it as is or return Xavier Booker to the starting five. The argument for reinstalling Booker to the first line has been his improved play of late. In fact, last night Booker recorded a career high with 18 points. He has scored double digits in four straight games and has had at least a 55% field goal percentage in each of those four. He has even sunk seven of his 13 three-pointers in this recent stretch. And he is doing all of this in under 20 minutes of playing time per game, having only exceeded that amount in the overtime win against North Carolina. So yes, Booker is playing the best basketball of his career right now.
So why not put him back in the starting lineup? Well, for starters, let’s take these recent stats with a grain of salt as it has not been the toughest competition. Even North Carolina, who was ranked at the time of that game, is not the opponent who we thought they were as they are now sporting a 6-5 record. Even in last night’s career best scoring performance it should be mentioned that Oakland was playing without Tuburu Naivulurua, their second leading scorer and one of their most physically imposing players. This senior from Australia is 6’6″ tall and 240 lbs. Chances are he would have been defending Booker at least part of the time if he was in last night’s game, and who knows how his size and physicality would have impacted Xavier’s stats.
The other thing to consider in this conversation is that we can’t fault Jaxon Kohler for Booker’s recent improved play. In fact, you could argue that Kohler is also playing the best basketball of his career. If it took this switch to get the best out of both of them, there is no reason to switch back. And Michigan State has won seven of their eight games since the switch was made, with the loan loss being to a pesky Memphis team on day two of the Maui Invitational. Oh, and to those who tried to argue that Booker should replace Szymon Zapala, I will simply just remind you that they play different positions and have different functions on the floor. Booker’s game is much more aligned with Kohler’s s than it is with the big guy from Poland. If Tom Izzo wants to keep this team playing the way they are, it is best not to tinker the lineup at this point.
Back to last night’s game, a shout out must also go out to Jaden Akins for his 16-point performance. He hit a couple of three-pointers on back-to-back trips 5 minutes into the game and later looked to assert himself by attacking the rim and scoring off the dribble. He, too, is probably also playing the best ball of his time in East Lansing.
But the story of last night’s game undoubtedly was the matching Grinch sweaters that Tom Izzo and Oakland coach Greg Kampe were wearing. After the game, Tom Izzo came in for his press conference. He started with his prepared comments and then fielded questions. Before his question session was complete, Kampe came walking into the room, up onto the stage, and sat at the table next to Tom.
Now this is something I’ve never seen before. What ensued felt more like an old school Friars Club roast then a press conference with the two head coaches telling jokes and taking jabs at one another. But one thing was very clear. These two don’t just have great professional respect for one another; they are also very very close friends. They shared stories of recruiting trips to small Michigan towns. Tom mentioned that he has won every game they’ve coached against one another, while Greg pointed out that Tom is one of the few coaches that he can post up against. He quipped that he didn’t know how small of a sweater to order for Tom.
After Tom exited, and one of the Oakland players, DQ Cole, came in to join his coach at the dais, Kampe continued to show his respect for Izzo, saying adamantly that he truly believes that the Michigan State head coach is the best in the business. He also paid lip service to a couple of other coaching legends in his remarks. First, he paraphrased Bob Huggins in saying that you should struggle to shoot early in the season and still learn how to win games when the shot isn’t falling so that when the shot percentage improves you are still doing all the other things right (maybe that is what the Spartans are doing this year). And then he dropped Chuck Daly’s name. The former Pistons coach used to run practices for his team in Auburn Hills before the team moved downtown and Kampe would often be in attendance. He credits Daly for his common use of the term “Lifer” and gives the Dream Team leader the credit for making him a forever-student of the game of basketball. It was an awesome tribute.
One of the journalists in that room asked Greg why he continues to take the Michigan State game every year. His answer was simple. He does it for his players to give them the experience and the memory of playing against the “top program in the state” in big-name venues like the Breslin Center and Little Caesars Arena.
Michigan State may have won the game on the scoreboard, but from listening to Oakland’s coach, I would say the Grizzlies players also got a win last night. Here’s hoping that team can win their conference again and make some noise in March like they did last year.
As for our Spartans, I really liked what I saw from my seat on the baseline next to the bench last night. This is a classic Izzo squad that is laser-focused on defense and is really learning how to use defense to create offense. Once they started to adapt to Oakland’s zone in the second half, they really started to click offensively. Fortunately for us, we’re not going to see any more teams that play that method of defense. In fact, as Greg Kampe noted in the press conference, nobody else teaches his version of the zone. Still, it was a great learning experience for this team, and just another lesson that will help us along our way this season. Maybe we’ll even get a rematch against our in-state rival in the NCAA Tournament.
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