Spartans earn trip to 2nd round behind strong all-around effort
The Madness has begun, and our Spartans got off to a strong start today in dispatching the Mississippi State Bulldogs today in a mostly convincing fashion. MSU opened the scoring with a Jaden Akins triple, and the game never even was tied after that. It was not a complete runaway, though it did end up as one. On two separate occasions in the first half, MSU stretched out the lead to double digits, but both times the team with the same initials rallied back to make it a five-point game. A Malik Hall drive at the buzzer beater game the Spartans a seven-point lead at the half, 31-24.
In the second half, the Bulldogs were unable to pull back into the game. The real MSU got back to a double-digit lead in the opening minutes; after that, the imposters only got as close as eight. After Jaden Akins dunked it with a beautiful crossover move to get to the rim with 10:57 remaining, the Spartans were able to keep the lead at at least ten points. With 27 seconds left and the bench warmers in the game, Davis Smith buried a deep triple with an assist from Steven Izzo for the game’s last points. Our MSU moves on!
Let’s get to the list.
But first…
Welcome back, POM! We missed you. Well, most of us.
And before I get to the positives…
1 Thing I Did Not Like:
- 1-4 on lob plays. There were two unsuccessful Holloman-to-Carr alley-oops that were too high. There was one other that I am blanking on who it was. The only one that went was the lob to Hall. I need more highlight-reel plays!
Okay let’s get to the positives.
Things I Liked:
- Mady Sissoko. Going to lead off with this one for the second straight game. I think we are starting to get a consistently good version of Mady. No, it is not the version of him that balled out a season ago in early games against Gonzaga and Kentucky. Rather, it is him as a sixth man who does some dirty work and makes some hustle plays for us. In this one, Mady let all players with nine rebounds. Two of his boards were on the offensive end, one that he kicked out to Tre Holloman for a three from the top of the key. Aside from his rebounds, The Mali Mauler also contributed one assist, one steal, and one block (would have been two if Booker had not gotten to the ball first in a photo-finish). Oh, and Mady also had one basket. One of these days, I think he is going to break the glass on a dunk. And perhaps most importantly, Mady had zero turnovers and only two fouls in his 17 minutes.
- Defense. Mississippi State averaged 74 PPG coming into today. Michigan State held them to 51 points. Seven steals and three blocks by the Spartans contributed to 15 Bulldog turnovers. Mississippi State shot 37% on FGs and 22.2% on their three-pointers. Perhaps most impressively, the Spartans forced the Bulldogs into missing five of their ten free-throws. Actually, I think that was the most impressive thing. MSU did not send the acronym-copycats to the FT line once in the first half, and the Bulldogs only took ten for the game (though there were some missed front-ends). There were some issues in the first half where the Spartan defender, often AJ Hoggard abandoned his man to offer some help, and that led to an open three for the Bulldogs. In the end, it was not enough to make a difference, and the problem seemed to be cleaned up in the second half. Michigan State only surrendered double-digits to one opposing player in this one, stud freshman Josh Hubbard, who finished with 15.
- The three-point shot. MSU will live and die by this shot. In our first round game, we lived. Spartan shooters converted 10 of 23 of their threes. Six different guys hit one. In fact the only Spartan to not make at least one of their attempts from deep was Malik Hall, who missed his only attempt. Aside from him, Davis Smith, Tre Holloman, AJ Hoggard, and Xavier Booker each hit one, while Jaden Akins and Tyson Walker hit three apiece.
- Jaden Akins. Speaking of Jaden, this game goes into the 99th percentile of his career performances. Shakin’ Bakin’ was second on the squad with 15 points. He was confident in both the catch-and-shoot and the pump fake to move in for a short-range jumper or even a finish down low. Overall, he shot 6-14. He also pulled down seven rebounds. But his finest highlight in this one was his chase-down blocked shot on Josh Hubbard to save an easy layup. It had shades of Tayshaun Prince on Reggie Miller in the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals. Strong performance from the young man from my hometown (Go Farmington/Farmington Hills!).
- Tom Izzo. Shoutout to the Hall-of-Fame coach for getting his record-extending 17th win as the lower seed. It was also his 56th overall win in the NCAA Tournament.
- TOC Comments Section. Going to give you all a nod today. I normally don’t follow the open threads during games because I am taking notes for my post-game articles. But I was in there today and, with the exception of the usual Debbie Downers and Negative Nancys, it was a fun place to take in the game.
VICTORY FOR MSU!!!
See you all on Saturday.
Hey everyone in the TOC Pool, please make sure your bracket name matches your TOC username so we can easily identify you.