The Spartans rode a stellar defensive performance to get the (technically) upset win against the Bulldogs.
The Spartans took the court as the lower ranked seed once again in the NCAA Tournament. The men’s basketball team answered the challenge against Mississippi State winning 69-51. The offense was solid for the Spartans and the defense was outstanding. There were some slight blemishes (turnovers!) but a lot of really good stuff from Michigan State .
Details of the Curve for this Game: Like in the Big Ten Tournament , there is NO curve at this time of year. You take your best shot and so does the other team. MSU is playing an 8 seed as a 9 seed. On paper, these teams are evenly matched.
Offense:
The Spartans started with their dream scenario: A huge three by Jaden Akins. It was followed up by a driving layup for Tyson Walker. AJ Hoggard adding an early three was icing on the cake. That was the offensive balance Michigan State hoped for in this game.
The Spartans then used transition to build a lead. The spartans even in the half court were pushing the ball fast. Instead of playing deep into shot clocks, it looked like they wanted to take shots by the 15 second mark. The Spartans commitment to motion left Mississippi State chasing them around the court.
A surprisingly poor stretch of play came from Tre Holloman midway through the first half. On back to back possessions he awkwardly threw the ball up for Coen Carr alley-oops. Both were poorly thrown passes that resulted in turnovers that led to five Mississippi State points. The Spartans need the newly confident and risk taking Tre Holloman to create a run. They also need him to still be somewhat smart and not rush highlight reel focused plays.
Holloman’s two turnovers were part of a stretch of 5 turnovers in 3 minutes and 8 turnovers in the first 12 minutes of play. That is uncharacteristic for the Spartans and kept them from building an early offensive lead.
Once Michigan State stopped turning the ball over they were able to push the lead out to double digits again. The problem that emerged late in the first half was a cold stretch in shooting. The Spartans first twenty minutes of offense was defined by their transition spurt and going 5 of 13 from three. The cold stretch let Mississippi State claw back into the game despite only having 24 points.
The half did end with a fantastic drive by Malik Hall at the buzzer. The fifth year senior rarely has that complex a set of moves heading to the basket. They needed it to end the half up 31-24.
The second half started with the Spartans putting pressure on the Bulldogs. A jump shot by Walker opened the half, then the Spartans picked up two fouls (and the two free throws) on the second possession.
The Spartans built a 12-point lead by the 16-minute timeout playing in rhythm. Jaden Akins was cutting and hitting on offense, and Tyson Walker was controlling the basketball in the center for multiple plays and dishes. Mississippi State looked overwhelmed in the first four minutes of the second half.
Mississippi State’s counter was full court pressure and zone defense. Considering how rarely Michigan State plays a zone it clearly flustered them. Even if the Spartans could get the ball up the court, the high trapping approach by the Bulldogs flustered them into multiple turnovers.
Unlike their sloppy section in the first half, Michigan State was still able to keep scoring. A nice jumper from Holloman and a fantastic drive and slam by Jaden Akins kept the Bulldogs on their heels and maintained a double digit lead.
The Bulldogs looked strong when the ball was in the middle but they were losing track of Spartan scorers on the wings. Nothing typified that more than a Holloman drive into the teeth of Mississippi State’s defense before kicking out to a wide open Xavier Booker in the corner.
The other area allowing Michigan State to counter their turnovers was their surprising dominance on the boards. By midway through the second half, Michigan State had a 24-15 advantage. The Spartans were able to use that to push the lead out to 14 points on a Tre Holloman three. The shot came after offensive rebounds by Booker then Sissoko.
The Spartans looked poised to blow the game truly wide open after a three off an inbound by Tyson Walker. From there both sides slowed down. Michigan State took their foot off the gas as Mississippi State flailed through some late game fight. When Steven Izzo took to the floor, the game was (un)officially over. Steve Smith hitting an end of shot clock three was a nice moment, if not necessary.
The offense did everything it needed to do in this game. WHen you have 16 turnovers, it can’t be considered a perfect performance. BUt shooting 50% from the floor, 43.5% from three and 83% from the free throw line is a winning formula. The Spartans got the rugged performance from AJ Hoggard (8 points and 8 assists – even playing off the ball for long stretches) they have craved all year. Scoring wise, Jaden Akins re-found his shooting touch for 15 points and Tyson Walker had the all around game that got him 19 points. Throw in a solid performance from Malik Hall and it was the type of senior led performance the Spartans will need in every game they play in this tournament.
It was not perfect, but it was very good.
Offensive Grade: A-
Defense:
Mississippi State’s Achilles heel coming into this game was their turnovers. Michigan State made them pay for that early on, forcing five in the first 8 minutes. It helped the Spartans that Mississippi State’s Cameron Matthews picked up two quick fouls. The loss of the Bulldogs point-forward clearly caused dysfunction within their offense.
Mississippi State was forced to generate offense through transition. Their half court offense was largely stymied by Michigan State in the first half. Under the basket, MIchigan State’s big men held up and forced the ball out to the perimeter. This was exactly what the Spartans wanted. Mississippi State has poor three point shooting but takes a lot of them. Forcing their offense to be one-dimensional from long range was a strategic win in the first half.
Late in the first half the Bulldogs were able to hit a few of those threes they were putting up. Their scoring leader, Josh Hubbard broke free for too many quality looks and hit 3 of 5. At least two of those were because AJ Hoggard was late to close. The Spartans needed to be substantially more defensively disciplined – particularly with the Bulldogs other two scorers on the bench for much of the half with fouls.
Holding the Bulldogs to only 24 points was an accomplishment but some key mistakes allowed them to stay close.
Akins finally looked like he was in the flow offensively in this game but even more impressive was some of his defense. On a key stretch early in the second half he raced back to block a transition layup, tipped a big defensive rebound over to Mady Sissoko, and grabbed his own rebound.
While the Spartans had been playing solid post defense, they got caught ball watching too many times for a key stretch in the second half. Quick passing by the Bulldogs gave Cameron Matthews easy lanes to the bucket for slams from the dunker position. Like Hubbard in the first half, Matthews is simply too obvious an offensive weapon for the Bulldogs to be left alone like that.
The Spartan defense had a few lapses but was largely very good in this game. They were helped by some fouls on Mississippi State’s key players, but it took game plan and execution to stifle the Bulldogs. Mississippi State totaled 51 points, with 11 of those formally coming on fast breaks and 19 coming off turnovers. The true half court defense for Spartans was lights out in this game.
Defensive Grade: A
Transition:
Michigan State was trying to push the ball right from the start. On paper, transition looked like an area the Spartans could exploit. A steal by Tyson Walker that turned into Xavier Booker kicked off a 8-0 transition run. Sissoko had back to back rebounds that led to early offense. AJ Hoggard pushed the ball quickly off those rebounds and it led to a dunk for Sissoko and back to back threes for Walker. That flurry pushed the early score out to 18-8 with 12:14 left in the first half and triggered a Mississippi State timeout.
Mississippi State found some success in transition once Michigan State started turning the ball over. Three turnovers in less than a minute led to a 7-0 run. The Spartans were slow to get back on two of those and allowed early offense for the Bulldogs.
The Spartans once again got sloppy with the ball in the early going of the second half. It took a heroic effort by Jaden Akins to block a transition layup. Immediately, MSU turned the ball over again though.
Each time the Spartans offense looked like it was rolling, Mississippi State found ways to create transition offense. After building a 12-point lead, the Spartans allowed back to back transition baskets.
As a counter in this phase of the game, the Spartans faced an inbounds into a full court press situation and turned it into a speed run by AJ Hoggard to an alley oop for Malik Hall. It was a heads up play by a senior point guard.
On paper the transition game was strong for both teams. Mississippi State generated 20% of their total offense on the break. It was a credit to some solid transition defense that was not even more. Jaden Akins huge block on a layup and AJ Hoggard’s late strip of in transition were just two of the defensive highlights. Michigan State was able to use transition in the first half to go on a 7-0 run that defined the rest of the matchup.
Those key moments – and mostly the defense, raise this grade up above ordinary.
Transition Grade: A-
Coaching:
Tom Izzo went with Carson Cooper at the five in the starting lineup. The sophomore has been the logical choice in the closing stretch of games this year. The surprise was who was off the bench first. Mady Sissoko was the first center off the bench after falling out of the playing rotation. This decision clearly was a reward for his stellar ten minutes against Purdue. It was potentially also an acknowledgement (or fear) that Mississippi State’s front court is simply too physically strong for Kohler or Booker. The good news for Izzo was Sissoko looked more like the active and effort based player that excited at Purdue than the ineffectual stiff he was for too much of the season.
Out of the first timeout Izzo inserted Booker for Malik Hall (Holloman had already replaced Akins) and he was the beneficiary of a Tyson Walker steal for an easy layup. He also had the ball stolen from him. Izzo showed dedication to Booker going to him out of the first timeout and got both the good and the bad of the freshman.
Out of the second timeout, Michigan State went further into its bench bringing int Kohler and Coen Carr. The early rotation was vintage Izzo, using his depth to keep his starting five fresh while getting everyone acclimated to the game. It worked out for Michigan State that relatively free flowing game play meant each group got a decent stretch of play rather than looking frenetic.
Izzo used his personnel in some (relatively) new ways. Tyson Walker played at the point guard a lot more – particularly when the Spartans started turning the ball over. Against Purdue, Walker had done something similar that he had classified less as playing the point and more as simply getting the ball more in the middle. Either way it looked different and set up AJ Hoggard more in the corner – a spot on the floor that his three point shooting percentage is substantially higher.
Izzo used Booker a good amount in the game. Carson Cooper was not playing super well (limited potentially by the mask he was wearing) and Kohler looked overmatched physically. This meant Booker was paired with Mady Sissoko more than we’ve seen at any point this year. The two combined for some solid defensive and offensive (rebounding mostly) stretches. Their length clearly helped disrupt Mississippi State.
Izzo used some new lineups and trusted some players (Booker) he has only recently started to use. This showed how much growth he has gotten out of Booker this year, as well as some evolution in his team strategy.
Michigan State looked prepared for this game in all facets. The veterans were ready to play, Jaden Akins shook off his recent malaise, and strategically the Spartans looked ready for (almost) everything Mississippi State threw at them. If it weren’t for the pressure zone having so much success against the Spartans this would have been one of Tom Izzo’s better coaching jobs in the tournament.
Coaching Grade: A-
Overall:
Michigan State did everything they needed to win this game. They played very tight half court defense, got back in transition and found ways to score when needed on offense. Their uncharacteristic turnovers were the one true blight on their game.
The Spartans countered that sloppiness by attacking the rim and hustling in every defensive situation. Except for a late flurry of rebounds by Mississippi State, the Spartans dominated the boards for most of the game. THey finished with a 6-rebound advantage but that was closer to double digits for most of play.
Potentially most impressively is that while the Spartans played well offensively, no one (including Akins) truly “went nuts”. Akins finished with 15 points on solid shooting. His offense looked in the flow of the game. This is the guy the Spartans expect to get every night. If he can keep doing this, it will be a very interesting matchup in the second round (most likely against UNC).
Overall Grade: A-