Michigan State went on the road and actually won. The win over Penn State lacked the dominance of their first matchup but will pay dividends to the Spartan’s postseason standing.
Michigan State men’s basketball used a big first half advantage in transition to beat Penn State on the road. The 80-72 margin of victory made the game look closer than it really was. Michigan State led by double digits for the majority of the game and had a career night from fifth year senior Malik Hall to secure the win.
The grades still reveal some troubling spots, but overall it is an important step in building to the postseason.
Details of the Curve for this Game: Penn State is not a good team. They are not a terrible team, but they are not good. Their record features some big wins, but largely this team has struggled this season and should be well handled by the Spartans. Michigan State beat this team by 31 the first time they met. This means, the curve for this game means MSU must overperform expectations to do well.
Offense:
The Spartans were so committed to transition offense that the half court offense suffered. When MSU failed to convert early drives they were left looking lost in the half court. Even as MSU scored 18-points in the first 10-minutes, maybe four of those points came in traditional half court offense. It may not matter against Penn State, but it was odd to see them look so disjointed in this aspect early on.
One of the parts slowing Michigan State was the clear pain Tyson Walker was in. While Walker displayed some speed at a few moments early on, he was clearly moving gingerly due to his ongoing groin injury. Walker is a gritty player who continued to play through the pain – even if he most likely shouldn’t have been on the court as soon as Michigan State took a big lead.
As Michigan State opened up the lead to double digits Jaden Akins started making things happen. He was superb in the transition game and even more impressive hitting open threes. Many of those threes were early in the shot clock, but the shots were so open and so pure looking they were great decisions. For a squad that has taken surprisingly few threes in recent weeks, Akins going 4/4 in the first 16-minutes of the game was a really welcome sign of improvement.
Jaden Akins had 16 points in the first half, powering MSU to a 45-31 lead. Despite a slow start to the game, Michigan State’s offense was dominant after the 16-minute mark of the first half.
While Akins shooting was worthy of highlight reels, the most surprising offensive performance may have been Carson Cooper. Cooper had 10 points by the 15-minute mark of the second half. It helped the Sophomore big man that Penn State was double teaming Malik Hall on every touch. The fact that Cooper could get himself into position to take the dump off pass from Hall and convert it was a huge improvement. That type of opportunistic defense by a Michigan State big man has been missing all year.
Michigan State relied on traditional half court offense a lot more in the second half. This is when Malik Hall started carrying the team. Because Carson Cooper was making Penn State pay for doubling Hall, the fifth year senior saw a lot more one-on-one defense. This opened up scoring for Hall.
Hall started making moves that fans have dreamed of for years. Penn State completely abandoned doubling the fifth year senior and were willing to switch smaller guards onto the forward. Hall made them pay over and over again. Penn State is clearly not a strong defensive team, but the impact of Cooper actually converting some of the early dump offs was clear. Hall playing next to an even semi competent offensive center makes him a substantially more impactful offensive player.
In a game where a clearly hobbled Tyson Walker combined with AJ Hoggard for 10-points it’s impressive the Spartans were able to score 80-points. Jaden Akins carried the team in the first half, and Malik Hall looked every bit the fifth year senior carrying the team in the second half. Led by Hall’s 8-8 and Carson Cooper’s 4-4 free throw performance, the Spartans found the offensive margins in the details.
Whereas free throw shooting lost them the game against Minnesota it won the game in the end at Penn State. The Spartans still had some offensive warts in this game. The ball movement was less than it should have been, the assist rate a bit lower than expected (assists on 50% of made shots), and the shooting not distributed enough to players like Tre Holloman who needs to rediscover his aggressive shooting.
Still, a stellar performance from Hall, Akins and Carson Cooper carried the game.
Offensive Grade: A-
Defense:
Staying with the theme that MSU’s approach was to run-run-run, the defense seemed focused on creating turnovers rather than stopping scoring. This approach worked in the first matchup with Penn State but early on it also showed the risks. With MSU’s guards focusing on slapping at the ball, the Nittany Lions were able to get up a free open looks early on. The insertion of Tre Holloman seemed to calm the defense a bit, as he was on the floor while the Spartans took their first run of the game to take a big lead. It was not that others were playing bad defense, it was more that Holloman played more positional defense which actually opened up the steal opportunities for others.
The Spartans gave up 31 points in the first half. A third of that was in the first 4-minutes of the game. From there, MSU owned Penn State on offense and defense in the first half. The Spartans perimeter defense tightened up, forced turnovers, and prevented post offense from the Nittany Lions.
The second half defense looked like the early defense in the first half. Namely, it was poor. Tyson Walker was slow to rotate a few times and overall Penn State simply looked more prepared to deal with Michigan State’s pressure tactics. The Nittany Lions were able to cut the lead to just 9 by the 15-minute mark, and it would have been a lot closer if Penn State had a few close shots drop. Most concerning was the offense at the rim for Penn State, the Spartans had done a good job of mostly taking that away in the first half.
Penn State found success going at Malik Hall. In almost every other game this has been a mistake for teams. In this one, Hall was out of position on more than a few possessions, allowing Penn State to get passes to cutters in the lane. A few times it looked like Walker may not have stuck with the cutter or been out of position to bother the pass. It was still surprising to see Penn State winning around Hall in the position game.
It’s effectively mean to nitpick what was otherwise a career night for Hall, yet there were some lapses defensively. Considering Hall played 34-minutes, some of that late may have simply been fatigue.
The rest of the defense for Michigan State could have been better. Penn State outscored Michigan State in the second half. The Spartan defense never regained the intensity it displayed in the first half. The team had a few lapses that would only be allowable in a true blowout. Considering the margin of victory was 8-points in the end, that’s not a great performance overall.
Defensive Grade: B-
Transition:
Michigan State started the offensive strategy trying to run and drive. Considering the big margin of victory in their first matchup this made sense. Push the ball fast and hard and MSU could take the game over. Unfortunately, it didn’t work early on. AJ Hoggard missed his first early drive. Hoggard and Tyson Walker both had early drives rejected. The strategy to push the ball early also left MSU looking out of sorts when they had to play half court offense.
The run-run-run strategy paid off. Michigan State continued to play pressure defense that created turnovers and fast offense. The success in early offense led to one of the highest point scoring totals for the team in the first half this year. The Spartans exploited a bad Penn State defense to roll to a 45-31 lead at half.
The Spartans rode absolute dominance in transition to a huge first half lead. When they started to slow the game down – at least in part to accommodate a clearly slowed Tyson Walker – the game got a lot closer. Michigan State didn’t need the dominance in the second half in transition, but it did lose a bit of a step. That felt more strategic than Penn State stopping anything.
Michigan State used transition to win this game. They got up big on Penn State in the first half, and then rode that lead as they slowed the pace down. It could have been a bigger performance in transition. Regardless, it was crucial and well executed when prioritized.
Transition Grade: A-
Coaching:
Tom Izzo changed up his rotation again in this game. His first substitution came a bit later than he wanted due to game play. His first rotation was Carson Cooper (expected) and Tre Holloman. Immediately during the 16-minute timeout Coen Carr was added in as well. Holloman has spent some most of the season being the non-center first sub, but Carr back into the initial substitution pattern was a change after Jaxon Kohler had been second or third off the bench the last few games.
It’s an odd move considering how well Kohler played against Illinois, but a good sign to see the freshman back in the early mix for the first time in almost a month.
Kohler replaced Carr after the freshman got a nice transition basket and played some decent defense. A solid showing from a young player MSU could use to take a big end of season leap.
Xavier Booker got an extended run once the Spartans put the lead out to double digits. His time on the court looked extended because there was no gap in play to bring in the four (really) subs that sat a the scorers table for more than two minutes. Initially the young freshman didn’t do much. Particularly on defense, Booker spent most of his time about three steps behind Penn State’s center. Luckily for everyone the perimeter defense was strong enough to avoid any passes into the post during this period.
On the offensive end, Booker had a personal 5-point spurt that will undoubtedly have fans screaming for more time for the five-star freshman. Those fans will ignore that Booker jogged up and down the court and was out of position consistently on offense and defense. Still, the freshman flashes offense at times and it is tantalizing to watch.
Jaxon Kohler’s next extended run came about 6-minutes into the second half. It still didn’t feel like enough court time for a player who seems to have the ability to improve Michigan State. The struggle for Tom Izzo is Xavier Booker took some time at the five spot, and Coen Carr took some time at the four spot – a smart move as he has looked lost at the three spot in recent weeks. Malik Hall was essential to the offense and defense for most of the game. That leaves not a lot of time for Kohler. These are the times of pains MSU wishes it got out of the way early in the season, but that was derailed by Kohler’s injury.
Coen Carr had a truly bad stretch in the second half. His time on the court ended after he committed a foul very late in the shot clock that bailed Penn State out and then committed a blatant travel in the back court after inbounding the ball on the next possession. That section led to Penn State cutting the lead to 8-points. Carr is an electric player with huge upside. More sequences like that will make the end of season playing time decisions unfortunately easy for Izzo.
Izzo deciding not to bring back Xavier Booker late in the second half was disappointing. Carson Cooper is starting to separate himself from Mady Sissoko and he played most of the second half. When he got pulled for a rest at about the 4-minute mark with MSU having a double digit lead, it felt like a great moment to get some more minutes for the freshman. Perhaps Izzo simply did not want to risk anything in the closing minutes, but that conservative approach limited another potentially helpful stretch for Booker.
Considering Izzo played Sissoko for less than 90-seconds before going back to Cooper, it adds credence to the idea it was simply an abundance of caution to protect the lead rather than an indictment of Booker.
Booker and Carr did get inserted for the final minute of the game in what was essentially garbage time. Concerningly, the Spartans led their double digit lead shrink to 8-points with some sloppy play, but that looked more team wide than the fault of the freshman.
Tom Izzo created a game plan that exploited Penn State’s weaknesses (transition) and relied on some veterans (Hall and Akins) with Hoggard and Walker having quiet nights. In the first half he was able to rotate deeply into his roster and he gave considerable time and deference to Carson Cooper who is finally emerging as the better center. In a year where everyone in the country is struggling to win on the road this was a solid performance and a sound strategic approach.
Coaching Grade: A
Overall:
The Spartans won this game and left no doubt. Road games have been unkind to Michigan State (and everyone it seems) this year. Yet, other than a slow start, the Spartans controlled this game essentially throughout. The 8-point margin of victory is deceptive and only a sign that Michigan State got sloppy late. The lead was consistently 10-12 points for the majority of the game.
Hall’s career night and Jaden Akins big first half helped cover for Tyson Walker and AJ Hoggard who both struggled. Hoggard played limited minutes (25) and only tallied 4 points. His five rebounds and three steals though led the team in those categories. Its a reminder that Hoggard can help this team even if he is not pouring in points. Still, his lack of production was surprising against a Penn State team he should be able to overwhelm.
More concerning was Tyson Walker. His lack of production (6 points on 3 of 8 shooting) is completely understandable considering he visibly looked hobbled by his nagging groin injury. The concerning part was not the production but the time on court. Despite clearly being injured, Izzo played him 34-minutes. That was the one misstep by the hall of fame coach that was clear by the end of the game.
Defensively, Michigan State lacked focus in the second half and let Penn State outscore them in that period. Penn State was not good enough to exploit Michigan State’s sub par defensive performance, but others won’t be that kind to the Spartans.
The Spartans made up for some of that lack of defense by rebounding the ball substantially better. Michigan State outrebounded the Nittany Lions by 10. That, along with 10-points from Carson Cooper helped keep Michigan State in front.
This was an important win that was impressive solely for the fact that it came on the road. If this had been a home game, the win would have been a bit more disappointing in the overall performance. Still, it counts as a win and keeps the Spartans in the hunt to finish in the top four of the league.
Overall Grade: B+