Michigan State opened its men’s basketball regular season with an 81-57 home victory over the Monmouth Hawks.
Senior guard Jaden Akins was impressive as he tied his career-high in points with 23 on 8-for-12 shooting. The second leading scorer for the Spartans was true freshman guard Jase Richardson.
He scored 10 points in his first career college basketball regular season game. He was 4-for-5 shooting to go along with four assists, two rebounds and one steal – all with his dad, Jason, who was also coached by Tom Izzo at Michigan State, watching at the Breslin Center.
“This is the first collegiate game for me, so it’s definitely something I could build off of,” Richardson said after the win. “I feel like my teammates really got me in the right positions to score today.”
Izzo was also encouraged with what he saw out of the Denver native.
“I thought Jase Richardson, for a freshman, not only played well, but he played with a purpose,” Izzo said. “He has a great basketball IQ, so when we were struggling there, we put him and Jeremy (Fears Jr.) in together. I thought that really helped us.”
Because of Richardson’s basketball IQ, it made him look all the more comfortable on the floor in his first college basketball game.
“He just knows how to play,” Izzo said. “He’s more athletic than you think. He’s not his dad, but he is more athletic than you think. But, he just kind of has a feel. He has a feel for the game. He made that one bad turnover driving. He should’ve lobbed it up and right away he came over and said, ‘I should’ve lobbed (it).’ He gets it.
“(He) was a little better defensively, a couple times he broke down, but to think he hasn’t played at this level and just a couple years ago he had that knee injury and didn’t play his whole year almost, that’s really encouraging. And he’s such a bright kid and such a good kid. That was a big positive for us.”
Richardson backed up Izzo’s comments. With all the time spent around his teammates in the offseason leading up to now, Richardson felt comfortable on the floor in front of a packed Breslin Center crowd.
“I was pretty comfortable,” Richardson said. “Being around these guys, I felt like we were really ready going into this game, so sticking to the game plan and then playing the game, I felt pretty comfortable.”
One of Richardson’s goals coming into Monday’s game was to bring energy and confidence coming off the bench. While he didn’t start, he still played a total of 22 minutes and had the second-best plus-minus on the team (plus-17).
“Coming off the bench, I feel like I need to be high energy,” he said. “(I need to) try to help the team in any way I can, so going out there, trying to fill any spot I can.”
During portions of Monday’s game against Monmouth, Michigan State played with a lineup that included Richardson and Fears Jr. While Fears Jr., isn’t a big scoring threat, he did contribute a lot on the offensive end. He ended the game with eight assists.
Richardson thinks that with Fears Jr. and him on the court, they can both make plays offensively.
“Me and Jeremy (Fears Jr.), we basically have two point guards in the backcourt because I grew up playing the point guard,” Richardson said. “So, having me and Jeremy, I feel like there’s a lot of IQ on the court and we can make a lot of plays.”
The Spartans will continue non-conference play on Thursday at the Breslin Center. They will take on Niagara with tipoff set for 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Big Ten Network.
Postgame media availability videos:
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