Michigan State Men's Basketball Confidence Report: Early March

With one regular season game remaining (at Indiana on Sunday at 4 p.m. Eastern Time) let's dive into how some of the Michigan State men's basketball roster is trending heading into the final stretch of the 2023-2024 campaign.

Trending up: Forward Malik Hall

Hall has been on a tear since the turn of the calendar year and has really been one of the few consistent pieces the Spartans have had on the court. The graduate senior forward led the team in scoring and rebounding in four of seven February games and has been noticeably more aggressive offensively.

He's stepped up in a way you'd expect seniors under head coach Tom Izzo to heading into March. Unfortunately, over the course of his career, Hall’s inability to stay healthy had been arguably his weakest attribute entering this season. With his injury history in the past, it had been difficult for him to adjust to the motions of a full season and stay consistent. This year, however, Hall has played in every game and has seemed to find a comfort level we haven’t seen from him before.

Not only is Hall shooting the best field goal percentage of his career (53.9%), but he’s doing so on his highest shot volume too (8.9 attempts per game). With the guards on the team showing inconsistency in the last month, Hall may need to gear up for an even heightened role. We’ll see how much he has left in the tank, but Hall has become arguably MSU's most reliable player this season.

Flat trend: Guard Tyson Walker

It’s easy to know that having solid guard play isn’t just helpful in March, but necessary. Last year, A.J. Hoggard and Walker were catalysts in the Spartans’ Sweet 16 run where they narrowly fell to Kansas State in overtime. The Northeastern transfer came up big in the three tournament games, which rolled over to the excitement entering this season when he announced his return to East Lansing as a graduate senior.

Walker leads the team in scoring and is fifth in the conference at 18 points per game, but has taken a small step back in February. This can likely be attributed to Walker's groin injury that Izzo noted was perhaps a "little more (serious)" than originally thought. The graduate senior only had one game (versus Maryland) where he shot above 50% from the field last month, which can also be attributed to some of the other guards struggling as scorers. He's been a true three-level scorer much of the year, and defenses have really began to tighten on him.

While Walker has always been a higher volume scorer, the Spartans will need him to be more efficient moving into one-and-done play.

Trending down: G A.J. Hoggard and G Jaden Akins

Two key players entering the year have proven this season how important they are to the makeup of this team when they play well, or do not.

Hoggard has shown in spurts this season what we saw in the NCAA Tournament last year, but there’s been inconsistency. This team thrives when the senior point guard is aggressive and getting to the rim, which he can do often at will. He was a big part of the win over Illinois earlier last month, scoring 23 points with 12 coming from the free-throw line.

The issue is, those games have been few and far between for Hoggard as of late, as he only scored in double-digits once in the month of February. Against Purdue, he finished with just eight points on 3-for 13 shooting from the floor. On senior night versus Northwestern, he had six points in possibly a must win game that the Spartans squeaked by in.

As for Akins, anticipation surrounded him for a potential breakout year, as hailed by Izzo as the team's premier sharpshooter. With a shortage of wing players, there was an expectation for him to consistently pose a scoring threat, especially from beyond the arc. Unfortunately, the junior guard has not been able to find his stride late in the season.

Akins often gets swallowed up when driving to the lane and hasn’t shot the ball to the level the team needs him to in order to open up the floor for the other guards. Akins has only scored in double figures once in his last five games and had zero points on Wednesday versus Northwestern on 0-for-7 shooting from the field.

For this team to not only survive, but thrive, Hoggard and Akins will need to be better. It’s that simple.

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