The Michigan State men's basketball team wasn't challenged too much by Georgia Southern on Tuesday night, as the Spartans defeated the Eagles by a final score of 86-55.
With that said, MSU head coach Tom Izzo feels that his team is still not performing up to the level it is capable of.
Izzo credited Georgia Southern head coach Charlie Henry, who is a Michigan native, and then discussed his own team.
"I think he's got a collection of athletes and a collection of players," Izzo said about Henry. "I think they've just got to get playing together. I liked a lot of things about his team on film."
As for the Spartans, Izzo was pleased with his squad in the first half, but then saw some things that concerned him.
"I liked our team a lot in the first half," Izzo said. "I thought we were good defensively. I thought we made some mistakes offensively. But this is what this is for, learning a lot about playing those freshmen. At the end, in the last seven minutes, we gave up four threes and we and gave up 23 points of their 55 in seven minutes. It wasn't the subs; it was some of our (rotational) guys."
Izzo did credit the play of freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr. and sophomore guard Tre Holloman. Fears finished the game with six points, three assists and a career-high/team-high rebounds. Holloman scored seven points and dished out a career-high/team-high 10 assists.
Izzo was happy that his team recorded 23 assists on 31 made baskets, got 60 shots up and got to the free-throw line 30 times compared to only nine free-throw attempts for the Eagles. However, he was not pleased with the free-throw shooting itself (19-for-30, 63%) and the turnovers (15).
With Big Ten play starting next week against Wisconsin, Izzo made it clear that the playing rotation is going to get smaller if certain players don't step up.
"We did some really good things and I thought some very average things," Izzo said. "The biggest thing is now that playing group is gonna shrink. Nobody's fault, just some of the freshmen aren't ready to play and they're gonna have to either get ready in a week or we're gonna start shrinking it down because that does create some of our problems."
Michigan State made a couple of changes to the starting lineup on Tuesday night. Holloman started in place of senior guard A.J. Hoggard, and center Mady Sissoko returned to to the starting lineup over Carson Cooper.
Sissoko started the first three games of the season before coming off of the bench in each of the three contests prior to the Georgia Southern game. Hoggard had started the first six games of the 2023-2024 campaign.
When asked about the changes, and how Hoggard responded to coming off of the bench, Izzo did not mince words. He even mentioned that team needs to channel its inner-Draymond Green and bring more passion and intensity, as the former Spartan and current Golden State Warrior always did.
"I know you won't believe this, or people won't believe this, (but) I'm trying everything I can try to get A.J. to play at a level that I think he's capable of playing at," Izzo said about Hoggard. "And for the most part, I've pampered him, I've yelled at him, I've done this and that, so I just said, 'We're gonna try something different.' It's not all his fault that we are getting off to these slow starts, but he is a much better player than he is playing and it's my job to help him succeed. So, I know people will say, 'Is that helping him,' (but) what you do is, you try different things.
"How did I think (Hoggard) responded? It was OK the first half. I thought better most of the second half, until he got a little lazy, everybody did defensively at the end. I was disappointed in that because, you know it's funny, I was talking to Draymond (Green) today because he plays tonight, and if you benched a guy back in the day, they'd be frothing at the mouth, upset with you and this and that. Or, if I took him out, and he had nine rebounds like we did Malik (Hall), and then we tried to put him back in to get his tenth because I believe in personal goals as well, but when I took Draymond out, he threatened my life, my wife and my kids, and we're missing that right now. We've just got to get a little hungrier to accomplish personal goals and team goals."
Those comments may seem a little bit harsh, but the relationship between Izzo and Hoggard has always been a bit give and take. Izzo challenges and calls out Hoggard because he knows he can take it, and he also wants him to reach his potential.
Overall, Izzo is looking to turn Hoggard into the player that he is capable of being.
"Read my lips, hear my voice – I think he's a hell of a player," Izzo said about Hoggard. "(I think) he's gotta play a lot better than he's been playing. And I think he can, and I just gotta keep pushing buttons, and I'm going to keep pushing buttons until I figure it out. But the bottom line is, if I help him, he helps us. If I don't help him, we don't get help either. So, it's not a punishment, (I) didn't do it to embarrass him. I did it because, to be honest with you, a couple of those other guys played pretty well.
"But we're not gonna be as good until A.J. starts playing where he is capable of playing, and he had a hell of a summer, but it's a little up and down. When you talk to a person and they say, 'What do you mean?' That's not a good sign because you should know what you mean — you watch tape, you listen to coaches, you should know what you mean. So, I'm just trying to find a way to do him a favor, and that's make him a great player because he is better than he is playing. He was better tonight, but the competition wasn't the same, so we'll see. But I will say this: we're not going to beat the best teams if he's not playing a lot better than he has been playing. That's the goal."
Hoggard finished the game against the Eagles with 12 points, four assists, two rebounds and three steals.
As for the switch at center, Izzo facetiously said that he loves "quarterback controversies," before noting that assistant coach Doug Wojcik felt like the right move was to start Sissoko over Cooper on Tuesday, but the two bigs will continue to play around equal minutes moving forward.
"Doug (Wojcik) felt like Mady (Sissoko) played really well against Arizona," Izzo said. "Coop(er)'s playing well, but he's not playing as well as he was, so we keep them on their toes and working. But for the most part, Coop played 16-17 minutes, Mady played 16 minutes, so they're gonna probably be at 20 and 20 (minutes) because we're not going to be able to sub all those big guys in big games. But they're both cool with it, I'm cool with it."
Another player who Izzo wants to see more out of is junior guard Jaden Akins. While Akins played well on Tuesday with 14 points, six rebounds, two blocks, a steal and an assist, Izzo knows the Spartans will only go as far as the veterans take them.
"He's shooting the ball better," Izzo said about Akins. "He didn't settle for just threes, he did some good things, got in there and pulled up over people. That was encouraging. He got some rebounds when he gets some rebounds, he's more active. He's better. I think, if you ask me, those two guys (Akins and Hoggard), need to play a lot better if we're gonna be consistent. And that's how much I think of two guys, so make sure you (media members) read it and write it the right way. I think enough of those two guys, I think they're better than they've been playing."
While Akins also had a solid scoring outing against Arizona on Thanksgiving Day, recording 12 points, Izzo mentioned that the guard, and everybody on the team, needs to put two consistent halves together.
"You don't get to play a half, by the way," Izzo said. "Against Arizona — you must be a point-watcher (if you think otherwise) — because a guy scores points, that doesn't mean he played good. And the first half down there (in Palm Springs) wasn't very good, second half was good. But we've got to put two halves together, this is Big Ten basketball."
Izzo also mentioned that he wants to continue to lean on graduate senior guard Tyson Walker. Walker leads Michigan State in scoring with 20.5 points per game, but has been recovering from a recent illness. Izzo noted that Walker isn't all the way back yet, but he wants to continue to put things on the guard's shoulders.
"I don't want to take any pressure off Tyson Walker," Izzo said. "I want to put a lot of pressure on Tyson Walker because I think he's one of the best players in this league, and I'm gonna put more pressure on Tyson Walker."
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