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EAST LANSING — Oakland University basketball coach Greg Kampe has been on the sideline for more than 1,000 games over three-plus decades.

And he’s never seen a team as speedy as No. 10 Michigan State.

Cassius Winston scored a season-high 26 points and directed an efficient fast-paced offense, leading the Spartans to a 99-69 win over Oakland on Friday night at Breslin Center.

"I have been around a long time and never looked at a stat sheet and seen 47 fastbreak points," Kampe said. "Holy sh&#."

For the second straight game against an Horizon League opponent, MSU's fastbreak and counterbreak after made baskets by the opponent was fast and deadly for the Spartans. MSU's regulars had only five turnovers. The Spartans had seven total turnovers for the game.

“They are the fastest team that I’ve played against in 40 years of coaching,” Kampe said. "They are the fastest team that I’ve seen, not in just being fast, but they get something done. They get stuff done with their speed."

Kampe is a great one to evaluate Michigan State. He has coached against the Spartans 17 times, including 12 of the last 13 years. Three of the last seven meetings have been decided by 10 points or less. He knows the Spartans.

“I’ve seen fast Michigan State teams,” he said. “I’ve never seen a Michigan State team like that. I think they’re really good. Not good. Really, really good.”

He didn’t say this is the best Michigan State team he’s seen. He didn't say it wasn't.

“It’s a different (Michigan State) team,” he said. “Cassius might get mad at me and (Nick) Ward might get mad at me, but I don’t see a (NBA) Lottery pick out there. I see pros out there. I think both of those guys are pros. But last year we knew we weren’t going to score around the rim with (Jaren) Jackson in there.”

Jackson and Miles Bridges took their talents to the NBA Lottery. The remaining players, plus a smattering of helpful freshmen and a resurgeant Kyle Ahrens, are creating a pretty good mix.

Kampe is the third-longest tenured coach in the country, behind only Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim. Kampe is No. 14 among active Division coaches in wins with 606.

Kampe thought things would be available to his team against the Spartans.

“Then you play against them …” he said.

Kampe's team is transition-oriented. But he wanted to slow things down in this game.

"We were willing to give that up," he said. "We saw them score 64 points against Green Bay in the first half. We wanted to walk the ball up the floor. But we couldn't stop them.

"I mean their speed ... and Winston is so unbelievable in transition. With his change-of-direction and change-of-pace with the ball, and the way he can control the ball and find people, we couldn't stop it. I mean he is so good with the ball and gets it where it belongs, and when you start to leave him, he gets to the rim."

* Ward scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and battled some foul trouble. The junior big man is now a ridiculous 34-of-38 from the field in his last four games.

Usually, Ward scores at point-blank range. In this game, he nailed a pair of baseline jumpers, from 12 and 16 feet.

"Ward is unbelievable," Kampe said. "Look at him and you can't believe he can get down the floor like that. We are trying to sprint back, screaming and yelling about running. And he's flailing away, he gets down there and lays it in."

* Joshua Langford scored 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting.

* Senior wing Matt McQuaid scored nine points and was a helpful 3-of-5 from 3-point range.

* Ahrens scored eight points, including a 3-pointer, but played only 12 minutes as Izzo tried to give freshmen more playing time with only one game remaining prior to the resumption of Big Ten play.

* Freshman back-up point guard Foster Loyer had four assists, one turnover and was 1-of-2 from the floor. He pushed the ball and saw the court pretty well in transition. He airballed a 3-pointer from the left wing. His field goal was a fast-break, pull-up jumper from 15 feet.

* Freshman center Marcus Bingham made another 3-pointer, nailing one from the top of the key on a pick-and-pop from Loyer. Bingham played nine minutes and had four rebounds.

* Freshman wing Gabe Brown is still hot from deep. After making three-of-four 3-pointers against Green Bay, he drilled his one and only 3-pointer on this night, but caught some wrath for a defensive error.

* Freshman guard Aaron Henry was his usual steady self on defense, and contributed two points in 13 minutes, but no rebounds. He was 1-of-3 from the field.

* The Spartans (10-2) have won five straight, but coach Tom Izzo, as usual, is far from satisfied.

“The effort-related things weren’t there,” said Izzo. "The defense wasn't good at times. The rebounding wasn't good the whole night."

The Grizzlies (4-9) dropped their fourth game in a row, growing pains for a young team.

“I’ve never been in a transition where we have no one who played last year,” Kampe said.

But Kampe likes his team, and expects the Grizzlies to get into position to battle for the Horizon League championship and an NCAA Tournament bid.

“Why do we win in February? Because of who we play,” said Kampe, whose team hasn't had a home game since November and doesn't apologize for scheduling teams like MSU. His teams are now 0-17 against Michigan State.

Izzo liked most of what MSU did in transition, and was a little surprised by Kampe's compliments - and didn't necessarily agree with all of it.

Izzo was in a chipper mood for the holidays, with the coaches releasing Spartan players for the weekend. They aren't due to report back until Dec. 26.

But Izzo was a little grumpy about the details.

"Our guard play defensively definitely wasn't good enough," he said. "That was disappointing.

"I wanted to leave here feeling good."

He wasn't quite there.

"I thought we got some work done on our break, but we are going to have spend time on our defense," Izzo said.

He's already thinking ahead to future practices.

"I didn't want to play the war (rebounding) game this week (in practice) because I knew guys were tired," Izzo said.

MSU worked on offensive execution, and quick precision this week - and saw some progress.

Winston and Ward looked a step faster in this game than they were at the end of MSU's early-season grind of six games in 24 days, which ended with a victory at Florida on Dec. 8.

MSU took last week off for final exams, and had all week after Sunday's victory over Green Bay to work on team concepts and prepare for Oakland.

"We got some guys some rest," Izzo said. "We're a good running team, if Cassius is running. I liked the way Nick was running the court, and he was having a hell of a game before he got in foul trouble. But our wings didn't run as good tonight.

"I didn't think we were as good as we were against Iowa, but I do think we can run. And you run better when you rebound."

"No excuses, we have to come back and improve in that area (rebounding)," Izzo said. "Hopefully guys will come back from Christmas ready to go."

* Oakland’s Xavier Hill-Mais, a cagey big man at 6-foot-7 with an old man game inside and some face-up skills outside, had 17 points on 8-of-20 shooting. He fouled out with seven minutes to play.

“The air went out of us (when he fouled out),” Kampe said.

* The Spartans took control of the game early with a balanced offensive attack, making extra passes to open teammates. They led 45-32 at halftime.

Michigan State pulled away midway through the second half, ultimately leading by 30-plus points.

“They were a pretty good team, but we did a good job of putting a run together and blowing it open,” Winston said.

But not as easily as Izzo wanted.

"We had some 15-, 17-point leads, and they cut it down to 12," Izzo said. "We haven't learned how to step on a guy's throat.

"I thought we had some great practices. But there is a point in time when everybody plays the score. They (Oakland) come in with a 4-8 record. They are better than 4-8. They have lost some tight games and this is the Super Bowl for them, and it should be."

* Oakland freshman guard Braden Norris had 18 points, including 6-of-7 from 3-point range. The rookie from Hilliard, Ohio is an outstanding 32 of 50 from 3-point range on the season (64 percent).

* Kampe could have talked about MSU all night in the post-game press conference. He praised MSU's physicality, using senior Kenny Goins as an example

"Their strength coach must be phenomenal," Kampe said. "I recruited Goins. He turned us down to walk-on here. He didn't look anything like he looks now."

* Oakland tried to slow the pace by playing a 1-3-1 zone, with a collapsing weakside. Kampe felt the zone took MSU a little bit out of its rhythm. MSU had some success with interior passes, and sporadic success from 3-point range, but Oakland forged a few comebacks.

* Oakland held an edge on the boards for most of the night, but eventually was out-rebounded 37-32 by MSU.

MSU had only seven offensive rebounds on 27 missed shots (26 percent).

"With about six minutes to go, they (Michigan State) only had four offensive rebounds," Kampe said. "You can go back a long time in this building (and not find a time when that has happened).

"So I am really proud of the (progress) we've made."

* Izzo saw some correctable moments. He felt some players were becoming negligent on the defensive boards, trying to leak out in transition.

"We thought our wings, and even Nick, were sneaking out of there," Izzo said. "That's why they (Oakland) got 11 offensive rebounds. We have to shore that up."

* Oakland came into the game ranked No. 7 in the country in 3-point field goal percentage. Oakland makes an average of 11 3-pointers per game, and went 13-of-23 in this game.

"We really worked hard on keeping our hands up," Izzo said. "We didn't always do that."

Loyer received a harsh reprimand on one occasion for failing to do so.

"My staff said at halftime that four of their five 3-pointers were pretty well-contested," Izzo said, "and three of them were right at the shot clock, so give them credit."

* MSU's ball movement, finding open 3-pointers with the extra pass, was excellent for most of the night.

In transition, MSU found Winston at times as a trailer, after he had forwarded the ball to a wing and then got it back as the late man. That was a new layer for MSU's trademark fastbreak.

"(Winston) was ready to shoot," Izzo said. "He had some wide-open shots with our passing. He did a good job of pushing the ball and he made a couple of those floaters."

Eight of Winston's 10 field goals were in transition.

“They always seemed to make that next pass,” Kampe said. “And that’s a hard thing to guard.”

* Michigan State sophomore forward Xavier Tillman had eight points, seven rebounds, a career-high five assists, one block and one steal off the bench in just 16 minutes.

Izzo wants to go from good to great on defense. That'll start with Winston.

Izzo pulled Winston out of the game, three minutes into it, after he was stripped of the ball for a turnover, and was tardy for a defensive assignment.

“He’s got to bear down on the defensive end,” Izzo said. “If he does that, he goes from a very, very good player to an elite player. That's what I told him after the game.

"We still have some work to do and most of it is defensively. We're good. We are not lock-down great."

Izzo says he is looking forward to "putting the film projector in the toilet" for a couple of days and spending time with his 92-year-old mother, who is in town for Christmas.

And he has an eye on the resumption of practice on Dec. 26.

"We did get after it (this week)," Izzo said. "(Next week), we're going to really get after it defensively. We got a lot done (this week), but to be able to guard, we have to go ones against twos and get after it. We have not gotten after it at the level you need to get after it to get the level we need to get to, defensively. We don't have grinders so we have to create some of the grind."

Winston's ready for the challenge.

"Taking that next step, there's going to be a lot better players to guard," Winston said. "I have to hold down my position, stop relaxing, stay constant, stay consistent on both ends."

Michigan State will play host to Northern Illinois on Dec. 29. The Huskies are coached by former Michigan State point guard and assistant coach Mark Montgomery.

“The Christmas break is going to be huge,” Winston said. “We can be as good as any team in the country.”