Following a loss to James Madison to open the 2023-2024 season, the Michigan State men's basketball team bounced back with a 74-51 victory over an overmatched Southern Indiana team on Thursday night.
While the Spartans got into the win column, there were still some concerns, particularly Michigan State's struggles when it comes to 3-point shooting, and the number of offensive rebounds it gave up to the Screaming Eagles (13 versus just six for MSU). The Spartans narrowly won the overall rebounding battle 37-35.
As for the 3-point shooting, MSU made just one of its 11 3-point attempts (9%) on the night against Southern Indiana. Through two regular-season games this season, the Spartans are now 2-for-31 from deep (.065%).
The 3-point shooting as been abysmal thus far. So, is Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo concerned about the shooting woes? Not quite yet.
"Who's having the party? We made a three (pointer)," Izzo joked about MSU's one make from deep after the win versus Southern Indiana. "I'm sure you're going to ask me, so I'll ask you, 'Are you concerned about the three-point shooting?' I'm going to tell you, I'm not because we did it all summer and all fall and shot the ball really well. It just, they didn't go in. On the other side of the coin, it was great to get to the free-throw line a lot and make a lot of free throws. The positives, our defense was very good early, we had a few lapses in the second half, but it was very good."
Izzo also thought his team did a decent job of limiting turnovers (12 versus Southern Indiana's 15), and essentially said that the Spartans accomplished what they set out to do. Michigan State had 10 players play at least 16 minutes on Thursday night.
Izzo also admitted there were some "disappointments" and specifically called out freshman forward Coen Carr — who was one of the only players Izzo praised after the James Madison game — for his struggles on defense against the Screaming Eagles. On the other side of the coin, he was encouraged by the performance of center Mady Sissoko, who had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and made seven of his eight free-throw attempts (87.5%).
"The turnovers were OK," Izzo said. "We tried to throw a couple of lobs, and I credit A.J. (Hoggard), he tried to get one to (Xavier) Booker, to try to get him going, and that's Books fault. You see that strength is still a factor with him. We didn't get the ball to Tyson (Walker) enough early. We tried to do what we did, and we did exactly what we wanted to do. You know and I know we're not going to play everybody 20 minutes, 10 guys nearly 20 minutes. We almost did that tonight, for a reason. We'll use a lot of that to see now, start separating the playing time a little bit more, still play a lot of guys.
"I guess if there were some disappointments, I was disappointed in Coen (Carr) because he was so good the other night (against James Madison), and he did not guard very well (tonight) and do things he's got to do; he was the first to admit it after. There were some bright spots in Mady (Sissoko) early — Mady going to the free throw line, Mady getting 10 rebounds. I thought Malik (Hall) was more aggressive early, but when you're subbing like how we sub, again we did that on purpose. We're going to expect some bumps in the road, especially in a game like this."
Izzo did note that Carr was "madder at himself" than anybody else, which is "always a good sign."
Izzo was also fairly pleased with Jaden Akins' performance against Southern Indiana, but knows that Akins still has more to give. The Farmington, Michigan native scored 13 points on 55-for-10 shooting (50%), and recorded seven rebounds, two assists and four steals.
The junior guard struggled on Monday against James Madison, making just two out of 10 shots (20%) for four points, although he did also grab a team-high 11 rebounds, so Thursday's bounce-back performance was a welcome sight for Izzo and Akins.
"I thought Jaden (Akins) did some good things, but I'll be honest with you, Jaden is a lot better player than he played," Izzo said. "There was some turnovers, and some things, decisions that were made — he's a better player and he knows that, and I know it. But he did bounce back, and make some shots. He had two wide open threes (that he missed), and he makes those all day long. But he gets 13 points, and what he has continued to do is rebound the ball, and that is the one thing we asked of him after the Tennessee game. To his credit he has done a phenomenal job with that. We'll keep growing from there."
As mentioned, the Spartans allowed far too many offensive rebounds to the Screaming Eagles, and should have dominated the glass against a smaller and less athletic Southern Indiana team.
Izzo noted that his team has to get more physical and put an emphasis on the boards.
"We've gotta rebound the ball better, I think is one lesson," Izzo said. "We have to play a lot more physical. We got some guys that aren't so physical right now."
Senior point guard A.J. Hoggard struggled for the second game in a row. In 21 minutes, he scored just four points on 2-for-7 shooting (28.6%), and recorded four assists compared to three turnovers. He also did not grab a single rebound.
Through two games, Hoggard has made just four of his 18 shots (22.2%) and has missed all five of his 3-point attempts. Hoggard has seven total assists compared to four turnovers. Izzo needs more out of his veteran point guard.
"I thought A.J. has to play better," Izzo said about Hoggard. "He was OK, but I think maybe a little bummed out that he didn't play many minutes in a couple stretches. But we told him that was going to happen until he starts playing harder all the time. So, I am putting a lot of pressure on A.J. because he's one of my better players."
Graduate senior guard Tyson Walker, who led Michigan State in scoring on Thursday night with 14 points, and made six of his seven shots (85.7%) against Indiana State is a little big banged up. He was listed as "questionable" before the game, but played a team-high 24 minutes.
Izzo noted that Walker played with a back brace, which Walker lated clarified in the locker room was back "pads." Earlier in the week, Izzo mentioned Walker was dealing with shin splits. According to Walker, the shin splits have been "on and off."
Overall, Izzo wants to see more out of his veterans, including Hoggard, Akins and graduate senior forward Malik Hall.
"Tyson, I mean, he gave me everything because his back, you probably saw, he had a brace on some of it," Izzo said about Walker. "We need to get him a couple of days here. I just think our best players, Malik (Hall), Jaden (Akins) and A.J. (Hoggard), have to play better than they've been playing."
After the loss to James Madison earlier in the week, Izzo explained that he was planning to make some changes moving forward. The starting lineup remained the same, however, with Hoggard, Walker, Akins, Hall and Sissoko as the first five on the floor.
Izzo mentioned that the Spartans did implement some minor changes, but that the team wasn't quite ready to make massive changes to the lineup or playing rotation this early into the season.
"I did make some changes," Izzo explained. "I didn't bench anybody ... because I didn't wanna get any controversy ... but I think in general, we just told guys, if they don't play harder and push the ball more and do more things, I'm not going to play you, I'm just going to take you out. So, there were a lot of subtle changes made, we just didn't want to make monster changes because we didn't want to have a 'quarterback' controversy this early in the season."
While Michigan State dominated Southern Indiana for the most part, there was a 12-0 run by the Screaming Eagles in the second half. Izzo was not happy with the way his veterans played in that half, although he was encouraged with the way some of the younger guys stepped up after that stretch.
"The encouraging thing is (the young players off the bench) did (respond well), the discouraging thing is our veterans let that kind of go," Izzo said about the Screaming Eagles' 12-0 run. "But (Southern Indiana) hit some shots, too. They hadn't been shooting the ball well and I think they hit ... three, three (pointers) in a row. They only hit five in the second half, but they hit three of them in a row, so it made it really look bad.
"I knew there would be a little process to this. I did not think we would shoot this bad from the three (point line). If there's a controversy, that's where the controversy is, but I'm not making it one, I'll leave that for everybody else. I see them every day ... stuff happens and we just have to work our way through it, so (we'll) see how mentally tough we are.
Izzo was also asked about the play of freshman forward Xavier Booker, who contributed four points, two rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 17 minutes of play.
Booker provided energy in spurts in the second half, including following the aforementioned 12-0 run by the Screaming Eagles. Izzo admires Booker, but knows that he has a lot of developing yet to do, both mentally and physically.
"I love Xavier Booker," Izzo said. "He's just got to get a lot stronger, and a lot tougher mentally. We knew that, he knew that, his family knows that, and we're just gonna work on it every day. Believe it or not, he's made some progress, but those two dunks he should've had, he just kind of went up soft, and that's not how he's been. Maybe getting a little tired, playing ... 17 minutes, that's more than he's been playing. It's all part of the growing process, but he's gotta learn to keep that motor running. When we have a free-throw cutout, he doesn't do it, and he's gotta do that, and he know it."
Speaking of freshmen, Izzo also praised the leadership skills of first-year guard Jeremy Fears Jr.
"He is the one guy that is tough enough, and he is vocal enough," Izzo said about Fears.
However, Izzo wants to see Fears "push the ball" better, but he was happy with Fears' five assists versus zero turnovers.
Moving forward, the question remaining, besides the shooting and rebounding issues, is how Izzo and his staff handles the rotation and minutes distribution with opponents like Duke, Butler and Arizona all coming up in November.
Izzo isn't exactly sure quite yet how exactly that will look, but he understands it is going to take some time for the team to find its stride, especially with such an eclectic mix of veterans and young players.
"This is going to take a little time to get these guys (going)," Izzo said when asked about the minutes distribution moving forward. "I mean, I look at it as I've got five veterans and I've got five rookies, really, because Carson (Cooper) and Tre (Holloman) did not play enough minutes (last year) to make that a factor."
Izzo also said he does not plan to "experiment" at all with the lineup against Duke, but did note that the "stronger, tougher guys are gonna play more."
Of course, Izzo was disappointed with the loss to James Madison, the early struggles with shooting the basketball and some leadership-related things from the veterans, but he sees it all as teachable moments.
"I'm disappointed, I'm upset about it, but I'm a little more disappointed that our veterans have to play better," Izzo said about the early-season struggles thus far. "But this is a good learning-lesson for A.J. (Hoggard). This was a good learning-lesson. We can't have play like we did the other day and just let it happen. So, there might be another loss, there could be a couple more losses as we figure out what we've got to do. But we're going to play harder and we're going to play a little better and we got our free throws, now we're going to start attacking the physical part, the rebounding."
While Izzo let it be known that he needs more out of his veterans, and while several of the young players were on the court together when Michigan State took momentum back after Southern Indiana's 12-0 run in the second half, he still trusts his older guys to get the job done.
With Duke, the No. 2-ranked team in the country, on deck for the Spartans on Tuesday night, Izzo knows that the Spartans will have to lean on the upperclassmen to get a victory over the Blue Devils.
"Those freshmen are gonna be good ... (but), they're not saving the day on Tuesday (versus Duke)," Izzo said about the young players. "They're gonna get better, but the day is going to be saved by the veterans that have been through the wars, and then those (young) guys are going to supplement in. And there's two of them that are ready for it now, and there's one that's going to take a little longer and we knew that from day one. So, I don't look at that as anything big, but because they came in and gave us a little run ... I wouldn't bet that I'm going to start those five (players in during the run) on Tuesday."
Tipoff for the Champions Classic matchup between Michigan State and Duke in Chicago on Tuesday is set for 7 p.m. Eastern Time. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Join the discussion on this article in our premium forums by clicking here.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Threads, TikTok, and Instagram.
For video content, including our Red Cedar Radar podcast, find us on YouTube and consider subscribing.