1. That was MSU’s worst game in an otherwise impressive start
EAST LANSING – For the first time I can recall this season, Michigan State’s basketball team lacked a little sharpness, cohesiveness and zest all in the same game in Monday’s 80-62 win over Western Michigan, which felt nothing like the final score.
“I thought we played like we thought we were going to win the game,” Tom Izzo said afterward.
Even the crowd was a little off. The loudest Breslin Center ever got was when a fan made a full-court hockey shot as part of a promotion during a timeout. Usually holiday crowds are electric.
“That crowd was so ready to explode,” Izzo said. “And we gave them nothing.”
Give WMU credit, though. The Broncos played well and were up for the fight. Dwayne Stephens’ team has a lot of familiar traits. MSU struggled against its mirror image defensively. If WMU plays with that focus, consistency and punch offensively the rest of the season, the Broncos will do well in the MAC.
If MSU plays like this Friday night, the Spartans will lose at Ohio State.
And if this is the worst of an 11-2 start, it’s probably no big deal. There are a dozen other games — and a bunch in a row beginning with the finale in Maui — that suggest you can trust this MSU team night in and night out.
Jaden Akins saved them early Monday. They’re depth saved them late.
Maybe this team is just ready for something besides nonleague play against mid-majors, mostly in front of home crowds.
They’ll get their wish. Nothing but Big Ten play from now until the middle of March.
This MSU team earned the buzz it created with its start to the season. Monday was the first time the Spartans didn’t live up to it.
“I’m looking for us to be different,” Izzo said. “That’s our battle cry: Be different.”
2. Akins’ scoring kept things from getting too dicey
Being a go-to scorer is partly about coming up with big buckets at big moments in big games. It’s also sometimes about producing points in volume on days like Monday, when things are otherwise a little off.
Jaden Akins did that for the Spartans against WMU. While little else clicked, he was a bucket-getter in the first half, with 11 points before the break, providing consistent offense. He finished with 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting in 24 minutes. Nothing flashy, but needed.
There were other good performances — Tre Holloman’s three 3s and six assists, Jase Richardson’s nine points on four shots, Coen Carr’s second half, Carson Cooper’s career-high 13 points and six rebounds. But Akins was a consistent threat on offense on a day MSU needed it, especially early.
That’s 17 or more points for Akins in three of his last four games, with 13 in the other. Like with most of this team, we’ll have to see what Akins does game to game in the Big Ten. But there’s increasing evidence he’s going to provide leading-scorer-type offense consistently.
3. Jase Richardson with a game that deserves further mention
On a day when MSU wasn’t all that efficient, Jase Richardson couldn’t have been more efficient. It’s not just that he made all four shots he attempted. It’s that they weren’t easy shots — off the dribble, step backs, while drawing contact, all inside the arc. When Richardson puts up a shot, you just sort of assume it’s going in.
The question now is can MSU get this sort of efficiency and increase his volume. He’s MSU’s smoothest offensive player and has yet to take more than eight shots in a single game this year. Monday, in 24 minutes, his plus-minus was a whopping plus-27, when no one else other than Coen Carr was better than plus-13.
One of the reasons to think this MSU team might have something special in it is the notion that Richardson is just getting started.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch and on BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
