Michigan State basketball<\/a> season is here to save us all. It won\u2019t count towards their record, but a win is a win and we got a great view into how this season will go. Fans got their first look at how the veterans will react to lofty expectations, and how the freshman will plug into this championship roster. <\/span><\/p>\nIn addition to the win, fans got a taste of what to expect from Coen Carr’s alien-like athleticism.<\/span><\/p>\nSo let\u2019s dive into the good, great, bad, and ugly from Michigan State\u2019s exhibition win against Hillsdale.<\/span><\/p>\nGood: Offensive efficiency<\/h3>\n
A staple of a Tom Izzo led Michigan State basketball team is offensive efficiency. Fast paced play in the break, but in the half court, Izzo\u2019s Spartans share the rock and find the open shot. This was front and center for MSU last night as they had 27 assists on 33 made field goals. That\u2019s an outstanding 81.8% assist rate. MSU continually made the extra pass and found the open man. This led to 12 different players recording a point, all but two on the roster. Four players finished scoring in double figures and it all starts with an elite assist rate.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAlong with having a 24-6 advantage in the fast break, and an electrifying Coen Carr tomahawk dunk, the Spartans would finish making 55 percent of their field goals, going 33-60. Even better, MSU finished the first half shooting 63.3% (19-30). <\/span><\/p>\nThere clearly were no issues moving the ball for Michigan State basketball, nor any shooting rust to knock off from the offseason. <\/span><\/p>\nGreat: Sophomore improvements<\/h3>\n
The storylines from the offseason were mostly surrounding the veterans — AJ Hoggard, Tyson Walker, Jaden Akins — and how they were all coming back to take MSU to the promised land. If it wasn\u2019t the veterans being talked about, it was the excellent incoming freshman class. How would adding Xavier Booker, Jeremy Fears, and Gehrig Normand work into the rotation? Wednesday night proved that more emphasis should have been on the sophomores and their offseason improvements. Tre Holloman and Carson Cooper looked great against Hillsdale and deserve attention.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nTre Holloman was written off as the third point guard by most fans, behind Hoggard and Fears. Myself included. Clearly Holloman put his head down and got to work. He looked calm and in control last night, leading the second shift. Tre finished with nine points on an impressive 4-5 shooting. Izzo had nothing but great things to say of his sophomore point guard after the game. <\/span><\/p>\nThe other sophomore who looked great was Cooper. Going into the season, there was uncertainty on how the backup center position would play out. I think, if we look back at the end of the season, the Jaxon Kohler injury may end up being a blessing in disguise. With Kohler out, Cooper used his time backing up Sissoko to prove that he, too, has spent the offseason improving. Finished tied for team highs in both scoring and rebounding with 13 and 7, Cooper had great footwork throughout the game to go along with an excellent soft touch around the rim.<\/span><\/p>\nThe sophomore class’ performance was extremely encouraging on Wednesday night.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Bad: Free throw shooting<\/h3>\n
You would prefer to come out of an exhibition game against Hillsdale with no mistakes or holes in your game. This was, however, MSU\u2019s first game back so we can give it a break. <\/span><\/p>\nAfter the game, Tom Izzo expressed his disappointment in the Spartans’ free throw shooting. <\/span><\/p>\nAs a team, Michigan State basketball finished 11-for-20 from the line. Against any Big Ten opponent, going 55 percent from the free throw line will likely end in a loss. If Michigan State is going to get to the line as often as they did, they absolutely must convert. Carson Cooper and AJ Hoggard, two Spartans who should expect to be at the line often, went a combined 2-for-9 from the charity stripe. Attacking the defense and forcing coaches to strategize after opponents are in foul trouble is half the battle, but Hoggard and Cooper need to finish by taking advantage of the free opportunity. Hoggard finished last season shooting 81 percent from the line, up from 60 and 61 percent his first two seasons. <\/span><\/p>\nLet’s hope Wednesday was just a fluke.<\/span><\/p>\nIf there is a silver lining from Michigan State\u2019s poor free throw shooting performance, it\u2019s that Mady Sissoko finished 5-for-5. Oh that, and Steven Izzo got his first regular season points as a Spartan from the free throw line.<\/span><\/p>\nUgly: Boxing out\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
If half the Spartans practice today will be spent on free throws, the other half will be practicing boxing out. <\/span><\/p>\nHillsdale was able to pull down an impressive 42 rebounds (MSU finished with 46). Michigan State allowed Hillsdale 6-foot-6 freshman Garrett Bolte pull down seven rebounds, matching the 6-foot-11 Carson Cooper. That cannot happen, especially against an inferior opponent. If that same box out effort is put forth against a Big Ten team, Michigan State will lose off second chance points alone. <\/span><\/p>\nMichigan State basketball did a great job crashing the glass, but unfortunately let the Chargers do the same against them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nice way to start the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[225,59,190,189,504,298],"class_list":["post-8197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","tag-carson-cooper","tag-featured","tag-michigan-state-basketball","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-news","tag-tre-holloman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}