Michigan State basketball<\/a>. The defense has been decent, but offensively, it has been nothing short of disappointing. As each week has passed, however, the Spartans seem to be finding their footing. That continued on Friday night, as Michigan State beat Butler 74-54. Despite a few different scoring droughts, MSU was in control for almost the entire game and looked better than they have all season. They finished with a 20-point win against former Spartan Pierre Brooks II.<\/span><\/p>\nSo, here is the good, great, bad, and ugly from Michigan State\u2019s Gavitt Tipoff Games win over the Butler Bulldogs.<\/span><\/p>\nGood: Interior play (and starting lineup)<\/b><\/h3>\n
I think almost every Spartan fan audibly rejoiced when Carson Cooper was announced to be in the starting lineup. Mady Sissoko was simply not getting the job done down low. For years, Spartans have been asking for Tom Izzo to make a move at the center position, and Cooper finally seemed to force his hand. The 6-foot-11 center got his first career start against Butler on Friday and looked good doing so.<\/span><\/p>\nNow, Cooper was not perfect. He finished the night with only three points, so, offensively, there was much left to be desired. But with that being said, Carson had a very promising game in all other aspects. Cooper\u2019s final stat line was 11 rebounds, 1 steal and two blocks. His defensive presence was clear to anyone watching and absolutely deserves to get the start down low for Michigan State moving forward. If he can focus on post moves down in the paint, and getting to the line more often, the Spartans may have a legit Big Ten center on their hands.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\nGreat: Malik Hall and A.J Hoggard<\/b><\/h3>\n
Fans so far, myself included, have been hard on Malik Hall and A.J. Hoggard. And rightfully so. Both guys are seniors with 222 games played for the Green and White. Yet, this year, both starters have hurt Michigan State basketball much more than they have helped. That was not the case on Friday evening, however.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHall seemed to have figured out his offensive rhythm after having multiple games, even going back to last year, in which he looked lost. Right out of the gate, Hall was both attacking the basket and letting it fly from the field. While he didn\u2019t connect on his lone 3-point attempt, his offense looked good otherwise. Even fighting through an ankle injury at one point, Malik gave it his all against Butler and it showed.<\/span><\/p>\nHoggard has arguably been even more frustrating than Hall this season. A.J., himself, told Izzo, \u201c\u2018I gotta step up\u2019 or \u2018you should bench me.\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/p>\nThe veteran point guard is struggling mightily from deep and didn\u2019t seem to have the ability to attack the basket or post up. He did both extremely successfully last season. On Friday, Hoggard still didn\u2019t look great from three, although he did knock down his first of the year. But, rather than check out of the game as he had in other games this season, Hoggard began attacking the defense and used his big body to post up smaller guards. This is where Hoggard excelled last season, and it was great to see him go back to it on Friday night. <\/span><\/p>\nA.J. finished the night with 14 points, four assists, and six rebounds, and went 3-for-4 from the line. He was a great sidekick to MSU\u2019s leading scorer, Tyson Walker, and as a result, Michigan State was in control the entire game. Keep it up, Hoggard.<\/span><\/p>\nBad: Jaden Akins’ offensive rhythm<\/b><\/h3>\n
It\u2019s now been four games into the season for Michigan State basketball, and Jaden Akins seems as though his offense has taken a large step backward. After playing last season as a legit threat at both finishing at the basket and connecting from deep, Akins tested the NBA waters and decided to come back for one final season. Last year, Akins was one of the very best 3-point shooters in the Big Ten, shooting 42 percent from deep. When attacking the basket, Akins was able to either throw down a high-flying, electrifying dunk or finish with an athletic layup. This season, so far, Akins\u2019 offensive rhythm has just looked off.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThroughout the first four games, Akins is shooting just 18 percent from three. The lefty shooter has not been afraid to let it fly, rightfully so based on his known abilities, but it has not been pretty. His mid-range percentage is down as well, having dropped 10 percent from last season, down to just 32 percent. At the basket, it hasn\u2019t been much better either. His finishing seems to be more difficult as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe talent is obviously there. Akins is an NBA-level wing, and his offensive rhythm will return. In the meantime, it\u2019s worth noting his steals, rebounds, and assists are all either equal or better than last year. He will absolutely find it, and when he does, this team will collectively hit their stride.<\/span><\/p>\nUgly: Nothing<\/b><\/h3>\n
Did Michigan State play a perfect game? Absolutely not. But, after having such glaring issues over the first three games, Michigan State looked much better in all aspects of the game. After shooting terribly from deep to start the season, Michigan State is slowly reverting back to its norm. Friday, they upped their season percentage even more, going 35 percent from three.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAgainst Butler, the ball seemed to move better and transition offense was an emphasis. Additionally, multiple veteran players played as they were expected to this season. There are still some major concerns with this team, but after the Gavitt Tipoff win against Butler, I think the Spartans deserve to come away with no obvious u<\/em><\/span>gly<\/span><\/i> part.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Was there even any ugly from this win?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[199,225,205,200,190,189,504],"class_list":["post-8779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","tag-a-j-hoggard","tag-carson-cooper","tag-jaden-akins","tag-malik-hall","tag-michigan-state-basketball","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8779","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=8779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}