{"id":8926,"date":"2023-11-19T20:23:47","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T01:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/?p=8926"},"modified":"2023-11-19T20:23:47","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T01:23:47","slug":"michigan-state-basketball-quick-thoughts-from-alcorn-state-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/?p=8926","title":{"rendered":"Michigan State basketball: 3 quick thoughts from Alcorn State win"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Michigan State basketball picked up a blowout win over Alcorn State on Sunday night to finally climb above .500.<\/h2>\n<p>Getting one final warm-up before facing a top-five Arizona team on Thanksgiving, <a href=\"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/michigan-state-basketball-getting-visit-from-5-star-g-on-sunday\/\">Michigan State basketball<\/a> didn&#8217;t take it for granted. The Spartans won 81-49 and it felt like every aspect of the game was clicking for Tom Izzo&#8217;s squad.<\/p>\n<p>Tyson Walker was out with an illness, but that didn&#8217;t stop the offense from scoring 81 points and shooting over 50 percent from the floor and 40 percent from 3-point range. We saw the veterans step up and the freshmen make plays (looking at you, Coen Carr).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"fr\" dir=\"ltr\">COEN. CARR. \ud83d\ude24 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MSU_Basketball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MSU_Basketball<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yzVfgIXvT3\">pic.twitter.com\/yzVfgIXvT3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BigTenNetwork\/status\/1726400485861605697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 20, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Mutant.<\/p>\n<p>OK, on to my quick thoughts on the Spartans&#8217; win over Alcorn State.<\/p>\n<h3>1. Tre Holloman can be a key shooter this year<\/h3>\n<p>In place of the sick Tyson Walker, Tre Holloman got the start and finished with 17 points, flashing some 3-point sharpshooting. In fact, Holloman finished 5-for-5 from deep and added a layup later in the game to finish with 17 points. We heard all about him improving this summer and being one of the team&#8217;s surprise players this year, but we hadn&#8217;t seen it yet. We finally did on Sunday night. He was a star for the Spartans on both ends of the floor and he could be that ideal three-and-D guy.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Rebounding, free throws remain a concern<\/h3>\n<p>While Carson Cooper has been a spark to the starting lineup, especially on the glass, the rebounding feels like it&#8217;s still an issue. The Spartans got out-rebounded 41-38 and gave up an unacceptable 16 offensive boards. That&#8217;s just not going to win you many games against\u00a0<em>good<\/em> teams. Getting beat on the glass by a team like Alcorn State is a definite concern.<\/p>\n<p>As for the free throws, 11-for-21 is also unacceptable. Tom Izzo will be working heavily on both of those before facing Arizona.<\/p>\n<h3>3. This team will be just fine<\/h3>\n<p>As expected, water found its level on Sunday night as the Spartans got back to their usual up-tempo game and the offense benefited big time. The Spartans shot over 50 percent from the floor and 40 percent from deep (this number was closer to 50 before a few misses late in the second half). The offense looked so much better than it did in the first three games (it was good against Butler, too).<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and did I already mention it was without Tyson Walker?<\/p>\n<p>Scoring 81 points and building a 40-10 lead in the first half without Walker doesn&#8217;t happen if a team can&#8217;t shoot or doesn&#8217;t have any offensive weapons. This was a huge confidence-booster for the freshmen and guys like Jaden Akins and Tre Holloman.<\/p>\n<p>Just as we thought, this team will be fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No Tyson Walker, no problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[59,190,189,504],"class_list":["post-8926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","tag-featured","tag-michigan-state-basketball","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8926","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}