Michigan State basketball: 3 quick takes from Bowling Green win

Whew. It was a hard-fought victory for Michigan State basketball on Saturday night at the Breslin Center. The Falcons from Bowling Green came into East Lansing and started hitting shots from all ranges. They controlled much of the first half and even jumped out to a 12-point lead at one point. The Spartans seemed to weather that first storm to close the half on a 10-0 run and tie the game.

As the second half progressed, we saw runs by both teams but in the end the Spartans made the clutch plays necessary to put away Bowling Green late. The Spartans clamped down defensively and ended the game on an 18-0 run that stretched for the final seven minutes of play roughly. The final score on Saturday was 86-72.

While this game was more of a nail-biter for Spartan fans than we all hoped, there are some good and bad things to take away from this game.

Let’s take a closer look at what I thought were the biggest aspects of the game.

1. Coen Carr and Jaxon Kohler are the best two bigs currently

For the second straight game, it has become painfully obvious that Coen Carr is the best power forward the Spartans currently have. In the same light, Jaxon Kohler is the best center they currently have. Both players brought a big spark and much-needed energy to the lineup through major stretches. Both were rewarded with a start.

While the starters did come out a little flat, they both proved they earned that role.

Carr did much of his status quo. He, as always, was the most athletic player on the floor. In back-to-back possessions late in the second half, he exploded for angry dunks that brought the Bres to its feet and got the Spartans rolling. It was much needed at that point, too, as the game was at a crucial point. The first dunk came when the Spartans were down 64-62. The next pulled them ahead 66-64.

Kohler also provided some much-needed offense spark down low. While he didn’t completely fill up the stat sheet, he had 10 points, three rebounds, and two assists. I thought defensively he played pretty well. MSU’s bigs as a whole had their hands full with Bowling Green’s Marcus Johnson. The Bowling Green center was giving the Spartans fits defensively. He had 24 of their 72 points and was making plays all over the court.

I think Xavier Booker still has the potential to play more of a role at the four for the rest of the season. So far this year however he has been largely ineffective and inconsistent. I think overall he played better today than he did against Kansas. Unfortunately for him, he had a really rough patch down the stretch where he was late on a close-out to allow a three and then turned the ball over on the offensive end.

With Booker struggling, Carr will have the chance to further his hold on the starting power forward position. Carr right now is just bringing an energy that can’t be matched at that position and I think it would be wise to ride it while it lasts.

2. Three-point shooting continues to be troublesome

When Booker and Tre Holloman came off the bench quickly after a slow start to the game, they immediately both hit 3-pointers. I thought maybe this was going to spark the offense and finally have the game that breaks the shooting slump from beyond the arch. Boy was I wrong. Michigan State basketball went zero for its next nine to close the half and the second half was not any better going 2-for-11 from deep.

Akins finally hit one later in the second and Fears hit his only attempt but outside of that, there is not much of a silver lining.

I am not exactly sure what’s going on with the lack of threes falling. The Spartans for the most part continued to get good looks tonight. I thought their shot selection this game was also pretty good so I don’t think it’s a matter of forcing up bad shots. They are just simply not hitting for whatever reason. It’s kind of baffling to me.

The Spartans don’t have necessarily bad shooters either.

You’d think sooner or later some of these will start to fall. Should that happen, the Spartan offense would get a huge boost. To quote an old basketball saying (and also, former Michigan State guard Tyson Walker), “Shoot to get hot, shoot to stay hot.”

Eventually, these will fall for Michigan State basketball. As long as the good shot selection stays and we don’t force anything, staying the course would be the best option for this team.

Just getting marginally better from three would be huge. In the Champions Classic, shooting even 20 percent from three would have most likely given Michigan State basketball a good chance to win. The same would have been the case on Saturday night if the Spartans had lost. They hit 20 percent overall but if that even bumped up five to 10 percent, this game would have not been nearly as close as it was.

Hopefully, the Spartans start to find their luck from three soon.

3. Holloman, Akins, and Cooper showed signs of life for the Spartans

This is a little unfair to Holloman who I think has played well so far this season but he came out off the bench firing in the first half and it was the main reason we kept it close when Bowling Green was surging. Clutch buckets, some energy on defense, a few big blocks/hustle plays in the second half and I thought Holloman probably played his best game this season so far.

Hopefully, he keeps it up as he is a huge piece off the bench for the Spartans.

Speaking of having their best game of the season, enter Akins. While he’s stayed aggressive and tried to shoot his way out of his bad start to the season, it hadn’t quite been put together yet. On Saturday, he figured out a lot of his offensive game at least. While it wasn’t the most efficient and he would probably be the first to say he has more there to find, he played pretty well offensively.

Akins was 5-for-16 from the field tonight. Unfortunately, 1-for-5 from deep did not help that much but overall he was very effective offensively. He was able to get to the rim with ease. A couple of easy layups, a couple of good driving kickouts, and some good passing really helped move the offense along. This was especially critical since freshman point guard Jeremey Fears had a rough go tonight with five turnovers.

Akins ended the night with 13 points and 12 rebounds. He also added six assists leaving him four short of a triple-double. If Akins can keep this level of offense moving forward, once the threes start falling he will turn the corner and begin to be the offensive force we know he can be.

Finally, Carson Cooper proved a nice spark offensively as well. Coop added 12 points and two boards off the bench and defensively I think gave some of the Bowling Green bigs a lot of trouble. While Marcus Johnson scored 24 points, it was not efficient and a lot of that was because the bigs were able to pop out and get some pressure on him. Cooper was a big part of that.

On the offensive end, his 12 points came on 4-for-5 shooting and he hit some big-time free throws with the game tight in the second half. It was encouraging to see the flashes that Cooper can give in a rotational piece off the bench. If the bigs can consistently put it together at the same time, the Spartans can pose a really tough four-man rotation down low which will cause a lot of problems for teams.

Michigan State basketball moves to 3-1 on the season now. They will be back at the Breslin Center on Tuesday night to take on Samford. The Bulldogs are also sitting at 3-1 and are averaging 97.8 points per game this year. They do some things pretty well offensively so it could be a tougher test for the Spartans than some think. Especially if they start slow like they did on Saturday night. That game will air on Peacock.

That will be the last home game before Thanksgiving for the Spartans as the following week they will be in Maui for the Invitational there. They open that against Colorado on Nov. 25. After that a potential matchup with the two-time defending national champion UConn looms.

Keep it here with Spartan Shadows and check out the Spartan Shadows Podcast for all your basketball insight leading up to that. Go Green.