Michigan State basketball: 3 takeaways from win over Madrid All-Stars

Michigan State basketball took the floor on Thursday afternoon in Spain, beating the Madrid All-Stars 94-87.

Michigan State basketball is in Spain currently kicking off its international tour. Thursday marked the Spartans’ first exhibition game of the season. They took on the Madrid All-Stars. The Spartans overall looked fairly decent, winning 94-87.

Xavier Booker led the Spartans with 21 points. Frankie Fidler chipped in another 14.

Of note: the starting lineup for the exhibition was Jeremy Fears, Jaden Akins, Frankie Fidler, Xavier Booker, and Szymon Zapala. The next unit off the bench was Tre Holloman, Gehrig Normand, Coen Carr, Jaxon Kohler, and Carson Cooper. Normand was quickly replaced with Jase Richardson and Kur Teng also played some decent minutes.

While exhibition games don’t give us much to go off of, it was nice seeing the squad in action together for the first time this season.

Most fans tuned into Michigan State basketball’s Instagram live stream of the game. Thanks to them for giving us the ability to watch and form all of our hot takes on how the season will go — myself included. Here are my three biggest takeaways from Thursday’s action.

1. Jeremy Fears is him

OK, I know it’s one game in August. It means nothing. Hear me out, though. Ever since Tom Izzo first started recruiting him, Fears had shown traits that he could be the next great Spartan point guard. Flashes through part of his freshman year reaffirmed this but the big question mark was how he was going to heal from his tragic incident last December that forced him to miss the rest of the season.

Reports had been circulating that he was fully healthy and back to normal.

If anyone did have doubts about that, let them go because Jeremy Fears has arrived and it seems like he is here to stay. He was by far Michigan State’s best guard on Thursday and, in my opinion, the best overall player. Fears controlled the game, was able to do whatever he wanted on the offensive end, and had some great defensive minutes as well. He led a 6-0 run at the end of the game to give the Spartans the win.

The way Fears was able to see the floor and run the offense gives me little doubt in him being the starting point guard this year. Of course, like with any young player, there will be some rough stretches. I do think that overall he will be really good for the Spartans this year. Getting the NCAA to grant him a medical redshirt for last year is proving to be an enormous win.

Four years with the “Floor General” as the starting point guard could lead to big things for the Spartans.

2. Xavier Booker is turning into the player we thought he could be

Another player from last year’s recruiting class that is breaking out, Xavier Booker finished his freshman season last year strong and had many people clamoring for more playing time down the stretch for the big man. All reports indicated when he was coming to Michigan State basketball that he would need a little time to develop, even as a highly touted five-star recruit.

Those turned out to be true and it looks like his arrival is incoming.

As previously stated, Book led all Spartans in scoring with 21 points. He stood out several times for me. His game offensively is getting more and more polished. He also showed some ability to get out in transition better and also was solid defensively.

Booker, to me, was the best big MSU had on Thursday. While Jaxon Kohler looked much improved and Carson Cooper had his moments, Booker was the most consistent — something Tom Izzo desperately needed last season. I’m not sure what it would look like on the floor but it would be interesting to see him and Kohler working together potentially. Both seemed to make decent improvements based on Thursday’s game, though they play a similar game.

I could eventually see the starting lineup cemented with Booker taking the power forward spot. Then whichever other big spaces the best with him could start at the five.

Overall, Booker showed the star power his game truly possesses. It will be very exciting to watch this season.

3. Three-point defense is still a major concern

I know I just got done praising Michigan State basketball big men. Overall, their consistency may prove to be an issue for the Spartans, however, the biggest issue was defending the 3-point line. Now I will take it with a little bit of a grain of salt. The international game and the Madrid All-Stars in general have a lot of perimeter shooting. That being said, the only reason this game was close was because the Spanish players were lights out from beyond the arc. Transition defense, late close-outs, slow switches — all of these led to open threes and kept Madrid in the game.

Madrid opened up the second half on a 15-5 run which put them ahead for a short time. The Spartans did recover but that won’t always be the case in the regular season. Perimeter defense will hopefully be a focal point moving forward because MSU has the players to be a good defensive team. Hopefully that can come with time.

It was fun watching the players. Michigan State basketball has two more games in Spain this week. One coming from Valencia and the other in Barcelona. MSU basketball’s Instagram page will seemingly be the place to stream each game so be sure to give them a follow if you’d like to watch the games yourself.

Basketball season is just around the corner, everyone.

Go Green.