Michigan State Basketball: Good, great, bad, and ugly from win over Penn State

Michigan State basketball started a new win streak on Wednesday night against Penn State, 80-72. Here are the good, great, bad, and ugly.

After a tough loss to Minnesota, Michigan State basketball has now won two games in a row, and seven of its last nine. It was crunch time for Michigan State if it was going to make the NCAA Tournament and keep Tom Izzo’s streak alive. And it has been the Spartan upperclassmen who responded.

Against Penn State last night, Jaden Akins finished with 20 points, shooting 4-for-9 from deep, and Malik Hall finished with a new career-high 29 points. He would add an additional 10 rebounds to his night when all was said and done. Thanks to an early 10-0 run, Michigan State finished the first half with a comfortable 45-31 lead. Penn State countered with a 7-1 run in the second half, and even pulled within eight, but MSU finished the game calmly and under control. 

In a game that Tyson Walker was not playing up to his standard (his double-digit scoring streak was finally finished at 35 games), it was incredibly promising to see others — Akins and Hall — step up and carry MSU to a win.

Here are the good, great, bad, and ugly from the 80-72 win.

Good: Transition offense

Coming into Wednesday’s game, Michigan State was second in the Big Ten in transition offense with 14.8 per game. The Spartans did it to perfection against Penn State. From the first possession, it was apparent that transition offense was going to be MSU’s offensive game-plan and it worked immediately. Michigan State’s bigs were beating the Nittany Lions down on every possession, leading to such easy, quick baskets. Getting out and pushing the ball led MSU to absolutely dominate the paint. They would go on to beat Penn State 40-22 in points in the paint.

We’ve seen this team get red-hot from three and win that way, so it’s a great sign that they are able to win in other ways as well. If it weren’t for Hall catching absolute fire throughout this game, I would expect MSU to have had many more than just 15 assists on 30 made field goals. 

Great: Malik Hall

You’ll have to believe me when I say I tried my very best to find something else that was better than Malik Hall in this game for the great section. Nothing against Hall, but he has been so good as of late, this is becoming redundant. Game after game, I have highlighted Malik for his great play recently. Unfortunately for me, there truly was nothing, no person or stat, that was better than the fifth-year senior on Wednesday. Now this is obviously a great problem to have. We’ve already discussed at length that this team can really only compete when Hall is in his bag. When Hall disappears, the Spartans struggle. Hall, himself, must know this, too, as he is now on quite the streak. And Michigan State basketball is suddenly making a run here. 

The one thing to note, in my opinion, in Hall’s most recent success was that he only took one 3-pointer against Penn State, and is only averaging .6-1.8 attempts per game. He hit his lone shot on Wednesday, but that was just three of his 29 points. Time after time, Hall has just played bully ball, uses his weight advantage on the smaller guards, and gets to the basket. 

Bad: 3-point defense

In a game that Michigan State had control for most of the time, Penn State actually shot the three-ball incredibly well. MSU shot a great 40 percent from beyond the arc, but Penn State actually finished the game a blistering 52percent from deep. The Nittany Lions, as a team, shoot the three-ball at a decent 33 percent clip this season. So it isn’t such a surprise to see them have some success there, but what was concerning was who hit them against MSU.

Puff Johnson, with last night’s game included, is shooting just 29 percent from three. He hit both of his attempts against the Spartans. Nick Kern, again with last night’s game added, is only connecting on 26 percent from deep. Kern also went 2-for-2. Add that to 37 percent shooter Zach Hicks’ 5-for-6, and MSU really struggled to defend the three-ball.

This could be due to the Spartans being in control and Penn State feeling as though they have nothing to lose, but still. I’ve seen far too many games turn on a dime as time expired thanks to hot 3-point shooting (fire up the Iowa game film). 

Ugly: Centers not named Xavier Booker (and Carson Cooper)

Similar to how Malik has been highlighted for his great play quite often, I realize MSU’s centers, mostly Mady Sissoko, have been dragged in the ugly section quite a bit. Rather than continue down that road, while it would absolutely be warranted, just three points and one rebound in 17 minutes? I want to call an audible and dedicate this space to Xavier Booker fans. The Booker rollercoaster has been something this season. He came in highly ranked but early reports were that he was more raw than expected. He saw some minutes early in the season, but his weaknesses were apparent and his time dwindled. There was some online drama about his playing time, Izzo said he was going to get Booker more time, and then never did.

Cut to last night’s game, Booker saw still just five minutes of action, but in that time, he nailed a 3-pointer, and was found under the basket for an easy two. His other stats weren’t there — zero rebounds, assists, blocks, etc. — but he did more on the offensive end than Sissoko did in just a fraction of the time. If MSU had competent forwards/centers on their roster, I would understand the lack of minutes for Xavier. But they don’t. Booker has to see the floor more. Time is up on Sissoko.