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

 Ugly: 3-point shooting

After MSU went just 1-for-20 from deep against James Madison, I still was not concerned. Some nights your shots just aren’t falling. Then you start thinking about shots not falling, and it begins to snowball. However, by the time a new game comes around, a reset has usually occurred and players find their median.

I’m more concerned after Thursday night’s performance from three.

Michigan State would finish shooting just 1-for-11 (9%) from deep. This means that Michigan State, a year removed from shooting upwards of 40 percent from deep as a team, is shooting just 2-for-31 from three. That’s six percent on the year. That is horrendous. Opposing defenses are only going to get better, so the Spartans must figure it out, sooner rather than later. This team is too talented for just Tyson Walker and Tre Holloman to have made a 3-pointer this year. 

The silver lining for the poor 3-point shooting Thursday night was that when the shots were obviously not falling, MSU did not continue to force the issue. On Monday, even with multiple JMU starters in foul trouble, Michigan State did not want to drive to the hole but rather continued to shoot threes that were not falling. Thursday night, the Spartans took half the 3-point shots as they did Monday. The faster a team can recognize the outside shot is not falling, the quicker an adjustment can be made. This helps ensure a scoring drought isn’t imminent. Once other shots start to connect, the 3-ball may eventually come around. But, after going just six percent from deep to start the year, MSU needs to get this figured out.