Michigan State Basketball: Good, great, bad, and ugly from loss to Arizona

Michigan State basketball fell to Arizona on Thanksgiving Day but showed a great second-half fight.

After all of Detroit watched the Lions lose on Thanksgiving, Michigan State basketball had a chance to provide some relief. The Spartans squared off against the third-ranked Arizona Wildcats in Palm Springs, Calif. Plagued by yet another slow start, Michigan State found themselves down 21-7 just 10 minutes into the game. The Spartans opened the second half playing to their potential, and quickly closed the gap, even taking a one-point lead with four minutes left.

Unfortunately, MSU couldn’t hold onto the lead, and the Wildcats came away with a 74-68 win.

Even though Michigan State basketball came away with another loss, there was some good that came from Thursday’s game. Let’s jump into the good, great, bad, and ugly from Michigan State’s Thanksgiving Day loss.

Good: Coen Carr

The final stat line for Coen Carr might not jump off the page as his play would lead you to believe. Coen finished against Arizona with seven points, three rebounds, three steals and one block. Stats aside, though, Coen Carr passed the eye test against the Wildcats. Even though he did not crack the starting lineup, Carr still played 19 minutes, which was more than upperclassmen Carson Cooper, Tre Holloman, and fellow freshman Jeremy Fears. 

What’s more about Carr’s playing time, was when he got his playing time. Down the stretch for MSU, when the Spartans found themselves up late in the game, Izzo showed immense trust in the freshman and had him on the court. Many coaches would not trust their newcomers down the stretch, especially in a one-point game against the No. 3 team in the nation.

Izzo showed his trust and belief in Coen on Thursday and that experience will help the high-flying freshman later in the season. 

Great: Veteran play

Going back to the eye test, Thursday’s matchup against Arizona was the first game in which you felt the veterans were in control. A lot has been said to criticize guys like A.J. Hoggard, Mady Sissoko, and Jaden Akins. Sissoko was removed from the starting lineup, but Akins and Hoggard both looked leaps and bounds more comfortable and in charge. A.J. finished the night with 15 points and Akins with 12. While there is definitely still room to improve for the junior and senior, they both looked better Thursday afternoon. 

One of the main reasons that Michigan State was/is being picked as a Final Four contender is due to the experience and veteran leadership. This team has the pieces to go that far, but the upperclassmen have not played to their potential this season thus far. Seeing them set up and do so against the No. 3 team in the country is a great sign. This season, the Spartans will only go as far as the veterans take them. 

Bad: Xavier Booker

I should preface this and say Xavier Booker himself wasn’t bad against Arizona on Thursday. In fact, Booker never even saw the floor. Izzo said before the game that the rotation was likely to shrink due to Arizona’s size and strength, and Booker was the odd man out. Oumar Ballo is a force in the paint for Arizona, and Booker would likely have not fared much of a chance. But, based on his potential this past offseason, seeing your only five-star as a healthy scratch in your largest game of the year so far is not ideal. It’s known that Booker has growing to do and that much of his talent is still very raw, but seeing other freshmen continue to develop and get minutes while Booker doesn’t is not great. 

The play in the paint is only going to get more difficult. As I mentioned Ballo is a great big man, outside his free throw shooting. But, once Big Ten play begins, Booker will have to go against some of the best centers in the country. We have seen him mostly avoid the paint and shoot threes, which will help move opposing power forwards and centers away from the basket, but MSU will need to him be at least serviceable in the paint.

Ugly: Slow start (again)

At this point, I can essentially copy and paste ugly parts from past articles going back years. Slow starts have plagued MSU teams for years and years, and has spelled early March exits multiple times. Michigan State opened terribly slow against Arizona once again and quickly found themselves down double digits almost immediately. Everyone looked out of sorts, most of all being the aforementioned Hoggard, who turned it around in the second half. MSU looked better as the first half came to a close. And they would eventually figure things out once the second half began. Still, though, Michigan State continually starts as slow as can be, and time after time, they get burned because of it. 

I don’t know what Izzo needs to do to rectify this habit; Whether they need to revamp their pre-game warm-ups, or start them earlier so we are more comfortable and warmed up by game time. Whatever is the way forward, Izzo had to figure it out yesterday.