Michigan State Basketball: The good, great, bad, and ugly from Nebraska loss

Great: Starter production, minus Mady Sissoko

On Sunday evening, four of the five starters finished the game in double figures. As already mentioned, Tyson Walker got off to a rough start, but the rest of the Spartan starters not named Mady Sissoko had great showings. Malik Hall led the way for Michigan State basketball with 22 points. AJ Hoggard would finish with 12, and Akins with 10. Even with his sluggish start, Walker ended with 17 points, 15 of which came in the second half. He would hit five straight buckets in the second half, during which no other Spartan was able to score.

Walker was essentially the only one who was able to score in the final 10 minutes, and even he wasn’t able to get a basket over the final three minutes. 

Even with the somewhat cold streaks during the game, and Walker’s slow start, the MSU starters played extremely well. About as well as you could have asked them to. I attribute the lack of production to start the second half and to finish the game to the shortcomings of the Spartan bench players. That, and Mady Sissoko. More on him in a little.