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

Bad: Bench production, plus Mady Sissoko

Quite the opposite of Michigan State’s starter production, the bench was essentially non-existent on Sunday night.

Even with averaging 15.5 minutes for the bench against Nebraska, Coen Carr led the way with just four points. Going a combined 4-for-12 from the field, Michigan State’s bench players forced essentially all offense to come from the starters. While the starters did their best in one of their best performances of the year as we just discussed, getting zero production from your bench is similar to tying one hand behind your back during a fight. 

I’ve added Sissoko to this category because he was downright bad on Sunday night. After being back in the starting lineup, Sissoko provided zero (0) points, and just three (3) rebounds. That is absolutely unacceptable from your 6-foot-9, 250-pound center. On top of his lack of offense, Sissoko looked absolutely lost on the defensive end. The Sissoko experiment has to end. Even though not everything we’ve seen from Xavier Booker this season has been pretty, I think almost every Spartan would rather watch him and his growing pains than watch another game in which No. 22 is trotted out there.

Make the move, Tom.