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Michigan State Basketball: The great, good, bad, and ugly from Villanova win

MSU nearly choked away a game against Villanova.

Published

5 months ago

January 5, 2023

Tyler Dutton

When it comes to 3-point shooting, when it rains, it pours. And it was an absolute hurricane for Michigan State basketball against Villanova.

Michigan State basketball came out of the gate absolutely on fire, opening up a 34-24 first-half lead. It quickly became apparent that MSU was not playing around and called game shortly into the second half, finishing, as a team, shooting an incredible 52 percent from three.

After the outstanding upset against Kentucky earlier in the week, this game would tell a lot about this team. Will they have an upset hangover? Was the upset a fluke? Are the Spartans truly that good? Going off this performance, that answer has to be a yes.

Now, that’s not to say Villanova didn’t make it close and uncomfortable late. If it weren’t for Tyson Walkers heroic performance down the stretch, I don’t know if the Spartans win. But, a performance like this is nothing but a good sign of things to come and the places this team can go.

So, without further ado, here is the great, good, bad, and ugly against Villanova.

Great: 3-point shooting

The performance against the Wildcats from a 3-point perspective might be the best the Spartans have put on in quite some time. Going 13-for-25 from deep is a feat that not many teams can accomplish. It seemed as though just about everyone got in on the action tonight as Joey Hauser, AJ Hoggard, Malik Hall, Pierre Brooks, Tyson Walker, and Jaden Akins all connected for three.

When you’re as hot as MSU was against Villanova, the basket begins to get larger and larger and, tonight, it seemed the Spartans were shooting into a three-foot wide hoop.

Good: Jaden Akins and his athletic ability

The more time you give Akins, the more he rises to the challenge. Throughout this season thus far, while he doesn’t fill up the stat sheet, Akins is constantly bringing the effort, energy, and confidence. Whether he is flying around for a rebound, or using his cat-like reflexes to go for a steal, he is constantly inserting himself into the play.

Akins just about blew the roof off the Breslin with his poster dunk over Villanova’s Brandon Slater mid-way through the second half. His scoring will clearly catch up, but even just being on the court gives us an edge.

Bad: Post presence

When you shoot the three-ball as well as the Spartans did, there isn’t much emphasis on scoring in any other way. If you simply cannot miss, why stop shooting? With that being said, it is a good thing the Spartans couldn’t miss because they had absolutely zero presence in the post.

Mady Sissoko finished with just one point, while Jaxon Koehler had zero in reserve. In any other game, when we aren’t shooting 52 percent from deep, that is not going to get it done. In fact, there were more than a few possessions that our guards did not even look to get the ball down low, resulting in a forced shot late in the shot clock.

Inefficient possessions like these will eventually come back to bite the Spartans if they are not careful.

Ugly: Closing out the game

If you turned the game off at about the nine-minute mark in the second half, you would have assumed the Spartans won by 20 at least. Yet, Michigan State basketball only came away with a two-point victory. Over the last six minutes of the game, Villanova slowly began to crawl back into the game and, against a proficient opponent, they may just have.

When you live by the three, you die by the three. And MSU almost died by the three tonight.

Bonus ugly: Injuries

In a non-conference game, one of the main hopes is to come away with no injuries. Unfortunately for the Spartans, two stars went down tonight.

Around the six-minute mark in the second half, Hoggard came off the court hobbling, Fast forward to the four-minute mark, Akins did the same. Hoggard seemed to be in some pain a few different times over the last few games and has ended up 100 percent a few days later. He ended up coming back in and finishing the game but, Akins’ injury is more worrisome.

Jaden was just recently cleared for gameplay after his September foot surgery. As mentioned earlier, Akins relies heavily on his jumping and agility so re-aggravating a foot injury could lead to a prolonged absence.

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Has Michigan State basketball had the “perfect” offseason so far?

The MSU basketball offseason has felt so much better than football’s.

Published

17 hours ago

June 4, 2023

Daily MSU

Unlike the football program so far, Michigan State basketball has had an impressive, almost perfect offseason.

Anything is possible in today’s college basketball world. We have seen some crazy things with the one-time transfer rule and NIL in full effect. Star players like Hunter Dickinson are transferring to powerhouse programs like Kansas and some players are leaving the schools they love just to chase money. We are even seeing incoming freshman reopening their recruitments in June.

I’ll say it again, anything is possible in college basketball today. It seems nearly impossible for a program to have a perfect offseason nowadays. Whether they want their players to stay or they need to get a high-profile transfer to join their team, no program gets everything they want. However, I would argue that Michigan State basketball has had the perfect offseason, or as close to it as reasonably possible.

No key players transferring to new programs

As I mentioned before, star players in a great positions at their programs are still deciding to transfer. Almost every program has someone significant decide to leave the program. Thankfully for Michigan State, that did not happen this season.

Pierre Brooks is the only player to transfer to a new program when he decided to take his talents to Butler. I never like seeing players leave the program, but I think everyone saw this coming. Brooks would have struggled to make the rotation again this year, so it makes sense for him to find a better fit somewhere else.

The transfer portal can be a scary thing, but the Spartans survived it this year.

Players deciding early to return

Whether it be deciding to enter the transfer portal or go pro, some athletes take a long time to make their final decision. Michigan State, on the other hand, got a lot of good news early this offseason. Both Malik Hall and Tyson Walker announced they were returning to Michigan State early on in the offseason.

Both could have attempted to go the pro route. However, both didn’t even tempt those waters. Arguably Michigan State’s best player and this past season’s sixth man are coming back for another year and that’s massive.

Players withdrawing from the NBA draft

Jaden Akins and AJ Hoggard both entered their name into the NBA Draft. I thought it was possible for Akins to keep his name in the draft, but nobody ever knows what a player will decide to do. All it takes is one team to promise they will draft them and that player could be gone. Thankfully for Michigan State, that did not happen to either player. Both Akins and Hoggard announced their return to Michigan State on May 31 much to all Spartan fans’ delight.

Incoming freshmen class

To round out the perfect offseason, Michigan State’s elite freshmen class has stayed intact. This class is No. 5 in the country and is bringing in four players who can contribute from day one.

Once players sign, usually that means the drama is over. That, however, is not the case anymore. A decent amount of players have asked to be released from their commitments to their program, including one top player who decommitted from Kansas on June 3. With all of Michigan State’s returning production, this could have been possible for one of our incoming freshmen. Thankfully again, this did not occur to the Spartans, and the class has remained committed.

The one negative you could argue

There is one negative thing you could argue that happened to Michigan State this offseason. That is Joey Hauser deciding to go pro and not return to Michigan State basketball for a final season.

Like Brooks, I think most expected this, but I can’t deny how amazing it would have been to have him back again next year. However, who knows what could have happened if he did return. Maybe another player decides to transfer because there aren’t enough minutes to go around. Maybe an incoming freshman decides he’d be better off somewhere else. Nobody knows what would have happened if Joey came back. With all the positives that occurred this offseason, I am fine with Hauser deciding to leave the program.

Michigan State has everything to play for next season. A conference title, Final Four, and national championship are all very realistic. Michigan State will likely be a top-five team in the country to start the season, and that is thanks to a near-perfect offseason for the program.

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Michigan State basketball: AJ Hoggard earns high praise from Malik Hall (Video)

Malik Hall had nothing but good things to say about AJ Hoggard.

Published

17 hours ago

June 4, 2023

Daily MSU

Michigan State basketball got some good news this week and Malik Hall is more than happy to have AJ Hoggard back.

In a recent interview with Justin Spiro, Malik Hall spoke in detail about AJ Hoggard. He discussed how great of a person he is on and off the court and how there are a lot of misconceptions about him from Michigan State basketball fans.

Here is a two-minute clip from that interview where Hall talks about AJ.

“AJ is one of my best friends in life…he’s one of those genuine people that you want around.”

Malik Hall says AJ Hoggard is often misunderstood by fans and commentators.@ajhoggard3 pic.twitter.com/MovtDOzLJc

— Justin Spiro (@DarkoStateNews) June 1, 2023

The star point guard AJ Hoggard dealt with a lot of criticism from the Spartan fanbase this season. Nobody plays great every game, and I think our fans mostly understand that.

The thing that bothered some of our fans however was Hoggard’s body language in the games in which he was struggling. Instead of staying positive, some fans criticized him for seemingly not trying or caring during his struggles.

AJ Hoggard: The leader

Malik Hall is here to tell you that none of that is true. Hall explained how this opinion from fans is the furthest thing from the truth. Malik mentioned that even though AJ’s face looks like he doesn’t care, that is not how he feels at all. That’s great to hear about your starting point guard and one of the leaders of the team. Guys look to AJ for leadership and motivation, so if they see negative body language from him they are likely to mirror that. So even though AJ sometimes looks like he is checked out on the court, it’s nice to know that the rest of the team doesn’t feel that way.

Malik also went on to share that AJ is one of the nicest and most genuine guys he knows. He considers Hoggard to be one of his best friends not just on the team, but in his life. Hall mentioned that AJ is the first guy to text you when you are struggling with something outside of basketball.

That’s the best type of leader in my opinion. Someone who pushes you to be great on the court but always makes sure you are okay off the court.

Sophomore guard Tre Holloman responded to this tweet on Twitter agreeing with what Hall said.

Frfr💯 https://t.co/Pi3CarNke4

— Trejuan Holloman (@jiggyTrawww) June 2, 2023

The next time you think AJ looks out of it in a game, remember this interview. Remember that Malik Hall mentioned that nobody on the team feels this way and they all know that how AJ truly feels doesn’t match the “AJ face.”

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Writer says there’s a huge gap between Purdue and Michigan State basketball

This seems like a wild claim.

Published

3 days ago

June 2, 2023

Connor Muldowney

Gregg Doyel of the Indy Star claims that Purdue is “historically loaded” and there’s a huge gap between them and Michigan State basketball.

With the news of Jaden Akins and AJ Hoggard returning along with Tyson Walker and Malik Hall to go along with the No. 4 recruiting class in the country, Michigan State basketball went from a conference title contender to a national title contender.

Essentially everyone who follows college basketball has Michigan State as a top-five team and right there in the Big Ten as 1B to Purdue’s 1A — some even have it the other way around.

The Spartans bring back everyone but Joey Hauser to a team that went to the Sweet 16 and Purdue returns national player of the year Zach Edey to a Big Ten title team. Both teams are loaded and should be at the top of everyone’s list when it comes to national title contention.

But one Indy Star writer believes that Purdue is “historically loaded” and the talent-and-depth gap between the Boilermakers and “everyone else” is as large as he’s seen in years. Just a wild claim.

Zach Edey's return means Purdue is historically loaded. The talent-and-depth gap between Purdue and everyone else will be as large as we’ve seen in years:https://t.co/uXqI95grQM

— Gregg Doyel (@GreggDoyelStar) June 1, 2023

Gregg Doyel cites a solid incoming class to go along with Edey returning and the two freshmen guards with another year in the system. But he fails to recognize that Michigan State got even better. The Spartans are bringing in an even better recruiting class and they return their 2-3 most talented players from a year ago. The only loss is Hauser.

Saying that this year’s Purdue team is far-and-away the most talented and deepest team in the Big Ten and the gap is the biggest it’s been in years is asinine. There was a much larger gap last year.

Michigan State will go toe-to-toe with the Boilermakers and as long as Edey can be neutralized, the Spartans will have a chance to take them down for the Big Ten crown.

It’s tough to say a team like Michigan State basketball that’s 11-12 guys deep is not nearly as talented or deep as Purdue, but hey, let’s put that early chip on the shoulder.