Michigan State basketball flirts with program record in Stony Brook win

Michigan State basketball flirted with a program record during Thursday night’s 99-55 win over Stony Brook.

Just six days ago, Michigan State basketball set a program record in its win over Baylor. The Spartans’ 24-point win over the Bears was the largest margin of victory against an AP top 10 opponent in program history. Now less than a week later, they almost broke another program record.

Michigan State nearly breaks single-game assist record

Almost 24 years ago, Michigan State set the program record for assists in a game against Michigan. Do you all know what game I’m talking about? Weeks before the Spartans won their second national championship, MSU dismantled Michigan 114-63. In that game, the Spartans set the program single-game assists record with 36. Last night, MSU came close to breaking that record.

Michigan State finished with 33 assists in their 99-55 win over Stony Brook. That is tied for fifth-most in program history, only three behind the program record. Thirty-six assists in one game feels like one of those records that might never be broken. It only took one of the most lopsided wins in MSU history to set, so that shows just how difficult it will be to break. But for MSU to even come close to breaking it shows how great the Spartans’ performance was on Thursday night.

MSU assist leaders

Jeremy Fears and AJ Hoggard led the team last night with 10 assists each. I expect nights like that from AJ occasionally, but that was a pleasant surprise from Fears. Tre Holloman also contributed six assists which is a strong number off the bench as well. Other than those three, the only other player with a significant number was Jaden Akins with three assists to go with his team-high 22 points.

Unsurprisingly, AJ leads the team this season averaging 5.1 assists per game. Fears and Holloman are next in line, averaging 3.3 and 3.2 assists per game, respectively. As a team, the Spartans are at 18.4 assists per game. This is a phenomenal number and is 4th best in the conference and 15th-best in the country. If last night was any indication, I think this number will continue to rise to an elite level for Tom Izzo’s team.