Michigan State basketball: The good, great, bad, and ugly from Niagara win

Michigan State basketball is now 2-0, having beat Niagara 96-60 on Thursday night at Breslin. During the first half, it wasn’t always pretty for the Spartans. The Purple Eagles came out swinging and opened a small lead against MSU, but Michigan State obviously battled back. They took a small, seven-point lead into halftime, but came out the second half swinging. The Spartans truly looked like one of the top teams in the country during the final 20 minutes of the game, and gave us plenty to talk about. 

They are already off to a better start than last year, but it only gets more difficult from here.

Let’s take a look at the good, great, bad, and ugly from Thursday night’s game.

Good: Jase Richardson

Jase Richardson is now one of the only freshmen who is getting active minutes, and he seems to have gotten better each game thus far. Last night, Richardson was MSU’s second-highest scorer with 12, only second to Jaxon Kohler who we will get into in a minute. Richardson also had two assists, one rebound, one block, and one steal, but finished 4-for-7 from the field. He was extremely efficient, including going 1-for-1 from the perimeter. 

What’s even more impressive to me, is his confidence at getting in the lane. Multiple times against Niagara, he made a quick move to get around his defender, and finish with a decently difficult layup. To be fearless enough to get into the paint and then having the ability to actually finish is a great start to his young Spartan career. 

Great: Jaxon Kohler

Kohler had a coming out party on Thursday night against Niagara. Only twice in his career has the junior big man gone for double digits. Granted, he truly battled injuries for all of last year, but Kohler looks like a different player now. He’s playing like a man possessed. He’s rebounding anything that is in his vicinity, both his own misses and anyone else’s, and putting everything back up that he can. He even hit a three in his first game this year. 

Kohler finished Thursday night leading the team in points, rebounds and steals with 20, 13, and 2, respectively, and was tied for first in free throws, shooting 4-for-5 from the line. In his 18 minutes off the bench, Jaxon went 8-for-12 from the field and his career highs offered Michigan State basketball something it hasn’t had in years, a dominant force down low.

Let’s hope it’s here to stay because Michigan State is going to need him against Kansas on Tuesday.  

Bad: 3-point shooting

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, Michigan State struggled from deep on Thursday night. Truly, they have struggled for years now to be consistent from three. The shooting woes continued into this year, as they were just 3-for-18 against Monmouth earlier in the week. Technically, they improved on Thursday night, shooting 6-for-18 (33 percent). But Tre Holloman was the only one who hit more than one, and at the collegiate level, 33 percent is not going to get it done. 

We know that Akins can catch fire and hit four or five in a game. We know that Tre Holloman can hit from deep, as mentioned he was the only one to hit multiple last night. Fidler is known to hit threes, as is Xavier Booker. As a team, they absolutely need to be better.

Ugly: Spartans’ ability to pull away in the first half

The first half was quite different for Michigan State basketball compared to the second.

To start the game, Michigan State actually found itself in a 9-2 deficit. They would eventually battle back and take a 13-12 lead, but throughout the first 20 minutes, Michigan State struggled to create much separation. They would build a 10-point lead, have a few less than ideal possessions in a row, and Niagara would pull to within five. 

When asked about the game afterwards, Izzo brought this up. He mentioned that they did not do a good job at stacking good possession on good possession. Eventually, Michigan State only took a seven-point lead into halftime, which was somewhat concerning.

Michigan State obviously busted the game open in the second, but against a better opponent, that pull away might not be possible.