Michigan State Basketball: The Two Position is Starting to Find its Groove

This past week appeared to completely gut Michigan State basketball’s spirit. With two losses in a row, and a season-ending injury to Divine Ugochukwu, the Spartans were looking desperate.

Tom Izzo has spoken all year about seeing who will “step up” at the two for the Spartans. With multiple guards coming into the program this past offseason, a hole split open that most Spartan fans thought would be easily filled.

But that has not happened yet, as sixth-year transfer Trey Fort has largely underperformed his expected role, Ugochukwu got injured and is out for the season, and sophomore Kur Teng has not been consistent enough to cement his spot in the starting lineup.

Jordan Scott plays the unsung hero for Michigan State basketball

Enter freshman Jordan Scott, who made his second-straight start against Illinois, and showed his true potential, scoring 10 points and holding Illinois star freshman Keaton Wagler to only 16 points on 2-of-16 shooting from the field after a 46-point outing against Purdue. The Spartans eventually came out on top with a final score of 85-82.

The Spartans though finally had a minor breakthrough however, specifically at that pesky two position. Both Teng and Fort played crucial roles when MSU needed them the most with Teng scoring 10 with a huge triple to put the Spartans ahead in the final seconds and Fort putting up 3 points in total, but Scott was the most impressive piece of the puzzle.

Scott’s three-point basket on a fastbreak with 8:54 left in the second half was a massive swing for the green and white. That bucket knotted the game at 56 a piece, and gave Jeremy Fears his 13th assist on the night. What is more surprising is how gritty Scott was.

Just a little over three minutes into the game, Scott was subbed out and headed to the locker room with an ice pack over his right eye. Only minutes later, Scott ran out of the tunnel, rejoined the team and was subbed back into the game, this time with a patch over his eye.

Scott then was assigned to his fellow freshman Keaton Wagler, the scoring leader for the Fighting Illini and potential future top-five draft pick, and made him look like an average Big Ten basketball player. In the last minutes of the game, Wagler beat Scott on a drive to the basket and went for a layup. Scott made the athletic play to block the shot behind the 6-foot-6 freshman.

Sure, Wagler had his moments as every star does, but he did not take over the game as many predicted. Instead it was Scott who seemed to flourish in limited minutes with heavy competition, and even though he only put up 10 points, the freshman had a “sense of urgency” like Izzo said in his postgame press conference.

Either way, it seems like MSU has finally taken their first step into the right direction at the two spot. With the Spartans’ massive victory, MSU turns their heads to Friday against Wisconsin.