Michigan State basketball: Top 20 nationally in defensive field goal percentage

Michigan State basketball is one of the top 20 defensive teams in the country when it comes to field goal percentage.

Michigan State basketball has been a great defensive team all season. We haven’t been able to say the same about the offense, but the defense has been good all year.

The Spartan defense has been so strong this year, that they are one of the best teams in the country in defensive field goal percentage.

Top 20 nationally in defensive field goal percentage

Michigan State so far this season is No. 17 nationally in field goal percentage defensively, holding their opponents to 39 percent from the field. This also puts the Spartans at No. 2 in the Big Ten, behind only Illinois.

The Spartans are also No. 55 this season in 3-point defense, so that tells me they are likely one of the very best at defending against two point field goals. Unfortunately nobody tracks field goal percentage only from two point shots, so we don’t know just how good they are defending inside the 3-point line.

But is this stat really that surprising? To me it’s not, because we knew how strong we were defensively going into this season.

Our three starting guards, Jaden Akins, AJ Hoggard, and Tyson Walker are all known to be elite defenders. Mady Sissoko also is an extremely solid defender in the post as well. I would even say Malik Hall is a solid defender, too, just maybe not as great as the others. That means all five starters are very good defenders, which is pretty uncommon in college basketball. So being top 20 nationally really doesn’t come as a surprise to me, but it is nice to see that the defensive expectations are coming true.

What happens if the offense gets going?

This is what’s fun to think about. Michigan State’s defensive prowess likely isn’t going anywhere. I think our team has proven that this is the norm for them defensively rather than an abnormality. But if the Spartans are able to start clicking more consistently offensively, then this team could be very special.

The Spartans have shown what they can do offensively, just not as regularly as they might like. But if they do become more consistent, I think they can beat any team in the country.

The Spartans likely still won’t compete for the Big Ten even if they do figure it out offensively. But as we saw last season, this team can make another deep run in March if everything clicks at the right time. If I had to bet, I would guess that Tom Izzo will get everything to click in March once again.