Tom Izzo offers words of encouragement to Jaden Akins after rough finish to season

Tom Izzo knows that Jaden Akins is much better than what he looked like in the last few weeks of the regular season.

A lot has gone wrong for Michigan State basketball as the regular season has come to an end. This is true on a team level and on an individual level as well. Many players aren’t reaching the expectations we all — and Tom Izzo — had for them this season, and that includes Jaden Akins.

Many expected Akins to take a big step forward this year after a solid sophomore season. Akins was an elite 3-point shooter especially at the end of last year and he was one of the reasons Michigan State made their run to the Sweet 16.

Jaden isn’t the primary scorer for this team, and he doesn’t have to be. But what he needs to be is a solid secondary scoring option who can light it up from beyond the arc. That is what MSU’s been missing from him especially late.

However, it doesn’t sound like Jaden’s struggles are from a lack of effort. Izzo commented on Akins during his press conference on Tuesday, and it sounds like he is hopeful for a turnaround from his star junior.

Tom Izzo offers encouragement to Akins

Izzo is known for being a coach who isn’t afraid to get in his players’ faces. That is a good strategy to motivate your team in some scenarios, but not in Akins’ scenario. When shooters are struggling to hit shots, no amount of yelling or screaming will help. Tom Izzo knows this and instead is offering words of encouragement to the junior.

Izzo feels MSU has been getting good looks despite shooting 38.8% and 33.7% from 3 in going 1-4 in its last five games. Says he has talked to Jaden Akins about "being comfortable with yourself" because he spends so much time in the gym and puts in so much work into his shot.

— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) March 12, 2024

“Being comfortable with yourself” is the best thing Jaden can do right now. From the sounds of it, Akins is working extremely hard in the gym to improve his shot, it just hasn’t fully translated to games yet.

But the old saying is “shooters shoot” for a reason. The only way for him to get out of his slump is to keep shooting. A lack of confidence will only hurt him even more, so he needs to get his confidence back and just keep shooting until the shots start to fall.

We saw a little spark from Akins against Indiana as he did hit two 3-pointers during MSU’s comeback. But he got a little trigger happy after that and finished 2-for-9 from beyond the arc. However, maybe those two makes are exactly what he needed to see to start feeling more confident.

If Michigan State is going to go on a run, they’re going to need a lot of their players to step up. This includes Akins, who needs to get back to his production from last season. If he can get back to around 40 percent from three, I think MSU has a great chance to win more than a couple of games in March.