EAST LANSING, Mich. — Tom Izzo stopped himself briefly on Wednesday night after Michigan State’s win at home over Nebraska, the eighth in a row for the Spartans to remain perfect through the first four Big Ten games of the season.
The Hall of Fame coach was busy lamenting another night full of head-scratching turnovers — a problem all season for the Spartans. This time Michigan State gave the ball away 19 times yet still found a way to win, quite comfortably, in fact.
So, it was in that brief pause Izzo perhaps reminded himself and everyone, as disjointed as the turnovers can make things seem at times, Michigan State is still pretty good team. A flawed team with plenty of room for improvement, to be sure, but absolutely a good team.
“I'm sitting here disappointed,” Izzo said with a slight shake of the head.
He then went on to list the superlatives.
Shooting? Check. Three-point shooting? Check. Free-throw shooting? Check.
Rebounding? Yup, that’s good. Defense? All good, as well.
These are, after all, the standards at Michigan State, and the Spartans are surely living up to what Izzo often says are the staples of the program: defend, rebound, run.
It’s all helped put the misery of 2020-21 quickly in the rearview mirror, a season most would like to forget ever happened as Michigan State made the NCAA Tournament by the skin of its teeth — or, perhaps, its reputation — only to get knocked out in the First Four in a loss that summed up the entire season in 45 minutes.
That, however, is all in the past. A little more than eight months later, Michigan State is 13-2 overall and 4-0 in the Big Ten. Its only losses have come to Baylor, currently the No. 1 team in the country, and Kansas, which is No. 6. The Spartans have four Quad 1 victories, the most of any team in the Big Ten.
Entering Saturday’s showdown with Michigan in Ann Arbor, the 10th-ranked Spartans are rolling, and are quickly becoming a team with high expectations, many that likely didn’t exist before the season.
Michigan State was unranked in the preseason, the first time that has happened since 2011-12. So the fact in the first week of the year the Spartans find themselves as a top-10 team with an eye on winning a fourth Big Ten title in five years is impressive, to say the least.
But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves with this group. After all, as challenging as the non-conference slate was — Michigan State’s current strength of schedule is second toughest among Power Five teams — the start of conference play has been less than daunting. Of course, it won’t stay that way. Winning at Michigan will be no easy task, even with the Wolverines struggling, and after next week, the rest of the contenders — Purdue, Illinois, Ohio State — will start showing up.
Still, the start has been ideal and any idea of Michigan State not being a factor in the Big Ten race and a team that can make a deep March run seems squashed, at this point.
Why have the Spartans turned it around so quickly? Let’s dive into some of the reasons:
Coming together
Defense. Defense. Defense.
Like rebounding, it’s not flashy, but Michigan State is back to the team we’ve become accustomed to seeing over Izzo’s tenure. The numbers compared to last season are stark — a theme that is repeated in numerous categories. While the Spartans often found themselves breaking down defensively last season, especially late in games, they’ve been among the best this season.
Thanks to the shot-blocking of Marcus Bingham Jr., the improvement of Gabe Brown, the pressure on opposing point guards from Tyson Walker and the pleasant surprise that has been Max Christie, Michigan State is 24th in the nation in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com, and second in the Big Ten.
Combine that with solid rebounding — MSU is third in the Big Ten with a +8.7 rebounding margin on opponents — and a far more efficient offense, and things are clicking.
As an example, Michigan State is 11th in the nation in 3-point shooting after ranking 252nd last year, while ranking 23rd in offensive efficiency, an improvement from 98th a year ago.
What has helped make this all possible? While not bashing those that left the program, this year’s roster is as cohesive as the Spartans have seen in some time. A group that lacked identity from start to finish in 2020-21 has had no such issue this season. Every player on the roster understands his role and is playing it as well as can be expected.
The arrival of Walker, the transfer from Northeastern, has been a huge plus as the offense now flows. He’s struggling with turnovers, as is sophomore A.J. Hoggard, but Walker is 12th in the nation in assist rate and has been getting more comfortable finding his shot. It’s allowed the team’s best shooters — Brown and Christie — to find good shots instead of rarely getting the ball in position to shoot.
But it’s not all Walker. Brown has been outstanding. In fact, Izzo thought his overall game against Nebraska was as good as he’s had, and Brown is thriving as the Spartans’ go-to player, shooting nearly 40% from 3-point range and rarely taking a bad shot. Christie, the star freshman, has been getting more comfortable every game and junior Malik Hall is perhaps the best “glue guy” in the country, doing everything that’s asked, from scoring the ball to defending nearly every position.
Bingham finally has found his footing, too, as a low-post scorer and a rim protector while Joey Hauser is slowly becoming as important as Hall, focusing on his rebounding, defense and passing. Add in Julius Marble with solid backup minutes and the continued bursts of rebounding and defense from freshman Jaden Akins, and this roster is a connected one, something that never appeared to exist last season.
Areas of improvement
It hasn’t all been perfect, of course.
Michigan State is among the worst teams in the nation when it comes to turning the ball over, its half-court offense can get stagnant at times and the two-point shooting percentage is well off the pace.
Those all can be seen as negatives. But Izzo believes it’s all fixable, leaving plenty of room for the Spartans to get better.
If that happens, Michigan State might go from a team with a good start to one that could close as well as any team out there.
“I think we were OK offensively, OK defensively, and I'm going to reserve the credit I give my team until March, and then we'll spread it all around,” Izzo said. “But I do appreciate the effort out of our guys. … I think we are moving the ball a little bit better and I don't know if it was great execution. We're gonna find out now because we get into the meat of our schedule.”
