Michigan State Basketball: Report card for win over DePaul in PK80

Michigan State basketball was able to find a way to beat DePaul despite an ugly first half on Thursday night. Who graded the highest?

Michigan State kicked off the Phil Knight Invitational on Thursday night with a win over DePaul in Portland. The Spartans struggled early on with the Blue Demons but found a way to pull away late for a 73-51 victory.

It wasn’t the best showing for this team, but it was forced to play without its brightest star in Miles Bridges who was still nursing an ankle injury. The Spartans will now take on Connecticut on Friday night for a shot at the title game.

What area of the Spartans’ win over DePaul graded the highest on Thursday night?

Bench: B+

Tom Izzo had to be pleasantly surprised with the play of his role players on Thursday. Without Miles Bridges in the lineup, some guys were forced to step up and take on a larger role, and they did just that. While the production off the bench wasn’t eye-opening, by any means, the Spartans got some solid production from guys like Conner George, Tum Tum Nairn and Xavier Tillman.

Let’s start with George’s play. The former walk-on finished with two points and seven rebounds — five of them being offensive. He provided a much-needed spark off the bench and may have earned himself a larger role.

Nairn also played valuable minutes off the bench, dishing out five assists. Although he didn’t attempt a shot in 20 minutes of action, he did look to be an effective facilitator in the offense.

Tillman was coming off a career game against Stony Brook on Sunday in which he had nine points and five rebounds with three blocks and he put together another nice showing versus DePaul. He scored six points with four rebounds and a block in 14 minutes.

Gavin Schilling and Ben Carter need to be more consistent as each accounted for two fouls and two points in 13 minutes. Carter had three rebounds to Schilling’s zero.