Michigan State Basketball: Report card from win over Rutgers in Week 5
Michigan State basketball had a rough time with Rutgers on Tuesday night, but how did the Spartans grade out in the victory?
One step forward, two steps back. Beating Nebraska by 29 points at home and then struggling on the road against Rutgers isn’t exactly what Tom Izzo wanted to see from his team, but it was the first true road game of the year for Michigan State.
Road games in the Big Ten are never easy and the Spartans found that out on Tuesday night. Rutgers played well enough to tie things up at halftime and the Scarlet Knights’ defense coupled with Michigan State’s poor offense nearly spelled an upset in Piscataway.
It wasn’t pretty, but the Spartans found a way to win on the road to improve to 8-1 overall and 2-0 in Big Ten play. This is one of those learning experience wins.
What does the Spartans’ report card look like from the sloppy win over Rutgers?
Bench: B-
If there’s one word to describe how the bench played on Tuesday night, it would be “quietly.” The Spartans’ role players didn’t seem to get into the swing of things right away and even down the stretch, there was little production coming from the bench.
The bench combined for six points, eight turnovers, seven assists, 21 rebounds and five blocks. It also made just 2-of-6 field goal attempts.
Tum Tum Nairn was the top performer off the pine for the Spartans even though he didn’t score a point. He played 29 minutes, attempted just one shot and finished with six assists to just two turnovers. He filled in nicely when Cassius Winston seemed to be getting a lesson from Tom Izzo. Still, scoring zero points in 29 minutes? That’s not ideal.
Kenny Goins and Matt McQuaid each played 19 minutes and actually didn’t fare all that bad. The latter had five points on 2-of-4 shooting with six rebounds and an assist and Goins finished with four rebounds, two blocks and three fouls with no points.
Gavin Schilling played 11 minutes, had eight rebounds and a point, but picked up three fouls. Xavier Tillman played six minutes and had a rebound and a block and Ben Carter finished with one rebound, two turnovers and two fouls in five minutes.