Michigan State Basketball: Report card for critical win at Florida

Michigan State basketball had a scare in Gainesville on Saturday afternoon, but escaped with a critical win over the Florida Gators.

What Michigan State game doesn’t come down to the wire these days? The Spartans and Florida Gators battled it out in Gainesville on Saturday afternoon and it led to a clutch four-point win — thanks to a huge dunk by Kyle Ahrens in the final 10 seconds to seal it.

With the win, Michigan State improves to 8-2 on the regular season and has just three games (Green Bay, Oakland, Northern Illinois) standing between the Spartans and Big Ten play.

The Spartans escaped with a win, but it wasn’t pretty. In fact, the report card wasn’t so forgiving following the victory over the Gators, but were there any failing grades?

How did the Spartans grade out on Saturday afternoon?

Bench: B+

Truly, the bench was basically Xavier Tillman and a couple of other guys. The sophomore big man had his best game of the season, scoring 14 points with nine rebounds, three steals and a block. He was just one of three players to come off the bench for the Spartans and he happened to be the best player for Michigan State against the Gators.

If it weren’t for Tillman, the grade for the bench would have been closer to the C/C+ range for lack of production more than anything else. Matt McQuaid and Aaron Henry both played solid defense, but combined for a total of three points on 1-of-2 shooting in 29 total minutes.

Michigan State may have the top sixth man in the Big Ten and he continues to improve. He has broken out over the past four games, leading the bench production and becoming the top option outside the starting lineup.

The bench was trimmed, but Tillman’s game was enough to give this group a passing grade.