Michigan State Basketball: 5 takeaways from mammoth win at Wisconsin

Michigan State basketball picked up a huge win at Wisconsin on Tuesday night. What’d we learn from the Spartans’ huge victory?

Winning in Madison is one of the toughest accomplishments for a Big Ten team. Michigan State didn’t care about the hostile crowd as the veteran Spartans beat Wisconsin 67-59 on Tuesday night to improve to 20-5 on the year and 11-3 in conference play.

With the win, Michigan State moved back into a three-way tie for first place in the conference with Purdue and Michigan with only six games remaining on the year.

It was one of those gritty wins that Tom Izzo-coached teams have been known for over the years and definitely a memorable one — especially for Kenny Goins who hit one of the biggest shots of his life with 30 seconds left to essentially ice the game.

What’d we learn from the Spartans’ gritty win at Wisconsin?

5. Aaron Henry is developing a nice mid-range game

Aaron Henry has the ability to make 3-pointers, and he has six makes on the season in limited shots, but hasn’t made a single one since Jan. 17 at Nebraska. That has to change soon, right?

Since that last long-distance make, he is 0-for-5 from 3-point land. Sure, it’s only five attempts, but something happened with his confidence on that shot which has prevented him from taking many. He attempted two against Wisconsin, but both were just off the mark.

It’s not the 3-point shot that he needs to be working on, though, but rather the mid-range jumper which could give him the confidence to start firing up threes again.

And on Tuesday night, his mid-range jumper was on point.

It may not look pretty all the time, but he made it work, finding an opening at the top of the key and draining a few mid-range shots. This is a nice development in his game and it could lead to bigger and better things for Henry.