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Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from dominant win over Wisconsin

By Connor Muldowney

EAST LANSING, MI - JANUARY 17: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans celebrates with his teammate Rocket Watts #2 after receiving a commemorative ball from Former Spartan Mateen Cleaves for breaking his Big Ten assist record after the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at the Breslin Center on January 17, 2020 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
EAST LANSING, MI - JANUARY 17: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans celebrates with his teammate Rocket Watts #2 after receiving a commemorative ball from Former Spartan Mateen Cleaves for breaking his Big Ten assist record after the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at the Breslin Center on January 17, 2020 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /
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Michigan State basketball hosted Wisconsin in an important conference showdown on Friday night. What’d we learn from this battle?

Last season, Michigan State let a double-digit loss at Purdue start a three-game losing streak. This season, the Spartans avoided the same fate after getting blown out by the Boilermakers on Sunday, smacking a red-hot Wisconsin team around for the better part of 40 minutes, 67-55.

The final score is not quite indicative of how dominant the Spartans were in this one. They grabbed the lead early on and didn’t look back.

Wisconsin pulled within six points in the second half thanks to a 13-4 run out of the locker room, but Michigan State responded and pushed its lead to 25 with about six minutes to play. This game was all but over but the Spartans let off the gas pedal and allowed a 13-0 run by the Badgers to end the game with just a 12-point win. Not exactly what Tom Izzo wanted to see, but there were still plenty of positives to take from this one.

What’d we learn from the Spartans’ big win over a red-hot Wisconsin team?

3. Gabe Brown has barely scratched the surface

If you watched this kid play on Friday night, you saw just what the coaching staff had been so excited about this offseason. Gabe Brown looked like an absolute machine and even though he had just 13 points, it wasn’t quiet.

Gabe had a couple of big 3-pointers and some monster dunks, including one that got him a technical foul and a nice stern talking to from Tom Izzo — he hung on the rim and pulled himself up. He probably won’t do that again, but he was feeding off the crowd and that dunk almost made the roof pop off the Breslin Center.

Athleticism, an impressive shooting touch and improving rebounding all show that he can be a player at the next level and a kid who has barely scratched the surface of what he can bring to the table.

Brown finished with those 13 points and five rebounds on 5-of-5 shooting and if he can contribute this on a regular basis while continuing to expand his game, the Spartans will flourish.

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