Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from dominant win over Wisconsin

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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EAST LANSING, MI – JANUARY 17: Rocket Watts #2 of the Michigan State Spartans celebrates his three point shot in the second half of 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) /

2. Rocket Watts is becoming a serious scoring threat

For the second straight game, Rocket Watts reached double-digits in the scoring column off the bench. He followed up a 10-point game against Purdue with an 11-point outing versus Wisconsin. He proved that he’s no longer a struggling freshman and more so a scoring threat off the bench.

Since coming back from his injury in early-December, Watts has scored at least six points in all but one game — that’s 5-of-6. He has scored at least eight points in four games. He is looking more like the player we expected at the beginning of the season, but who struggled mightily.

Watts is shooting 19-of-37 from the field and he’s hitting 35 percent of his 3-pointers in that time frame as well. He’s improved his touch and his step-back jumper is deadly — just ask . Brad Davison.

Confidence is oozing from Watts’ pores these days and that’s exactly what Tom Izzo expected at the beginning of the year and sometimes it takes young guys a little while to get acclimated in college basketball. It has taken Watts a few months, but he’s looking more like a serious scoring threat off the bench and that helped with Cassius Winston playing poorly.

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