Michigan State basketball: 3 takeaways from gritty road win at Minnesota

1. We saw a sense of urgency on Sunday

We didn’t see it early on at Indiana. We didn’t see it at Purdue earlier in the conference season. We saw it on Sunday at Minnesota. The Spartans came out a little sluggish on the offensive end, but strong defense gave them some much-needed momentum after the first media timeout.

Cassius Winston played much more like his old self though he got lost on defense a couple of times which is unlike him, but he had 18 points, eight assists and only one turnover. These are the much more Cassius-like stat lines that we’ve grown to expect. Could this get him back on track heading back home this week? Most likely.

Besides Cassius, it was evident that Xavier Tillman was playing with more purpose and a sense of urgency. He was hitting the glass hard and playing solid defense on Daniel Oturu.

Malik Hall and Rocket Watts breathed life into the starting lineup and Michigan State wasn’t getting beat to 50/50 balls as much as they had been at Purdue and at Indiana. We saw a team that knew it had to win to keep pace with first place in the Big Ten.

This is the team fans have been begging to see on the road ever since conference play began and this could show the younger guys that they can beat anyone if they shut out the noise, play with a purpose and don’t get rattled.