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Michigan State Basketball: 3 post-game thoughts from EMU win

By Carter Landis

Nov 25, 2020; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State Spartans head coach Tom Izzo raises his arms during the first half against the Eastern Michigan Eagles at Jack Breslin Student Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 25, 2020; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State Spartans head coach Tom Izzo raises his arms during the first half against the Eastern Michigan Eagles at Jack Breslin Student Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports /
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Michigan State basketball took care of business against Eastern Michigan on Wednesday evening. What did the team do well, specifically?

The first game of the 2020-21 season has come and gone, and it saw the Michigan State Spartans beat the Eastern Michigan Eagles, 83-67.

Just like many expected earlier in the week, the Spartans are now 1-0. It didn’t look how they might have thought, seeing a different lineup than expected and different players producing.

The empty Breslin was certainly confusing and slightly depressing, as it’s usually full of raucous fans and students making life miserable for visiting teams. The Spartans will have to adjust to this when the tougher Big Ten teams come to town.

One of the things that didn’t change was the turnovers. The Spartans turned the ball over 18 times, five of them courtesy of a few confused plays from Joey Hauser, which got him benched and an earful from Tom Izzo. MSU was slightly confused by the Eagles’ 2-3 zone, which resulted in a few questionable shots and a few more turnovers.

The Eagles were in the game for a while in the first half, before a 13-0 run in the middle of the first half pushed the lead to one that they could not come back from. After that, there was no chance for Eastern.

Michigan State shot the ball quite well from beyond the arc, knocking down 12 three-pointers on a 43 percent clip. They needed to do that to penetrate the EMU zone, and it worked to perfection.

Let’s take a look at some of the things that stood out from Wednesday’s game.

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