Spartan Avenue
Fansided

Michigan State Basketball: Positives and negatives from statement win over Duke

By Connor Muldowney

Nov 28, 2020; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; (Left to right) Michigan State Spartans guard Joshua Langford (1) guard Foster Loyer (3) forward Aaron Henry (0) forward Joey Hauser (20) and forward Thomas Kithier (15) talk in a huddle during the first half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Jack Breslin Student Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 28, 2020; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; (Left to right) Michigan State Spartans guard Joshua Langford (1) guard Foster Loyer (3) forward Aaron Henry (0) forward Joey Hauser (20) and forward Thomas Kithier (15) talk in a huddle during the first half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Jack Breslin Student Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
Nov 28, 2020; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State Spartans forward Gabe Brown (44) passes the ball during the first half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Jack Breslin Student Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 28, 2020; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State Spartans forward Gabe Brown (44) passes the ball during the first half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Jack Breslin Student Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports /

Negatives

Let’s start with the bad news first.

Michigan State may have beaten Duke and it held a big lead in the second half as time ticked away, but the Spartans were sloppy. This game could have been much more lopsided had this team minimized some correctable mistakes.

  • Fouls: The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of what went wrong has to be foul trouble. Michigan State was called for a lot of ticky-tack fouls all night, but that’s to be expected whenever you travel to Cameron Indoor. Even without fans, the officiating seemed somewhat biased. But there were some fouls that could have been avoided like hand-checks and Foster Loyer getting bullied on drives. Help-side defense has to be better as well.
  • Lazy passes: So it’s incredibly difficult to knock Michigan State’s passing because it’s been elite all season, but not on Tuesday night. The Spartans had nine assists on 27 made field goals and they were lazy with their passes all game. Rocket Watts wouldn’t recognize a closing defender and toss it right to Duke, Joey Hauser would throw a routine pass into a defender’s arms and passes into the post were stolen left and right. This needs to be fixed.
  • Turnovers: This goes along with the lazy passes theme. Fifteen turnovers just isn’t going to cut it most time on the road against top teams.
  • Shooting woes: Gabe Brown was 0-for-4 from the field, Aaron Henry was 7-for-21 and Rocket Watts was 7-for-16. Michigan State didn’t shoot the ball well from the get-go and that’s how it found itself down double-digits early on. The Spartans ended the game with a mediocre 43 percent clip from the floor and even worse 5-for-20 shooting from deep. Michigan State had good looks all night but just missed the mark. It may have been because of the bright lights.
  • Free throws: They’re free so make them. Michigan State was just 16-for-25. This made the game much closer.
  • Closing games out: I mean, you’re up by 13 points with under three minutes left and you let Duke get it to four because of sloppy turnovers against the press late? That can’t happen. This is the third straight game where a big lead was chipped away at in the final minutes.

Now let’s be a little more positive on the next page. I mean, MSU did beat Duke, after all.

Home/Spartans Basketball