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

Positives

There were plenty of positives despite some shooting woes and turnover issues as Michigan State nearly ran away with a double-digit win at Cameron Indoor.

• Aaron Henry: All-around, Aaron Henry has been the most pleasant surprise for Michigan State this season. I expected him to return and go through the motions just so he could get to the NBA draft process again, but he’s become a leader. He has truly embraced what it means to be a team captain and he’s excelling. He stuffed the stat sheet again and he was caught coaching the team from the bench in the second half. Henry has turned a corner.
• Rebounding: Rebounding was the one area that Tom Izzo was worried about coming into the season and the Spartans out-battled Duke on the glass. Sure, this is a smaller Duke team than we’re used to seeing, but it’s still impressive to see Michigan State out-board the Blue Devils 46-40 on their own floor while grabbing 12 offensive rebounds. More of this, please.
• Bench play: Yet again, I came away impressed with the bench. Michigan State might be one of the deepest teams in the nation and that was proven by Malik Hall and Julius Marble on Tuesday night. Marble had 12 points (a career-high) and two rebounds while Hall had 10 points and 10 rebounds while playing some great defense. Marcus Bingham Jr. and Gabe Brown didn’t score, but it didn’t even matter as the bench wore down the Blue Devils.
• Rocket Watts’ confidence: It seems like every time Rocket Watts hears it from Izzo, he responds. Let’s hope that continues. He finished with a team-high 20 points and was putting defenders on skates and blowing by them again. If he can play like this while defending at a high level for the remainder of the year, Rocket will be All-Big Ten.
• Defense: I saved the best for last. The offense was lacking a bit for Michigan State but the defense, yet again, stepped up in a big way. It’s time to start talking about Henry challenging for Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Joshua Langford and Watts didn’t do all that poorly either. In the post, Joey Hauser held his own and made some plays while Hall was a pleasant surprise. Every Duke shot was contested and that led to just 32 percent shooting from the floor and 22 percent from deep. More than a third of their points came from the free throw line. This could be one of Izzo’s best defensive teams ever.

These positives can be built on and this team has so much room to grow, it’s scary that the Spartans are 3-0. This team has a chance to be really, really good.