Michigan State Basketball: Positives and negatives from Northwestern loss

Positives

Now, onto the good news. Michigan State got some solid play from its bench, but the positives were at a premium on Sunday night.

• The bench. The play from the guys who came off the bench was solid. Guys like Gabe Brown, AJ Hoggard, Malik Hall, Julius Marble and Foster Loyer all had decent games off the bench which led to them out-scoring the starters. Brown and Hall have been playing good all season and it was nice to see that continue when the rest of the team struggled.
• Turnovers. For once, this isn’t in the negatives section of these posts. The Spartans only had eight turnovers and won that battle over Northwestern which had 12. Michigan State forced seven of those with seven steals.
• Joshua Langford showed flashes. Other than fouling out, Joshua Langford showed flashes of his old self on both ends of the floor. He was making jumpers and showed confidence in his shot while locking down the perimeter. If he could have stayed out of foul trouble, he may have had his best game all year.

Let’s hope this team can figure some things out before Wisconsin comes to town on Christmas Day.