Michigan State Basketball: 3 observations from tight win over Penn State

Michigan State basketball nearly coughed up a sure-win on Tuesday night, surrendering a big lead and needing late free throws to beat Penn State.

It’s an annual tradition for Michigan State to catch fire in the month of February and head into the NCAA Tournament with some momentum.

This year feels a little different.

Michigan State has had the worst start to a season in decades and a 3-7 mark in Big Ten play before facing Penn State wan’t pretty. However, building a winning streak and hitting the 10-win mark could go a long way for this team and Tom Izzo made sure to have them ready for the Nittany Lions.

The Spartans build a 12-point lead in the second half, but Penn State came back and even had a late advantage before Michigan State shut the door for good to improve to 10-7.

This is what stood out from Michigan State’s win over Penn State.

3. Joey Hauser gained some confidence back

Sometimes all it takes to snap out of a slump is taking a seat on the bench. For Joey Hauser who has started every game this season leading up to Tuesday, finding a seat next to Tom Izzo to start the game was a strange look, but he embraced it and used it as a challenge. He responded by putting up 11 points, three assists and two rebounds off the bench.

Before Tuesday’s game, he seemed broken. He couldn’t shoot, he couldn’t score from around the basket and he was getting bullied on the defensive end. Not against Penn State.

Hauser shot 4-for-8 from the floor, including 1-for-3 from deep, and he held his own defensively — for the most part — and only had one turnover. He looked like a much more confident player and Izzo’s tactic of bringing him off the bench may have just worked.

Will we see this as the norm from here on out? Probably not, but this was the spark Joey needed.