Michigan State basketball gets perfect tune-up game vs. Western Michigan

Michigan State basketball tips off its home opener against the Western Michigan Broncos on Friday night. The Spartans are favored to win this game and they should win.

Michigan State is coming off a tough loss against Kansas while Western Michigan is coming off a solid win over Hope College.

AJ Hoggard will look to keep his strong start going during this first game in the Breslin Center. He had 17 points on 8-of-13 from the floor with four assists. He was looking like a whole new Spartan out on the floor both physically and as a player. He was attacking the rim at will and getting his team the energy to go out in transition. He wants to keep these strong play going.

Tyson Walker, Max Christie, and Jaden Akins will use this game to try and find some confidence in this one. Walker will be playing only his second game as a Spartan and getting a feel for his new team. He will get back on track. Christie and Adkins are both freshmen and neither had strong performances in their Spartan debuts. Both will find the groove and have a much better outing in their second performance.

Marcus Bingham and the high-flying Gabe Brown will come out swinging and lighting up the floor with their tenacious defensive abilities and running the court. These two will try and keep the Broncos at bay.

Western Michigan is coming off a strong performance against Hope College, led by Lamar Norman Jr. and Markeese Hastings. Norman had 23 points in the Broncos’ game against Hope and is going to try and give the Spartans fits. Hastings only had seven points for the Broncos but he had 10 rebounds and if the Spartans aren’t careful he could have a big day.

B. Artis White is coming off a slump type of performance. He only played nine minutes and had three points. Someone who was a sharpshooter last season averaging 2.9 three a game. He was not able to do much. Meanwhile, freshman Gus Etchison played some good minutes. He only had five points but he had two steals and had a ton of energy out on the floor against Hope.

White will look to get back to his sharpshooter prowess and Gus will try and wreak havoc on the turnover-prone Spartans.

Tune in to the Big Ten Network at 6:30 p.m. ET to see how this one goes down.