Michigan State Basketball: 3 quick thoughts after big win over Louisville

1. Malik Hall needs consistency

Malik Hall was the Spartans’ leading scorer with 15 points. This is the second time in four games he was the leading scoring for the Spartans. Hall had 24 against Loyola Chicago in the first game of the Battle 4 Atlantis. In his next two games against UConn and Baylor, he had five total points. Now he is back in the spotlight after leading the Spartans in scoring again.

Fans have seen that he can score. They’ve seen that he has confidence and when he is overflowing with confidence he can’t be stopped. Now fans just need to see that on a consistent basis, game in and game out.

Hall doesn’t just help this team in the scoring aspect. He can defend at an elite level. He rebounds the ball well. He can also find his teammates to help them get them involved. Hall does a little bit of everything — when he is on, that is. It is when he’s not on his game that he somewhat hurts the team.

In the game against Baylor, he was off and he could not get anything going. He was only 1-for-3 from the floor but had five turnovers. This is the type of thing that cannot continuously happen for an OKG (our kind of guy) type of player.

The Spartans will need the Hall that appeared in the second half of this game on a nightly basis. If Hall can figure out how to be consistent the rest of the Big Ten needs to watch out for these Spartans for they can be dangerous.