Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from comfortable win over Penn State

Michigan State basketball cruised to a big win over Penn State on Saturday afternoon to improve to 9-2 on the year. What’d we learn?

Just like football.

For the fourth straight game, Michigan State basketball built a big second-half lead over an opponent but this was the first time that the Spartans were actually able to keep the distance, beating Penn State 80-64 on Saturday afternoon.

The Spartans had let the previous three opponents (Louisville, Toledo, Minnesota) climb back into games late after building near-20 point leads in each contest, but after going up 21 on Penn State late, they held on and won by 16.

Michigan State improves to 9-2 on the year and 2-0 in Big Ten play and the Spartans are sure to climb in the next edition of the AP Top 25.

What’d we learn from this comfortable win, which happens to be Michigan State’s ninth in the last 10 games?

3. Mady Sissoko proves worthy of more minutes

We’ve seen very little of Mady Sissoko this year, but I think that needs to change, especially with how well he played on Saturday. He looked the part of a capable big man in the Big Ten, holding his own on defense and even backing down John Harrar for a bucket.

Sissoko finished with just four points, but he made both of his shots and showed confidence close to the basket on offense. It was the first time we’ve seen him taking contested shots that weren’t dunks or layups and he looked good. This could be a sign of things to come.

On defense, he was obviously fantastic. He altered some shots and played some aggressive basketball in the post, not giving up any easy buckets.

Tom Izzo may be hesitant to give a raw player additional minutes, but every time he’s on the floor, he proves himself worthy of an increased workload and he did it again against Penn State.