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

By Connor Muldowney

Michigan State's Tyson Walker, right, moves past Penn State's Sam Sessoms during the first half on Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.211211 Msu Penn State Bball 075a
Michigan State's Tyson Walker, right, moves past Penn State's Sam Sessoms during the first half on Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.211211 Msu Penn State Bball 075a /
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Michigan State’s A.J. Hoggard celebrates after a Spartans score against Penn State during the first half on Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.211211 Msu Penn State Bball 086a
Michigan State’s A.J. Hoggard celebrates after a Spartans score against Penn State during the first half on Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.211211 Msu Penn State Bball 086a /

1. This team has Final Four potential

Before the season began, if I had said that Michigan State has Final Four potential, I would have gotten drilled. The Spartans were coming off a forgettable 2020-21 season in which they barely made the NCAA Tournament and they began the 2021-22 season unranked after losing Aaron Henry, Josh Langford, and Rocket Watts along with a couple of transfers.

Basically, the Spartans were going to be unproven and without a true alpha dog.

After losing the opener to Kansas without anyone truly stepping up as the go-to scorer, the preseason worries looked to be coming to fruition, but since then, Michigan State has reeled off nine wins in 10 games to improve to 9-2 and it’s ranked No. 19 in the country.

Plus, Michigan State’s only losses are to top-10 teams and they didn’t look completely out-matched in either game. The Spartans hung around and were just worn down because of turnovers late in the game. Those two games also acted as perfect tests for the Spartans.

Now that they’ve won nine out of 10, Michigan State is looking like a true contender in the national spotlight and the Spartans are handling teams that they should.

On top of that, the balanced scoring is just wearing teams down and the emergence of Tyson Walker (10 points, nine assists) has been a godsend for this team.

This has the feel of one of those typical over-achieving Izzo teams that makes a Final Four run.

3 reasons Kenneth Walker III is nation's best player. dark. Next

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