Michigan State Basketball: Max Christie is key to Big Ten title run

While he isn’t currently Michigan State basketball’s top player, Max Christie may be the most important if the Spartans are going to make a run.

For the second straight week, Max Christie won the Big Ten Freshman of the Week award which was relatively surprising considering he continued to struggle with his shot.

In fact, Christie went 5-for-16 from the floor and 2-for-11 from deep against Penn State and Minnesota but still took home some Big Ten honors. That’s probably because he continues to be solid on the defensive end of the floor; he had three blocks against Minnesota.

Christie has been starting since the first game of the season and while he’s shown flashes, he’s been struggling overall as a shooter and that’s the strength of his game.

On the season, he’s shooting just 33 percent from the floor and 26 percent from deep which isn’t ideal for a young player who averages about nine attempts per game from the floor. He’s in a little freshman slump and yet Michigan State is playing some great basketball.

Since the season-opening Champions Classic loss to Kansas, Michigan State is 9-1 with wins over Louisville, UConn, Loyola Chicago, Minnesota, and Penn State, handling most of those teams. The Spartans have been borderline unstoppable during stretches of those games and if they didn’t have serious turnover issues, they would have won each of them by double digits (minus UConn).

Michigan State has looked like one of the top teams in college basketball since losing to Kansas and it’s jumped from unranked to No. 22 to No. 19 and now the Spartans are up to No. 12.

And this is all while Christie is struggling with his shot.

A hot-shooting Max Christie makes Michigan State basketball a favorite

We saw Christie shooting lights-out in the exhibition games and it felt like that was going to translate into the regular season. He has yet to shoot the ball the way he did in the preseason and that seems to be the only thing standing between Michigan State as a Final Four contender and a Sweet 16/Elite Eight team.

Christie has shot 50 percent or better from the field just twice this season and when he’s done that, the Spartans have looked dominant. He shot 6-for-9 against Butler in a 21-point road win and then was 3-for-6 against Louisville in a dominant home victory.

In eight games, Christie has shot lower than 35 percent from the floor and that can’t continue if Michigan State is going to make a Big Ten title push. He needs to be a scoring threat and someone who can make big shots in critical junctures in the game.

Michigan State needs Christie to step up and when he does, this team will be able to beat anyone.