Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from gritty win over Oakland

Michigan State basketball needed some time to pull away from Oakland for good, but the Spartans picked up a nice win on Tuesday night.

Every year, we get to look forward to this Oakland vs. Michigan State basketball matchup and it’s usually a fairly close fight throughout. This season’s edition of the in-state battle was no different as the Spartans and Grizzlies battled back-and-forth and the former ultimately pulled away, 90-78.

With the win, the Spartans improve to 10-2 on the year and could find themselves in the top-10 next Monday, but they didn’t get this win easily.

In fact, like always, the Grizzlies were a thorn in Michigan State’s side, putting up 78 points and shooting 39 percent from deep despite being a poor shooting team. The Spartans need to get in the film room after this and make sure this doesn’t happen again, especially against Big Ten opponents.

What did we learn from this gritty 12-point win over Oakland?

3. Malik Hall deserves a starting spot

For weeks now, Malik Hall has been on fire. He continued his hot streak on Tuesday night, but he did so coming off the bench as Joey Hauser got the start for Michigan State.

And I get it, Tom Izzo wants to have a solid scoring threat coming off the bench, but with Hall in the game with Tyson Walker, Marcus Bingham Jr., Max Christie, and Gabe Brown, the Spartans would have five legit threats to put the ball in the hoop. Defenses would have a nightmare of a time trying to keep up against those five.

Hall finished the game with 13 points and two rebounds on 6-of-7 shooting while Hauser was 2-for-4 from the field with five points, five rebounds, and four assists, but he would also be solid coming off the bench.

It’s not a knock on Hauser because he didn’t play poorly, but the starting five should include Hall.