Michigan State Basketball: 3 keys to victory at Penn State
By Nate Rhoades
Michigan State basketball travels to Penn State to take on the Nittany Lions. What do the Spartans need to do in order to win?
Michigan State basketball is back on the road as the Spartans take on the Penn State Nittany Lions on Tuesday night. The Spartans had a bounce-back win on Saturday against a slumping Indiana team and they will look to continue that success against the Lions.
The Spartans have had many things go right for them this season but have had their Achilles heel in the form of turnovers and sometimes rebounding this season. They will try and put a stop to those turnovers against Penn State which is an experienced team.
Michigan State had a close call in last year’s contest with the Nittany Lions and will hope to have a better outing this time out.
The Spartans are 23-7 against Penn State all time. What do they have to do to make that 24 wins?
3. Fastbreak points and points in the paint
Michigan State, at times, has relied too heavily on its shots from deep. The Spartans have sometimes settled and should not be doing that in this game. The Spartans also try and get out and run and get as many fastbreak points as possible.
This should be the game plan going into the matchup with Penn State. The Spartans need to feed the ball to Marcus Bingham down low and get him involved in the game. Good things happen when Bingham gets going offensively, his defense gets better, too. When Bingham is out, they have to try and get the ball into Julius Marble and let him do some damage on the block.
Michigan State needs to get back to the basics and get the ball on the block.
The Spartans also need to get out and run. Running is the Spartans’ brand of basketball. If they can get out in transition, good things happen. The Spartans have struggled to get out in transition consistently the past eight games and their record shows it.
They are 4-4 in their past eight and in those losses they have not been able to get out and run.