Michigan State basketball: 3 takeaways from tight win over Michigan

Was it pretty? Absolutely not. Was it needed? Yes. Michigan State basketball picked up a much-needed win over the Wolverines on Saturday afternoon, 59-53, to improve to 11-4 overall and 3-1 in Big Ten play.

Thinking back, if Michigan State was even to split the Northwestern and Notre Dame games, we might be looking at a top-15 team right now with a chokehold on the No. 1 spot in the Big Ten.

But let’s not think about that right now. Let’s talk about how the Spartans didn’t play very well against the rival Wolverines and still shut Michigan’s offense down and won by six, covering the 4.5-point spread.

Here are my top takeaways from the victory.

3. Mady Sissoko has to play better

You know it’s bad when I think the best minutes at the center position came from Carson Cooper who played just three minutes and had zero points.

Mady Sissoko was that bad on Saturday.

I was hoping and expecting that he would show up in a big way against Hunter Dickinson and while he didn’t play terribly on defense, he was a liability offensively. He missed. a few bunnies because he brought the ball down after catching it in the post and just looked out of sorts all afternoon. He did also finish with four fouls so his defense wasn’t great but it also wasn’t poor.

Sissoko has to play better moving forward if Michigan State is going to make any noise in the Big Ten this year because there are more top-tier big men awaiting.