Michigan State basketball: 3 takeaways from tight win over Maryland

2 of 3

Michigan State’s A.J. Hoggard, right, moves the ball as Maryland’s Ian Martinez defends during the first half on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.230207 Msu Maryland Bball 044a /

2. AJ Hoggard was right about his fatigue

When talking about AJ Hoggard’s sloppy play after the Rutgers loss, Tom Izzo said that it may have something to do with the number of minutes his point guard had been playing.

Izzo went on to say that maybe he needs to solve a potential fatigue issue by playing Hoggard closer to 25-30 minutes per game instead of 35. Conversely, Hoggard spoke to the media and told them that he didn’t think it had anything to do with fatigue and his playing time isn’t causing the sloppy play.

It looks like Hoggard was right.

The junior point guard played a team-high 35 minutes on Tuesday night and finished with just eight points on 2-for-6 shooting, but he made up for his lack of scoring touch with one of his best passing games in weeks. He was also the Spartans’ leading rebounder. The effort was there.

Hoggard had eight points and 10 rebounds and played some solid defense leading to just 58 total points and 14 percent shooting from deep by Maryland.

Fatigue doesn’t seem to be an issue for Hoggard but he just needs consistency and better decision-making.

Home/Spartans Basketball