Tom Izzo has to feel pretty good about Michigan State following two games to open the season and heading into the Champions Classic against No. 2 Duke.
The Spartans dominated Toledo 91-61 on Thursday night, and that’s no small feat considering the Rockets are projected to finish second in the MAC and will contend for the conference title. Toledo isn’t a bad team, but Michigan State made it look mediocre.
What’d we learn from yet another 30-plus point win to start the year?
Way too many points left on the floor
Michigan State scored 91 points and missed 15 (!!) free throws. Toledo must have the best luck in the world because Arkansas State missed 13 free throws against the Rockets a few days ago. Teams are hovering around 50 percent against them from the line over two games and it’s been a pretty massive sample size (33-for-61).
Izzo looked exhausted by the end of the game and you could see him mouthing something about way too many missed free throws after Jordan Scott missed a pair late.
Great teams can’t shoot 23-for-38 from the line. Getting 38 free throws is a great sign, but if you get there, you need to convert. Michigan State should have scored 100-plus but the line was its kryptonite.
It’s time to shoot about 1,000 per practice until the Duke game.
The frontcourt’s going to be alright
The biggest concern about the team entering the season after two exhibition losses was the frontcourt — more specifically, the center position. That doesn’t feel like a major concern anymore. It’s actually looking like a strength and that’s with Cam Ward still figuring things out.
Anton Bonke got the start, putting up nine points and seven rebounds (four offensive) following a sluggish start. Ethan Taylor then came in and put up eight and five, and Jesse McCulloch had six points and three boards. The center options combined for 23 points and 15 rebounds and their energy was impressive.
At power forward, Coen Carr had 10 points and five rebounds and Kaleb Glenn had eight and six. The frontcourt had 41 of the team’s 91 points but the 52 total rebounds just shows how good of a complete rebounding team the Spartans have.
We were all worried about the frontcourt, but they’ve made a complete 180 since the Marquette game. Now they just need to get Ward on track.
This team might be really special
With four minutes left and Michigan State up by 30 points, Izzo looked flabbergasted on the bench after a silly fifth foul on Cam Ward. His team was playing exceptional basketball but he’s a perfectionist so he had to find something to be annoyed about and the silly fouls and poor free throw shooting were enough to satisfy that craving.
If poor free throw shooting and fouling are his team’s biggest issues through two games, that’s a really good sign. The Spartans were up 30 on a team that was predicted to finish second in the MAC in the preseason and Izzo was upset.
That shows just how much he expects out of this team and how talented and special he believes they can be if they iron out every last kink.
MIchigan State dominated and played a B-game so let’s hope we see an A-game against Duke next week. That’s going to be the true test to see how special the Spartans really are but the effort and energy we saw against Toledo was unbelievable.
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