Labeled as a "trap" game, Michigan State basketball faced a pesky Minnesota team on Tuesday night with a chance to extend its winning streak to 13 games. Although Minnesota had been hot coming into this game, Michigan State dismantled the Gophers, 73-51.
This game wasn't close from the get-go as Michigan State led the entire way and coasted to a 22-point win, sweeping the season series against Minnesota.
What did we learn from this thrashing by the Spartans on Tuesday night?
1. We need more of this Carson Cooper
What we saw from Carson Cooper on Tuesday night was impressive. The junior big man scored nine points (even though he was just 3-for-6 from the line) and grabbed 11 rebounds. He was all over the court and didn't make many mistakes, going 3-for-4 from the field. Outside of his free throw shooting, I'm not sure there's anything I can knock him for.
Cooper's 11 rebounds were impressive because five of them came on the offensive glass which is something Tom Izzo wants to see more of. Oh, and he had three blocks.
If we get this version of Cooper moving forward, not many teams are going to be able to score in the paint nor beat the Spartans on the glass.
2. This team epitomizes the word "unselfish"
If you look up "unselfish" in the dictionary, there's actually a picture of the 2024-25 Spartans there. Hopefully that picture gets updated with them standing next to a Big Ten title banner, but there's still a long way to go before that happens.
Still, this team plays an unselfish brand of basketball that makes them fun to watch.
On 25 made field goals, Michigan State assisted on 19 of them and that goes from guys like Jeremy Fears and Tre Holloman all the way to Jaxon Kohler. This team is excellent at finding the open man and whenever you have a guy getting eight assists off the bench (Jase Richardson), you know you're unselfish as a team. This is why these guys play so well together and like each other.
3. MSU didn't get caught looking ahead
It would have been really easy for Michigan State to get caught looking ahead to the tough stretch that awaits over the next couple of weeks, but the Spartans remained focused and took it to Minnesota.
This would have been the perfect "trap" or "letdown" game, but Tom Izzo had his guys ready and they came out firing, taking a 20-point lead into the half and then maintaining that for the final 20 minutes.
That's what sets this team apart from previous squads: they don't have many slow starts and they don't get caught looking ahead. That's why the Spartans are now 18-2 on the year and 9-0 in the Big Ten.