If you've followed my work at Spartan Ave in recent weeks, you would have seen me ramping up my usage of EvanMiya.com for cool Michigan State basketball stats, rankings, and analytics.
That's only going to continue into March and through Michigan State's tourney run.
The Spartans are one of the top analytics teams in the country in terms of fast-break efficiency, free throw shooting, two-point shooting, defensive efficiency, and a handful of other major categories. This team is just well-balanced and it's fair to say that the Spartans are one of the top national title contenders in the country.
What do all national title contenders seem to have? Elite guard play.
We've already established, thanks to Evan Miyakawa's numbers, that Michigan State has the deepest backcourt in college basketball, but the Spartans also have one of the top two-man duos.
In fact, according to the adjusted efficiency margins, Jaden Akins and Jase Richardson account for the ninth-best two-man duo in college basketball.
Here are the top performing two-man duos in the country at https://t.co/cegyfz96ax based on team efficiency while they are on the floor together (limit one duo per team): pic.twitter.com/SdDTjpBLfi
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) February 25, 2025
This is somewhat surprising because it feels like Akins has been slumping in recent weeks and Tre Holloman has been the second-best guard on the team behind Richardson, but apparently when Akins and Jase are on the court at the same time, good things happen. That gives teams two potential go-to scorers to worry about.
With Holloman stepping up recently, it wouldn't surprise me if Tre, Richardson, and Akins made up the best trio in the Big Ten lately in terms of efficiency. I would love to see those numbers.
But even with Akins slumping, he does better when Jase is on the floor and the two are feeding off each other's energy. A code may have been cracked with these numbers.