Good teams have solid offenses, but great teams have both a solid offense and a stingy defense. Michigan State basketball is proving to be the latter.
Outside of having one of the top offenses in the conference (especially when it can get out and run and play up-tempo), Michigan State also has an elite defense.
If you haven't caught on by now, Evan Miyakawa is one of the best analytics guys in the game and he provided yet another key stat that proves that Michigan State has one of the best teams in the country.
Miyakawa posted the top 50 teams that have forced the most scoring droughts of four minutes or longer and, wouldn't you know it, Michigan State is right up there in the top 10.
Here are the teams in the top 50 at https://t.co/cegyfz8ykZ who have forced the most scoring droughts of 4 minutes or longer: pic.twitter.com/82Ad8fGmcv
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) February 20, 2025
According to that list, Michigan State is the second-best in the Big Ten (behind only UCLA) at forcing long scoring droughts and the Spartans aren't in the top 20 of scoring droughts of their own which only means one thing: they play good ball.
OK, but seriously, this is an impressive list to be in the top 10 of, especially when you consider the other teams in the top 10 are all contenders. Texas A&M, Houston, St. Mary's, UCLA, Clemson, Gonzaga, Marquette, Tennessee, and BYU are all going to be serious threats in the NCAA Tournament next month and one main reason is defense. This list proves that.
Michigan State has forced 17 scoring droughts of four-plus minutes this season which is impressive seeing as the first-place team has 22. Not far off.
Let's force a couple more four-plus minute droughts on Friday night, shall we?