3 Michigan State basketball takeaways from win over Madrid All-Stars

3. Center battle and defensive woes

I promised to only have three takeaways so I'm going to cheat and combine two to finish this off.

The competition at center is another intriguing battle to watch over this next week. The center spot has been abysmal for Michigan State in recent years, so we desperately needed to see someone step up and take command at this postion.

I thought it was going to be transfer Szymon Zapala since he drew the start at center today, but his play did not impress me much at all and he failed to score a single point. Carson Cooper also had some moments as well and finished with a solid 10 points, but even he didn't look that much improved from last season.

But it was Jaxon Kohler who finished with 13 points who looked the best out of these three guys. Maybe his improved play is because he has finally had plenty of time to recover from his injury that forced him to miss the first half of last season, but he looked as good as we've ever seen him play in a Michigan State uniform. Hopefully that trend continues and Kohler can turn into an elite presence down low on offense.

Lastly, I just want to mention one thing about the Spartan's defense today. Their 3-point defense was awful. They gave up countless open looks from beyond the arc and even fouled a 3-point shooter late in the game.

Like I've been saying, it's only game one so I'm not going to panic, but Michigan State needs to improve on this in a hurry.