3 takeaways from Michigan State basketball’s dominant 105-59 win over Valencia

Michigan State basketball was back in action Sunday afternoon in their second of three games in Spain.

The Spartans are coming off a hard-fought seven-point win on Thursday against Madrid, but even with the win they left a lot to be desired on both sides of the ball. Thankfully Michigan State was dominant all game long on Sunday defeating the Valencia All-Stars 105-59.

There were countless positive takeaways from this game, but here are the three that stood out to me.

1. Defense, defense, defense

Michigan State’s defense in their first game was not great. I hoped we could just write it off to them just arriving in Spain and not being fully adjusted after their flight, and it looks like that was the case.

Everything MSU did poorly in game one they did great today. The 3-point defense was much improved, they easily reached close to 20 steals and they also didn’t give up any easy looks.

It was a defensive masterpiece.

Sure Valencia seemed like a much worse team than Madrid, but you still have to make the plays. And Michigan State did that in abundance on defense which is the biggest reason why they were so dominant.