3 takeaways from Michigan State basketball’s final game in Spain

Michigan State basketball ended their Spain trip today against a solid KK FMP team. Unfortunately for MSU, it fell 115-110 which is the Spartans' only loss during their overseas trip.

But they shouldn’t hang their heads too much. To add some context, KK FMP plays in the top league in Serbia and qualified for the European Champions League which is the second best basketball league in all of Europe. So they are one of the best teams currently in Europe.

With all that being said, it’s still not fun to lose, but there were some positive takeaways from the game on Tuesday. Here are the three takeaways that stood out to me the most.

1. Jaxon Kohler showed off his range

Like I’ve said many times already throughout this trip, winning and losing don't matter all that much. What’s more important right now is seeing which players have improved the most and what new areas some guys can be used.

And Jaxon Kohler showed a huge development to his game today.

Throughout Kohler’s first two seasons at Michigan State, he has been known for strictly being a post scorer on offense. I’ve heard he could always hit the three-ball, but that was yet to be seen.

Kohler however showed off his range not just in today’s game but across all three games in Spain by hitting at least four 3-pointers by my count. I can’t express how massive this development is.

The thing that’s hurt Michigan State’s bigs the most is they don’t garner much respect from their opponents when on offense. They never attract double teams in the post and they also haven’t been able to stretch defenses to the perimeter.

If Kohler can keep knocking down shots from the perimeter, even if it’s just once per game, that will force the defense to guard him away from the basket. That in turn makes everyone’s life much easier on offense with the added space this creates.

So if Kohler’s outside shot is actually a thing this season my confidence in Michigan State’s offense is going to skyrocket. And if Kohler can improve some more on defense he would have a strong case to be the starting center this year.