Xavier Booker needs to use North Carolina performance as lift-off game

Faced with a furious North Carolina comeback, Michigan State needed some help. In the second half, with the rest of the bigs struggling, Xavier Booker came off the bench and immediately had a positive impact.

Booker was blanked in the first half against the Tar Heels, playing sparingly and scoring zero points and looking relatively lost on both ends of the floor.

A switch was flipped in the final 20 minutes and overtime.

Booker played a season-high 24 minutes and scored a career-best 12 points which all came in the second half and overtime. He added seven rebounds and a big block to finish the game as one of the Spartans' top performers. As he continued to play well in the second half, you could almost see the love of the game return to his body. He was having fun for what seemed like the first time this season.

The sophomore big man from Indianapolis was making all the right plays and threw down a thunderous dunk over a North Carolina defender in overtime to reignite the team when it fell behind for just the third time all game. He was the spark that the team desperately needed.

And this was the second time in a week in which he provided a much-needed spark off the bench -- the first time coming against Samford in the first half of a win.

Booker needs to build on this performance and use it as a lift-off game. He needs to build on this and never look back. All the negative comments he heard through the first few weeks of the season should be put in the past and he should continue to play freely like he did in Maui for two of the three games. He did earn more playing time in Maui and that's a good sign that he's earned Tom Izzo's trust back, but now he needs to capitalize.

We need to see this version of Xavier Booker moving forward.