1. Finish against Nebraska shows how this MSU team is different
EAST LANSING — It looked like Michigan State was going to lose the game Thursday night, the way the Spartans were playing the final few minutes, giving up layups on one end, missing shots and turning the ball over on the other — three turnovers in 90 seconds, as their slim lead became a three-point deficit down the stretch against Nebraska.
Advertisement
The contrast between that sloppy stretch and what followed in the final two-plus minutes showed us something we’ve been seeing with this MSU women’s basketball team — confidence, poise and grit in late-game situations.
The focus and clutch shot-making the Spartans displayed during the final few possessions Thursday night — to pull out a 73-71 win — is the latest example of where this MSU team is a little different than Robyn Fralick’s first two MSU teams. It’s why they’re 6-1 in a deep and relentless Big Ten, and 17-1 overall — off to the program’s best start in school history — a dazzling record that’s is no longer a product of an early non-conference schedule that would have made Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti proud.
MSU entered Thursday night at No. 7 in the NET rankings and are rated in the top 10 by the analytics site HerHoopstats.com, and, with a long way to go, are a projected top 5 seed in the NCAA tournament. These are waters this program hasn’t swam in for a decade.
The Spartans will be tested in ways they haven’t been yet — at Iowa next, against Michigan twice, Maryland and UCLA for sure — but they have passed some notable tests since a lackluster showing at Wisconsin in early December, the Spartans’ only loss this season.
Advertisement
They rallied back from deficits against good Washington and Oregon teams on the road last week, and held on at home against Illinois, another quality team, a few days before that, with more poised play in the final minutes.
Thursday, they won on a night when they weren’t at their best — their tenacity a little less than sometimes, their outside shooting worse than almost all the time. That is, until they needed the big 3-pointer, the big stop, the big rebound, the calm free throws.
Jalyn Brown delivered that game-tying 3 — to make it 69-69 — with 1:22 remaining, just MSU’s third 3 of the game. She also forced a Nebraska turnover with her defense against Nebraska’s driving Logan Nissley with 27 seconds left in a 71-71 game. Rashunda Jones delivered two of the final free throws (to tie the game at 71). Juliann Woodard came up with the big rebound in the waning seconds and delivered two more free throws (to break the tie and win the game).
RELATED: Julian Woodard’s late free throws send MSU women’s basketball past Nebraska
Michigan State’s Jalyn Brown, right, celebrates after forcing Nebraska out of bounds during the fourth quarter on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
“Credit to the team,” Fralick said. “We’ve got a lot of people who we’ve put together, and they’re figuring out how to do this together.”
Advertisement
The players will tell you that non-conference schedule did them good in figuring who they were as a team.
“It was really important, just for our chemistry, kind of get our trust together,” MSU center Grace VanSlooten said after scored 22 points Thursday.
And in the last couple weeks …
“I think we’ve really learned we can overcome adversity,” she continued. “We have no quit in us, and we’re just a group that just really wants to win.”
2. The value of Rashunda Jones was on display
Michigan State’s Rashunda Jones is fouled while shooting against Nebraska during the fourth quarter on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
Kennedy Blair has been a revelation at point guard for MSU this season. But having Rashunda Jones as another creator and ball-handler — and as a closer — is benefiting the Spartans big time in Big Ten play.
Advertisement
MSU put the ball in Jones’ hands again on the final three possessions Thursday — trailing 69-66, and then 71-69, and finally at 71-71 — and it paid off each time.
Trailing 69-66, she drove, drew the defense and kicked it to Jalyn Brown for a corner 3 with 1:22 remaining. Then, after Nebraska went back ahead by a bucket, Jones drove the lane and drew a foul and calmly hit both free throws with 39 seconds left. Lastly, with the game tied, she drove and drew enough attention to create the space for Juliann Woodard to come flying across the lane for an offensive rebound, which led to Woodard’s game-winning free throws.
“Composure and a spark — that’s what she gives us,” Woodard said of Jones, who also made poised plays and free throws late against Illinois in the Spartans’ previous home game. “We all have confidence whenever the ball’s in her hand. We all know that the right play is going to happen. And whatever she does, we’re all OK with it and it’s probably going to be the right thing.”
Among the reasons MSU is 5-1 in the Big Ten and winning close games at home and on the road is having a backcourt pairing that complements each other in Jones and Blair. Jones, a junior who transferred from Purdue, had 15 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals Thursday, and knocked the ball away on Nebraska’s final inbounds play. Blair had 14 points, six rebounds, six assists and one steal. The two of them each played 36 minutes.
Advertisement
“She’s been so clutch,” Fralick said of Jones. “And her and Kennedy, they’re like a tandem. They both can play with the ball. They both can play without the ball. … They can cut. But (Jones is) really fast, too, and so I think that’s an advantage. People try to do stuff on screens, she rejects it, she gets into the paint, she hangs, she makes tough pull-ups, and then she’s been a great free-throw shooter, so she’s just had a real knack for making really, really timely plays, and we felt like she could do that again.”
3. MSU is early in a gauntlet of games unlike any other — most of them at home
Michigan State’s Juliann Woodard, left, is helped up after getting fouled by Nebraska on a shot during the fourth quarter on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
You’d struggle to find a better stretch of home games in MSU women’s basketball history than this — Illinois last Sunday, Nebraska on Thursday night, USC next Thursday, then Michigan, Maryland, UCLA and Ohio State. Or perhaps a more difficult stretch overall, when you include upcoming trips Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota in there, along with last week’s wins at Washington and Oregon.
Advertisement
That’s 12 games in eight weeks against teams in the top 32 in the NET rankings, eight in the top 20, including four of the six remaining home games — Michigan (No. 6), Maryland (12), UCLA (2) and Ohio State (20) — with next Thursday’s opponent, USC (28), not far off the pace.
There is barely any time to breathe. But also, as a home conference schedule, it’s as good and telling as we’ll probably ever see.
“I mean, that they’re projecting up to 12 to 14 NCAA tournament teams (from the Big Ten), that’s insane, out of 18,” Fralick said Thursday. “That is a fist fight, but that’s also the beautiful thing about it — you sign up for the challenge and great players and great environments and great games and great teams. We all have it. Everybody in the league is going up against a gauntlet.”
So far, MSU is 4-0 in those 12 games in eight weeks against clear NCAA tournament competition — including against a Nebraska team that was 18 in the NET and 14-3 heading into Thursday night, when the Spartans won in front a hardy but modest crowd.
Advertisement
“They came alive,” Fralick said, “and I love the people that were here. They were awesome. And I’m going to challenge more people to come because we had a huge top 25 matchup tonight, and we’re going to continue to have those. Our league is loaded. I’m going to encourage and challenge people to keep coming out and bring a friend and tell a friend, and bring an aunt and bring a cousin, because there’s going to be a bunch of good home matchups with a bunch of really, really good basketball teams, and our crowd makes a difference.”
SPARTAN SPEAK PODCAST: A deeper look at MSU’s 15-2 basketball team
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky at GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU women’s basketball tops Nebraska, off to best start: 3 quick takes
