On the first Tuesday of December, Michigan State got its Big Ten slate underway with a home game against the Iowa Hawkeyes. I know many were worried about the trap game with a date with Duke on the horizon, and we had the news just before game time that freshman phenom Cam Ward would not be playing due to a wrist injury that has him day-to-day.
Once the game got underway, the early story was the rough start for Carson Cooper. On MSU’s first four offensive possessions, Cooper missed an alley-oop, missed a layup, had a turnover, and lost the ball out of bounds trying to get an offensive rebound. He also picked up a pair of early fouls and was relegated to the bench before the halfway point of the first half. With Cooper on the pine and Ward already out, the Spartans were thin up front.
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The other storyline of the first half was the Hawkeyes exuberance in the foul department. To spare you the details, MSU was in the bonus within 8 minutes and the double-bonus in less than 11 minutes of game time. The first effect of this was that Tavion Banks, the Hawkeye responsible for guarding Jeremy Fears was on the bench for a long stretch of the game with two fouls. The other result of all these fouls was Michigan State taking a dozen free throws and making 11 of them.
For Iowa, they never really got their offense going after jumping to a 5-0 lead. For the first half, they shot 7-21 and 3-12 from deep. Or, in other words, they only took 9 shots inside the arc, and only made four of them. Even with MSU’s front court short on bodies, the Hawkeyes were not able to get much offense close to the basket. As you can imagine, MSU was able to build a large lead in a hurry. After the game was tied at 9, MSU went on a run and led 20-10 just 3 minutes later. The lead was as big as 16, and the Spartans had a 35-21 lead at the intermission.
Jeremy Fears led MSU in first half scoring with ten, going 8-8 from the stripe, but he only had a pair of assists. Jaxon Kohler had 8 points and 8 rebounds, and Coen Carr was on the board with 6 including back-to-back dunks at one point. And MSU was nearly doubling up Iowa on the glass, 19-10.
The second half was void of any major storylines and also void of any major highlights. What we did see a lot of was the MSU bench. Jeremy Fears got a few extra minutes of rest; interestingly, it was Denham Wojcik picking up some extra playing time rather than Divine Ugochukwu out there playing point.
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Iowa was able to exceed their first half output and MSU basically matched theirs. The Spartans were looking like they were going to get a win by 20+ if it were not for a couple Iowa baskets in the final minute against the benchwarmers. The Spartans had to settle for a 71-52 victory. Carr ended up the leading scorer at fifteen. Kohler got the double-double with 12 and 11. Fears remained perfect from the stripe, getting ten of his 14 points there. He also got six assists in MSU’s 2nd lowest scoring game of the year.
On to the lists…
3 Things I Liked:
1. Massive rebounding advantage. MSU ended up doubling up the Hawkeyes on the glass, 37-18. On the offensive ends, MSU had 13 while only allowing Iowa to grab 6. This led to a 21-4 advantage in 2nd chance points. MSU used their size advantage, even without Ward and without Cooper for most of the first half, as well as their physicality advantage to dominate this category that we know means so much to Coach Izzo.
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2. Seeing some development from the young guys. Jesse McCulloch had a career high with 9 points tonight. He went 4-6 and banked in a triple. He showed some great patience with the ball down low and has developed a nice-looking hook shot. True freshman Jordan Scott matched his career high with six points. He also hustled his way to five rebounds (3 on offensive), an assist, and two steals. Ugo played 17 minutes, a season high for him. While he only scored two points, he played some tenacious defense, regularly preventing his assignment from getting by him. Not a stat-stuffer tonight, but still strong play.
3. Jeremy Fears is making a name for himself nationally. Even on a night where he had his season-low in assists, Jeremy still was the straw that stirred the drink. If he wasn’t getting buckets for his teammates, he was going to get points for himself by earning trips to the line. His basketball IQ has taken a massive leap this year, and it was already pretty good last season. We even saw Izzo propping him up for making a smart decision when he slowed the offense after collecting an offensive rebound so they could burn more clock. We may have one of the best PG in the country.
Bonus Like: Stepping away from the game a moment to look at the big picture. Earlier today, MSU launched their “FOR SPARTA” agenda for the future of the athletic department. Well, tonight, we suddenly saw that plastered on the sidelines of the Breslin Center. On the same day that MSU also formally introduced their new football coach Pat Fitzgerald (who also got some mic time at the game to hype up the crowd), it felt like today was the real beginning of the J Batt Athletic Department. I am starting to get excited about some things going on behind the scenes, which should lead to good things on the field/court/ice etc.
3 Things I Did Not Like:
1. Missing inside shots. Fears only had six assists in this one. On our first possession, Cooper could not finish an alley-coop. In the second half, the Flying Carr did not complete one of his missions. That is two assists left on the table. These guys got to stop messing with Fears’ stats. I know he doesn’t care, but I do.
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2. Rough day for Cooper. My favorite player came out on the struggle bus tonight and had to sit out with early foul trouble. I said in the game thread that I thought he would have a monster 2nd half as he has done that in other games this year when he was silent before the break. Well, that did not really happen. He was reliable in the minutes he played but certainly did not have a Cooper-sized effect on the outcome.
3. Bagels for Trey Fort. In 13 minutes of play, Fort’s only stat was his one foul. Moved from the starting lineup to the bench in this one, I have to wonder if that affected him mentally. Hopefully we see a better version of him moving forward even if he is not starting. We need all of our depth.
VICTORY FOR MSU!!!
On to Duke.
