WHAT A WEEK

Well, last night was pretty epic. This whole week was. The Spartans sweep the week going 2-0 while playing on the road at Penn State and Michigan. I will get into the specifics of both games but this week was a true breathe of fresh air after it seemed like the Spartans were incapable of playing at this level again. Seemed like they were clicking on both ends, especially against Michigan. They were playing that classic Michigan State Basketball: defense, rebounding, push the ball. Both games featured some amazing dunks from Malik Hall and Jaden Akins. One of Akins’ dunks against Michigan left me speechless.

Going into Wednesday’s game against Penn State I just had a gut feeling MSU would dominate. I have come to realize that my gut is pretty much always right when it comes to sports, good or bad. And just like that my trusty gut was right once again. I’m not going to lie, I think this might have been the least stressful MSU game of the season. The first 5 minutes were tightly contested but once MSU took the lead 11-10 they did not trail again in the game. The Spartans led for the final 26:59 of this game. Forward Malik Hall led the way for Michigan State on Wednesday night as he put up a season high 29 points and 10 rebounds to go with it. This was Maliks 2nd double double of the season and came in a huge moment. MSU was up 45-31 at halftime and shooting over 50% despite not getting much production from their backcourt of Walker and Hoggard. This was made up for by Jaden Akins dropping 20 points in the game. It was great to see Xavier Booker come in and hit a three in the 1st half, which he shoots with full confidence. The second half did start off a bit shaky for the Spartans as Penn State made it an 8 point game early on. After this, Penn State struggled to keep their momentum and MSU surged back and it never felt like the Nittany Lions had much of a chance. The Spartans shot 50% from the field and 40% from 3 on Wednesday night in the 80-72 win. One thing we know about great coaches like Tom Izzo is that they’ll always find something to work on. Tom won’t have to look for very long because MSU allowed Penn State to shoot 52% from 3. Lastly, I loved what I saw from Carson Cooper. He was an eraser in the paint playing elite defense and also added 10 points which tied a season high for him. I would like to see Cooper starting over Sissoko as Mady has been struggling recently. My prediction was almost right, we can just forget that I predicted another big Hoggard game.

I won’t lie, I was starting to get nervous before the game on Saturday night. Something about playing at Michigan just does not produce good vibes for me. I had to keep reminding myself that Michigan is not even a NIT quality team this year. This game was definitely more stressful than I would have liked. It was a true game of runs on Saturday night. MSU went on a 7-0 run to take a 31-24 lead which fired up what I would say was a 50% MSU crowd. Then Dug McDaniel woke the Wolverines up. McDaniel got a tough bucket at the rim followed by a three along with contributions from Oliver Nkamhoua and Nimari Burnett and the Wolverines took the lead shortly. The Spartans were dealing with some foul trouble in the first half so they brought in reserve Davis Smith, son of Spartan legend Steve Smith. Smith was fouled with 1 second left in the half and gave MSU a 2 point lead going into halftime. The start of the 2nd half was not ideal for the Spartans as they seemed top be lacking that defensive intensity they had early on. The Wolverines were getting contributions from the whole team which had rarely happened this season. I was starting to seriously get worried when Michigan took a 6 point lead in the second half. I can’t even say that MSU was playing poorly, Michigan just turned into the ’96 Bulls for 8 minutes. Michigan State proceeded to make their own run capped off by a huge Malik Hall dunk. It seemed like MSU was on their way to winning but Michigan had one more run in them. The wolverines tied it up at 63 with 7 minutes left. The Spartans outscored the Wolverines 10-0 the rest of the game. Michigan turned it over 5 times and missed all 5 of their shots on this Spartan run. This was the Spartans first win at Michigan in 5 years. Malik Hall who had 18 points said, “It’s been a long five years, this is my first one.” Hall went on to comment on the crowd and said “The whole game I heard, Go Green Go White.” This was a much needed win for Michigan State as they now head back to East Lansing. The Spartans will take on Iowa and Ohio State at the Breslin Center this week with a chance to get to 3rd in the B10 standings with 2 wins. After what I saw this week I can’t help but think they’re going to win these next 2. Those 2 games will be previewed before the game vs Iowa on Tuesday night. Go Green!!