#15 Michigan State Obliterates & Embarrasses Eastern Michigan

#15 Michigan State Obliterates & Embarrasses Eastern Michigan

Breslin Center

East Lansing, MI

The #15 Michigan State Spartans saw their record on the season improve to 9-3 with a humiliating and devastating blow out win over a good Easter Michigan Steam. The Spartans took out the Eagles with a 101-48 defensive beat down.

The Spartans had five players score in double-digits. They were led by Cassius Winston who had 21 points and seven assists. Aaron Henry broke out of his shooting slump with 12 points and nine rebounds. Xavier Tillman had 11 points and seven rebounds and Foster Loyer added 13. Marcus Bingham, Jr. (MBJ) had 10 points and six rebounds.

Tom Izzo said of the contest, “Well I guess it was just what the doctor ordered. I guess with the holiday season, Santa delivered because other than a little bit of rough start rebounding the ball early, I just thought we did a lot of good things. Murphy's team has been damn good defensively. And we gave them that Big Ten prep because we have not been as good against the zone. His zone is really good, he has length, he has Big Ten athletes. They didn't shoot the ball well and they didn't' shoot the ball well from the free-throw line. But in saying that, probably the three most important things for me were number one, we finally made some threes. Number two, 27 assists on 32 baskets is unbelievable. And to score 100 points against that, I mean they don't give up that. He's a damn good coach and he does some good things and I thought that was impressive. We bounced back and outrebounded them by 10, it's a good rebounding team, and I got to play everybody. If you wondered why I waited until the very end Steven (Izzo) had actually hurt his back, so I would've got him an extra minute. But everyone went in, all moms are happy including his, and I think we need four days, five days off. We come back the 26th and it's been an incredible couple of months, and I think we all need to getaway. I told all of them no basketball, just get away for a while and then we come back and we start grinding. What I also liked is we've been having practices. I told you guys when you were there the other day, we had two-a-days one day and we had a better practice the next day. We had a good walk-through today. And when that happens you hope to play good. It's like studying for a test and then not doing well on the exam. So hopefully I can use this. It's funny, I'll show you how it works. Double-doubles are a big deal. Draymond Green taught me that. You know Xavier Tillman's been on the cusp, Aaron Henry has been on the cusp. They miss a free throw, and nobody's in the lane and Aaron lets the guy get it and I said you know that would've been your tenth rebound. And so, you wonder why sometimes like Cassius (Winston) at the end he's so damn unselfish, but I have an obligation to Cassius (Winston) too. I want him to accomplish some of his goals too. So I told him I'm not going to embarrass anybody, I'm going to leave you in there for a few minutes and if you don't want to be selfish then put it on me, because I know how the world works. Because sometimes you have to score points and you have to get assists. One of the things I told them before the game was, I'm done with the turnovers, and I think he had one. So, we didn't beat the Celtics, but we beat a team that's very good defensively and I think they're going to create some havoc in the league, trust me. And I thought this was one of the better offensive performances we've had.”

Izzo added, “I thought we did some decent things. I thought we did a lot more switching than we normally do, they are a good driving team. I also thought they missed some shots and they missed a lot of free throws. And if he can sure that free-throw shooting up, that zone is going to give some teams some fits. I mean we made shots tonight, we moved the ball well, and I think we played the best we have against the zone in 10 years. Was that us? Was that them? I've watched these guys on film and they've got a good zone. It's really good. So I think they missed some shots that should've gone in and I think we did a pretty good job defensively so maybe a combination of both.”

The men in green won the battle of the boards 51-41 and the Spartans had and a troubling 16 turnovers. 24 of the Wildcat points came off of Spartan turnovers. The stifling Spartan defense held EMU to 24% shooting from the field and an abysmal 10% from three.

The Spartans had the lead for 38:59 of the 40 minutes in the game. In all Tom Izzo played all 15 available players. 13 of them scored.

Former Syracuse assistant and now EMU head coach Rob Murphy said of the game, “Hats off to the home team tonight those guys did an incredible job of defending us tonight, rebounding the basketball. Not giving up any second chance opportunities. I thought they were great in transition. Cassius (Winston) did an unbelievable job of scoring, passing the basketball, finding open teammates. So hats off to the home team, those guys did a tremendous job during the ball game. They were well prepared, wasn't any driving lanes, couldn't get any open looks. Anytime you can't score, it's really tough on defense to continue to get a stop. They did a great job. We didn't shoot the ball well, I thought we missed the opportunities at the free-throw line. Anytime you miss 17 free throws, and 26 three-pointers, you can't be anyone on your schedule so a little disappointed there but all in all this is a really good basketball team, close to great. They play like that, it's really hard to win in this building.”

Izzo’s men continued their habit of being unselfish. They had 27 assists on 32 baskets. The Spartans shot 50% from three, 54% from the field and a disappointing 71% from the charity stripe.

The team will return to the hard-court Sunday, December 29, 2019 (eight days) at the Breslin Center against Western Michigan University. That game can be seen on BTN at 8:00 PM.

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