#8 Michigan State Takes Out The Golden Gophers 74-58

#8 Michigan State Takes Out The Golden Gophers 74-58

Breslin Center

East Lansing, MI

The #8 Michigan State Spartans took the Minnesota Golden Gophers to the woodshed tonight, 74-58. That improves the men in green’s season record to 13-3 (5-0).

The Spartans had two players score in double-digits. They were led by Cassius Winston who had 27 points, four rebounds, and six assists. Xavier Tillman had a double-double with 19 points, 16 rebounds, and four assists.

Tom Izzo said of the contest, “That my friends is a good basketball team. I was impressed with them on film. We all look at their record and say they're off to a slow start, but they played at Butler, they played I forgot where else, but they played at Oklahoma and they played some tough games. That is a very good basketball team and saying that we were very bad the first half. The first time I saw us look a little selfish. We weren't moving the ball, we weren't passing it. We just were stagnant offensively. We were pretty good defensively and those turnovers, you know to our credit, we did a better job the second half and I thought the job Aaron Henry did on that point guard. I thought we covered their shooters really well. They only shot 25 percent, but I thought the stars, of course, were Cassius (Winston) in the second half but Xavier (Tillman) did an unbelievable job. He was cramping up, he was hurting and he, offensively, we wanted to go to him and defensively the blocks if you look at those numbers. 16 rebounds, 19 points against what I told my team was one of the best rebounding teams, them and Illinois. We outrebounded them by 18 and that's a hell of an effort, but we've got a lot of work to do you know and we missed Kyle Ahrens. His 15 minutes are valuable because he's experienced, but I'm proud of the way we come back. I thought, second half, wasn't happy at halftime but they responded, and I guess that's the mark of a good team.”

Izzo added of the play of Tillman, “It's become a big part of the offense, but even in the post now he's getting better. We feel he can post him up and he has post moves. That's really encouraging, and you know it just, he has a really good left hand and his left hand has gotten better and better and better. He's kind of going somewhere with his dribble, he's doing a better job with that and Xavier Tillman is you know, he's my best defensive player sometimes I have to hide him, sometimes I have to use him as a helping guy, we are calling it a Rover he's got to do so many different things. Sometimes I have him switching out on people. He's getting to be my Swiss Knife, kind of like Draymond (Green) was, he's really getting into that kind of groove right now.”

Richard Pitino the Gophers head coach said, “Cassius has 27 points and barely breaks a sweat. He just does it to you, he slowly kills you over a matter of 40 minutes. Certainly, we hate to see what happened with this brother and any young person to deal with that in the middle of the season it's pretty understandable if your play drops off a little bit. His spirit seems a little bit back which is great. I know this community has wrapped their arms around him, which is special to see and is great for him and his family. He is one of the best point guards in the country and when he's rolling, and the way they are running ball screens between him and (Xavier) Tillman, it's very hard.”

The men in the green lead the Gophers on the boards with 48-30 (19 offensive). The Spartans had 12 turnovers. The Spartan defense held the Gophers to 39% shooting from the field and a stingy 25% from three.

The Spartans had the lead for 32:30 of the 40 minutes in the game. In all Tom Izzo played 10 players. All 10 of them scored.

Winston added of the play of Tillman, “He was huge. He dominated the game tonight from start to finish just making plays and rebounding. He played really well tonight, he dominated the game from beginning to end on both ends, scoring down there in the post, blocking shots, rebounding, and making the right plays.”

Izzo’s men continued their habit of being unselfish. They had 20 assists on 28 baskets. The Spartans shot 30% from three, 43% from the field and a disappointing 75% from the charity stripe. It was not a shooting clinic.

The team will return to the hard-court Sunday, January 12, 2020, at Purdue. That game can be seen on CBS at Noon.

The Spartans open Big Ten play 5-0 as previously mentioned. They are winning conference games by a 14 point margin on average. Could that be the reason for the slow start? I asked Izzo.

He said, “I didn't think it did, but I thought it did the first half. The 5-0 start and I'm going to say this, I'm going to preach it. Write what you want to write but the Big Ten schedule is so wacky the last three or four years where I was telling Dan Dakich when you play with partners like it used to be or you play all the teams once in the front nine and then you play them all again and you kind of have a feel of where you are. When you start out with four out of five games at home and your road game was against a team that's right now a little more at the bottom, I'm pleased with some things. Like today I'm pleased with our defense, really pleased with our rebounding but I was watching a little bit of the Purdue and Michigan game before I went down and when they put up a thing on there where Purdue is at home compared to on the road it was mind-boggling. It was 20 points difference, it was mind-boggling. If you look at the conference in general, not a lot of teams are winning on the road so don't get carried away and we've got a tough turn around now. We've got some guys worn out. I don't know if (Kyle) Ahrens will play. We play at noon on Sunday, so I'm concerned about that, but I am pleased. If you're 5-0, you're 5-0 and I think we have played well enough and at times tonight, it looked like the second half of the Michigan game. We just couldn't come up with a big stop to get over the hump of getting it up to 13, 14 and then maybe you can do something, and I think that's a credit to Minnesota. I told Richard (Pitino) after the game, it's one of his, they might have had a little more talent some ways last year, it's one of his favorite teams for me watching from the outside. I think they seem to get along, they got a star at the center, they got a star at the point and the kid, (Gabe) Kalscheur, is a very, very good player that either we did a good job, or he self-checked himself a little bit tonight. He did not play as well. He had 37 against Oklahoma State and 27 against somebody else so give Gabe (Brown) a little credit, that's probably the first time we'll give him credit defensively since he arrived on campus, but he deserves some and gives Cash (Winston) credit second half for realizing he didn't play well. Instead of pouting about it, he did something about it and I have tremendous respect for that.”

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