Has Michigan State Spartans Star Finally Turned a Corner?

Michigan State Spartans guard Jaden Akins is finally on the rise as the team continues to impress this season.

Michigan State's Jaden Akins celebrates after a Nebraska turnover during the second half on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. / Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Michigan State Spartans entered the 2024-25 college basketball season as relative afterthoughts (well, for their standards).

Michigan State was unranked going into the year, and not many were expecting a whole lot from the squad.

However, things may be quickly changing.

The Spartans have gotten off to an impressive 8-2 start and are coming off a blowout win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday.

Keep in mind: Nebraska had been 6-1 going into the matchup and already owned a win over No. 14 Creighton earlier in the campaign.

So, beating the Cornhuskers by 37 points is a terrific feat.

And in the process, Michigan State guard Jaden Akins posted one of his best performances of the season, scoring 18 points while canning four three-pointers.

Over his last four games, Akins has gone 8-for-22 from beyond the arc, which is a significant turnaround from the former stages of the season where he couldn't seem to buy a bucket from deep.

As a matter of fact, across his first six contests, Akins went a combined 5-for-27 from long range, and three of those makes came in one game.

The senior is a lifetime 36.8 three-point shooter, so it appeared to be only a matter of time before he would start righting the ship.

And now, that may very well be happening, and it is absolutely crucial to the Spartans' success moving forward.

Michigan State, in general, has shown tremendous improvement from downtown over its last couple of games, going a combined 20-for-44 in wins over Minnesota and Nebraska.

The Spartans are still toward the bottom of the country in long-distance shooting, as they are connecting on just 25.7 percent of their treys as a collective unit. That ranks 351st in the nation.

But Michigan State may be turning a corner, and it's no secret that the Spartans' uptick has coincided with Akins' increase in efficiency.

Akins is the club's leading scorer, averaging 12.4 points per game. So, more is expected of the veteran. But as Akins goes, so does Michigan State.

That is becoming abundantly clear, and Akins' rise could ultimately make the Spartans a very dangerous team the rest of the way.

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