Jase Richardson: 'Toughness' Has Been the Difference for the Spartans

The No. 16 Michigan State Spartans (13-2) are quickly becoming one of the nation's top teams after a dominant 88-54 win over the Washington Huskies (10-6) on Thursday night at home. According to one of the Spartan stars, there is a key factor that has led to their success besides the overall talent.

Spartan freshman guard Jase Richardson had a sensational performance, pouring in 12 points with five steals and two blocks. He spoke postgame about how his team found such a crushing victory.

"I think we stuck to the game plan, I feel like we were super organized today," Richardson said. "When we can play at a tempo like that and then play defense like we played today, I feel like we're a tough team to stop."

The Huskies were held to just 13 points in the first half, the lowest first half total allowed by the Spartans since the 2009-10 season. They ran miles around Washington with 22 fastbreak points and forced 16 turnovers and earned 10 more rebounds.

Over the past week, the Spartans have picked up a pair of key conference wins, taking down the Ohio State Buckeyes with a late push to deny the Buckeyes comeback. They followed that road win up by body bagging the Huskies, sending them back to the West Coast with a brutal loss.

Richardson was asked what the biggest thing he and his team have learned about themselves over the course of the past few Big Ten games and his answer pointed to something that is controlled by effort and energy, not by how well you shoot the ball.

"I think just from the last two games, we just learned about ourselves just the toughness of this team," Richardson said. "We battled in that Ohio State game and then today, I felt like our toughness kind of just overpowered them [Washington]. Going into this next game we got to play at an all-time high with confidence and swagger, but we also got to stay composed and go out and execute."

The Spartans will hit the road for a Sunday afternoon matchup with the Northwestern Wildcats (10-5) in an attempt to extend their win streak and maintain an undefeated status within the conference. Richardson knows each game is crucial but understands there is a bigger goal at stake this year.

"When you're 4-0 in this conference, you can get that to your head easily and you can stop working on the little things and stuff," Richardson said. "We still got a bigger goal in mind, [the] goal is not to just win one game, our goal is to win a Big Ten championship and get to a Final Four and win a National Championship. So, when you have those goals in your mind, you can't worry about just simple games."

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