3 Observations from MSU's Win over San Jose State
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EAST LANSING, Mich. --- No. 17 Michigan State beat San Jose State on Thursday night, 79-60. That final score is fine in a vacuum; 19-point wins are almost always pretty comfortable.
This one didn't feel that way. Not when MSU was up 23 at halftime and allowed the lead to be trimmed to 10 at one point. A 12-3 run by the Spartans to finish the game makes that difference feel a bit like a mirage.
Alas, Michigan State is 3-0 now. Not all wins are created equal in college sports, but here are three things I noticed from this one:
Sluggish Second Half
MSU led 46-23 at halftime, but the Spartans sure did not look like the same team during the final 20 minutes.
It ended up just being a minus-4 half for Michigan State, but it was minus-13 at one point. No matter what angle one looks at it, that was probably MSU’s worst half of basketball this season. The offense was worse, and the defense was worse.
Maybe the Spartans eased up with the big lead at halftime, maybe San Jose State made some adjustments. Either way, halves like that will cost Michigan State victories against stronger opponents.
Tom Izzo talked about it in his postgame press conference, too. If his team doesn’t play better against No. 9 Kentucky next Tuesday, the Spartans are going to “get killed.” Izzo said that more than once.
Strong second halves are a big reason MSU won the Big Ten last year. It’s going to have to tap into that more as the season progresses.
Long Wait for Izzo
During the postgame press conferences, the usual procedure is that after a cool-down period, the visiting head coach speaks first. That was San Jose State’s Tim Miles in this instance.
Everything was going normally. Normally, there is a few minutes in between when the other head coach goes and when Izzo speaks. The wait on Thursday night was a little bit longer.
Michigan State’s victory became official at 8:28 p.m., according to the team’s official “VICTORY FOR MSU” tweet it usually sends out right at the final buzzer. Izzo started speaking at 9:03 p.m., according to the time stamp on my phone. Give him a minute or two to walk back to the locker room and to his press conference, and that’s a little more than half an hour where he’s doing something else.
Now, I cannot know what Izzo was doing or saying during that time, but given his mood while speaking to the media after that time, I doubt the words “good job” were said very much.
Similar Shooting Issues
The biggest problem for Michigan State to solve right now is the shooting. MSU’s three-point shooting hasn’t been good enough, and neither have the free throws.
There has been hope that a player or two would emerge as a real perimeter threat and that the squad would improve to the mean a bit from the charity stripe, but that was not the case against SJSU.
Michigan State ended up going 6-for-25 from three and 17-of-25 at the line. That’s 24.0% and 68.0%, respectively. Both of those numbers are actually above the Spartans’ season totals.
Not good. If this team has a fatal flaw, it’s that.
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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