3 Observations from Michigan State's Win over Toledo
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EAST LANSING, Mich. — One half was great, and the other was not for Michigan State on Tuesday night.
The ninth-ranked Spartans swept aside Toledo, 92-69, but there are a few question marks that remain around this team with the full Big Ten schedule on the horizon. MSU only has two more non-conference games to try and get some answers before things truly become challenging.
Michigan State’s 30-point halftime lead that was followed by a minus-7 second-half performance was something anybody could have observed. Turnovers were definitely an issue, both in giving up the ball and taking it away. Toledo’s Sonny Wilson might’ve gotten himself onto some radars with a 29-point performance. That’s the easy stuff that pops out from this game.
Here are three other things that stood out from MSU’s up-and-down performance against the Rockets:
Kohler’s Early Dominance
Jaxon Kohler was the game’s apex predator during his opening shift. From the opening tip until he subbed out eight minutes and 47 seconds of game time later, Kohler scored 14 points and grabbed five rebounds. Across the same span, Toledo’s entire team put 12 points on the board and only had four boards.
He was doing pretty much whatever he wanted. The Rockets were not even really trying to go for offensive rebounds, which allowed Kohler to grab some uncontested boards.
Kohler’s refined offensive game still continued to show, though. He showed off a couple of nice post moves for some looks at the rim, but he also hit a couple of three pointers.
Despite the blazing hot start, Kohler was quiet the rest of the way. The senior big man finished with “only” 16 points and 13 rebounds, giving him his sixth double-double of the season.
More of Denham Wojcik
As long as Divine Ugochukwu continues to play at the two, people should continue to expect to see Harvard transfer Denham Wojcik play meaningful minutes. Not so much that he’s playing 15-20 per game, but that 5-10 range might be about right. Wojcik played 12 on Tuesday.
Michigan State was able to get assistant Doug Wojcik’s son some more legitimate, live reps with the early lead it mounted in the first half against the Rockets. Stats indicate a pretty solid game for him, recording six assists to one turnover, with the Spartans being plus-10 with him on the court.
The question remains if Wojcik is still someone MSU can reliably turn to to hold things down for a couple of minutes when Jeremy Fears Jr. and Ugochukwu are both on the bench and cannot be the team’s point guard. One issue is just that Wojcik hasn’t shown he can score, like Fears and Ugochukwu have; he’s 0-for-6 from the field this season.
For Wojcik to be phased out of the rotation, that will require Kur Teng or Trey Fort to step up and begin playing well enough consistently enough that Tom Izzo lets one of them run the two and then shift Ugochukwu back to being the second point guard. Teng made a big step in the right direction on Tuesday, scoring 14 points and making four threes.
Lopsided Rebounding Numbers
The backboards at the Breslin Center may have well been painted green for this one. Michigan State’s rebounding advantage was massive, with it finishing with a plus-30 advantage over the Rockets.
Toledo tried to get back on defense and mostly abandon the offensive glass early on, but MSU was still scoring quickly off misses. The Rockets tried to adjust and get some second-chance points, but the Spartans, who have much more size, were largely unphased by it and kept rebounding anyways.
Michigan State ended up grabbing 18 offensive rebounds. Toledo had the same amount of defensive boards, meaning the Spartans were grabbing it 50% of the time on the offensive glass (D-I average is about 31%). Izzo thought that stat was inflated by some missed layups, which MSU officially went 15-for-22 on during the game; he definitely thinks there were more.
“I told them I’m proud of the rebounding,” Izzo said. “But some of the rebounding, you get 18 offensive boards, you know why? You miss about 15 layups and the ball comes back to you. That’s a little distorted stat for me.”
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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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