NFL
By: Kevin Lucas
Tom Izzo and his Michigan State Spartans are currently sitting with a record of 4 wins and 5 losses. That is Izzo’s worst nine-game start since 2002 when the Spartans also started 4-5, as well as his first season in East Lansing in 1995. MSU came into the year with high expectations and were ranked 4th in the country but have since lost to James Madison, Duke, Arizona, Wisconsin, and most recently to Nebraska in Lincoln. Izzo’s 25 straight NCAA Tournament appearances record is now in jeopardy and he has nobody to blame except himself.
The good thing for the Spartans is that a majority of their problems are correctable. The bad thing is that this team struggles with rebounding and consistently playing hard, two staples of this program. AJ Hoggard is the point guard for this squad meaning he is the de facto leader but has struggled getting his teammates involved and finding his own rhythm. It is no coincidence that when Hoggard is playing well and with confidence the rest of his team follows suit. The biggest thing for him is to get out of his own head and to just take what the defense gives him. His play going forward will absolutely determine how MSU’s season will pan out.
Jaden Akins is the next man up for Michigan State that simply must play better. Akins is a career 38% 3-point shooter but through 9 games so far, he is only shooting 27% from beyond the arc. His confidence seems to be wavering as well, which is something the Spartans can simply not afford from a dude as talented as he is. Izzo and his staff need to make a concerted effort to run plays for Akins early and often in games to get him headed toward the rim or midrange area. With Tyson Walker and Malik Hall playing as well as they have been, if this team can just get 1 of Akins or Hoggard to get right, it’ll help MSU out a ton offensively.
A major area of concern for this group is that they’re getting little to no production out of their center spot on both ends of the floor. Mady Sissoko has been in the program for 4 years now and hasn’t truly evolved his game since arriving on campus in 2020. Carson Cooper is only a sophomore but clearly still has to learn his role for this team while 5-star freshman Xavier Booker is just not quite ready for this level of physicality yet. The common denominator here is not the players themselves but the lack of development from the coaching staff. Since the departures of Cassius Winston, Xavier Tillman, and Aaron Henry, MSU has been slacking in the player development department. Losing two of your main assistant coaches in recent years in Dwayne Stephens (Western Michigan) and Mike Garland (retirement) has a lot to do with that but it’s still no excuse. The Spartan’s season is still far from over as Jaxon Kohler will return soon and he will give them some much-needed firepower out of the low post area.
In order for them to get back into the NCAA Tournament picture it will require self-reflection from everybody including coach Izzo. This Saturday the Spartans will play a top-ranked Baylor Bears squad in Detroit, where if MSU can pull off the win they will finally gain some positive momentum they’ve been desperately needing. The saving grace for MSU fans everywhere is that if any coach could pull a team out of this hole it is Thomas Michael Izzo. #SpartanDawgs
