Michigan State basketball dominated Mississippi State on Thursday to advance to the second round. How’d the Spartans do it?
Michigan State basketball marches on. The Spartans defeated 8-seeded Mississippi State 69-51 and are moving on to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Many, and I mean many, across the country believed the Spartans didn’t belong in the tournament, but this win solidifies the fact that the committee got it right.
Here’s how the Spartans were able to get the job done against the Bulldogs.
1. Near-perfect first half
In a season full of disgusting first-half performances, the Spartans did the exact opposite of what’s become expected on Thursday. The Spartans started hot, getting out to an early 20-8 lead. On top of that, MSU was extremely solid from three, shooting 38.5% in the half. Also, shoutout to Jaden Akins for knocking down two of them.
But the Spartans also did some of the little things extremely well. They were +6 rebounding the ball and forced seven Mississippi State turnovers in the first half. They also held the Bulldogs to just 24 points which is impressive.
No, MSU wasn’t perfect, it did have nine turnovers of its own and let Josh Hubbard go off for 13 first-half points, but when you have a seven-point halftime lead in the NCAA Tournament you can’t complain too much.
2. Deadly 3-point shooting
Mississippi State is one of the best teams at defending the three. In fact, they were No. 7 in the country holding their opponents to just 29 percent from behind the arc. However, Michigan State blitzed the Bulldogs from 3-point range shooting 43.5%. A 14 percent increase compared to Mississippi State’s season average is absolutely insane.
The best thing I saw from the Spartan’s 3-point shooting was Akins hitting three of his own. This team is infinitely better when he’s hitting his shots, so him being able to knock a few down is massive.
This elite 3-point shooting arguably is the biggest reason the Spartans won this game. Mississippi State went zone in a lot of the second half which forced MSU to take a lot of threes. Maybe that was a poor call by Mississippi State, but the Spartans took advantage of what the defense gave them and hit many big shots.
3. Slowing Tolu Smith down
Michigan State had two guys they really had to key in on defensively, and as long as they slowed one of the two down they were going to have a great chance of winning. Josh Hubbard scored 15 which was close to his season average, but it was Tolu Smith who MSU did excellent defending.
Smith averaged 15.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game this season and was a matchup nightmare for MSU’s bigs. Or so I thought. The Spartan post players held Tolu to just nine points and only two rebounds. This is significant because if he got hot along with Hubbard, this likely would’ve been a much closer game. But the Spartans defense was lights out, and slowing Tolu down was arguably the best part of their defense.
The Spartans now have a date with 1-seeded North Carolina next. That matchup may scare you, but if MSU plays as well as they did on Thursday then they most certainly can pull off the upset.
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