Xavier Booker didn’t start but he played extended minutes in a win over Minnesota on Thursday and he looked really good.
Michigan State basketball is fresh off a Thursday afternoon Big Ten Tournament win over Minnesota 76-66. The Spartans, who struggled at times in the first half, really turned it on in the second half en route to their big victory.
Many Spartans played well, but Xavier Booker once again stood out to me and showed immense progress in his game.
Xavier Booker has another solid outing against Minnesota
Booker did not get the start in this game, but he did see 15 minutes in total. Not only did Booker play a lot, but he played extremely well. He finished the game with six points, three rebounds, one assist, and two steals.
The offensive end of the floor hasn’t been an issue for Booker this year. He’s been solid on that end of the floor all year, and that continued again against Minnesota. His six points all came from dunks, but he also did many other things well on offense. He was passing the ball extremely well, moving without the ball and you could just see the offense flowing better with him in the game.
The next step for Booker was always improving on defense, and this was one of his best defensive games of his career. Those two steals were obviously huge, but Booker overall just played solid defense. Especially against a physical Minnesota team, Booker didn’t back down and got the job done.
Can Booker keep the momentum going now? The Spartans next matchup is against 1-seed Purdue on Friday, so they’re going to need all the help they can get if they want to win that game. Booker did score a career-high 11 points in the one meeting with Purdue this year. Maybe we will get to see some more Booker magic again.
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