Michigan State Basketball: Takeaways and observations from Oakland victory

Joey Hauser and Rocket Watts continue to be huge impact players on the court 

Hauser had his best game of the season in the Spartans’ previous outing when he scored 24 points and making six out of ten three-point attempts against Western Michigan. Against Notre Dame, he pulled down 16 rebounds and four assists. He has scored in the double-digits every game this season.

In today’s game against Oakland, Hauser made an early basket to give him two quick points along with two rebounds. He was pulled temporally and subbed out and after a quick conversation with head coach Tom Izzo, and then he was reinserted to the game.

Hauser like three of his other teammates who started the game struggled early offensively and only made one of his first three shots he put up. However, he hit a timely three-pointer with just under four points left in the 1st half that gave the Spartans a 37-33 lead.

Before today’s game, Rocket Watts had an outstanding game against Detroit Mercy where he scored 23 points to go along with four points and four assists. Twice this season he has distributed six assists for the game and has scored in double digits in all but one game this season.

In the game against Oakland, Watts got off to a slow start and made only one of his first four shot attempts. He did have two early assists and a rebound but the 1-3-1 zone defense not only slowed his offense of production but many of his teammates struggled offensively as well.

In the first half, Watts and Hauser only combined for seven points and Watts only played nine minutes in the first half due to picking up two quick fouls. However, in the second half, Hauser would make the first bucket to give the Spartans a brief six-point lead. He would then give a nice pass to Henry for a made three-pointer from the corner. Watts would get going as well and he had a nice pull up made basket. He then would make a three-pointer from the wing to give the Spartans their biggest lead of the game making the score 59-45. He would make another jumper giving him nine points on four for seven shooting with just under 14 minutes remaining in the game.

Hauser made a three-pointer to give Michigan State a 88-67 lead and he had two early second-half assists as well. He finished the game with ten points on four for six shooting from the field. Hauser also had an impressive 10 rebounds with four assists for the game. Watts ended the game with nine points, three rebounds, and sixth assists in only 22 minutes of play.