NCAA Basketball: Michigan State woes and conference tourneys among key questions
The 2020-21 NCAA Basketball season has turned towards February, which means that March Madness is right around the corner. Part of March Madness includes the 32 various conference tournaments and the automatic bids/resume building opportunities that come from it.
However, there has been some talk about teams opting out of the conference tournaments to avoid catching covid. Gonzaga from the WCC has been mentioned along with other hypothetical scenarios. That subject was one of the five weekly questions for our roundtable, along with other relevant topics. Here are this week’s participating writers;
Jacob Zinkula – @1Perfectbracket
Andrew Tineo – @D_Tineo4
Anthony Brown – @ABrownSports
Benjamin Zacher – @beezacher
Jacob Stevenson – @stevejac002
1. What is the biggest issue with the Michigan State Spartans this season?
Stevenson
The Biggest Issue with Michigan State this year is they just don’t have very much talent as they have in the past. The offense in conference play has been pretty poor ranking 14th in the conference and they are shooting 29% from the three-point line.
Zinkula
Playing in the super-competitive Big Ten hasn’t helped matters, but Michigan State’s problems run much deeper than this. No team has been worse offensively in conference play (per KenPom), with the Spartans ranking dead last in both 3pt% and 2pt%. Only one player – Foster Loyer – is shooting better than 34% from downtown.
Big picture, Michigan State has not been able to replace the point guard and interior play of Cassius Winston and Xavier Tillman. Aaron Henry and Rocket Watts are better suited as scorers than creators, and the Spartans haven’t gotten consistent interior play from any big men. Essentially, the team is full of wing players that haven’t shot the ball very well.
Brown
Michigan State doesn’t scare anybody in the paint. Ohio State and E.J. Liddell got anything they wanted down there. The dropoff comes when you lose Xavier Tillman Sr. who was your leader in the frontcourt and a defensive stopper. Also, the answer at point guard is still needed.
Rocket Watts is trying his best and has played well this season, but he’s a natural two-guard. He thrived off the ball when Cassius Winston ran the offense. Like Maryland, when you lose two star players who made your team run like a well-oiled machine, you’re going to run into problems.
Tineo
2020-2021 NCAA Basketball season has been defined as getting old and staying old. That is the build of the Michigan State roster, with impact transfers and experience littered all over the roster. However, the results in Big 10 play have not shown.
The Spartans are not a good defensive team, especially inside the three-point arc. Their offense doesn’t get much better as they rank last in the conference in points per game and 167th in the nation. The consistency with this team is so lackluster and three-point shooting has been a massive disappointment. Gabe Brown is the only legit three-point threat and he averages just 7.5 points per game.
The cohesion within the team is not there and has pitted the Spartans down a really bad stretch, after being ranked No. 4 in the country at one point.
Zacher
Lack of proven, on-the-floor leadership. This is an issue that showed itself on occasion last season but has come to a head this year. When the Spartans went 32-7 and reached the Final Four a few years back, they had a vastly experienced group with Cassius Winston, Nick Ward, Kenny Goins, and Matt McQuaid – all juniors and seniors – that all saw prominent time.
The Spartans weren’t nearly as talented last year, but they still were co-Big Ten regular-season champions because they still had Winston – in addition to Xavier Tillman – on board. Winston’s leadership as a floor general – on and off the court – cannot be given enough credit. But now, not having Winston leading the way – and instead, having a sophomore in Rocket Watts as the general – is causing issues.
Watts is by no means a bad player – but he has just been woefully inconsistent. He reached double-figures in four of his first games this season – and has scored double-digits in just one of the subsequent nine tilts. It doesn’t help that the rest of Michigan State’s squad has been inconsistent, too – outside of Aaron Henry.
The issue then becomes, however, when teams can shut Henry down. It is no coincidence that in Michigan State’s last two wins, Henry recorded his two-best point productions of the season with 20 against Rutgers and 27 at Nebraska. But in MSU’s last three games, he is averaging 10 points, being held scoreless from beyond the arc (0-11), and turned the ball over eight times while committing eight fouls. There just isn’t anyone who can keep the Spartans steady and keep them in games like Winston.