Big Ten Basketball: Buy or sell Michigan State, Rutgers, Ohio State and Indiana?
Michigan State Spartans – Being a Final Four contender
As of this writing, Michigan State was able to get a second game in. But while they dominated new D-I program Southern Indiana by 23 points, I could argue the overall performance hurt them even more. The Spartans did shoot 48% from the field and 23/28 from the free throw line, but also went 1/11 from three-point range.
Add that total to the awful 1/20 effort in the upset loss to James Madison and you have one of the worst early shooting displays from a Big Ten Basketball team in years. It’s truly a surprise, considering that this program was just No. 3 nationally in three-point shooting at nearly 40%. But one of the key pieces in that is gone now in Joey Hauser, who was second in the team in scoring as well.
Hauser’s loss has proven to be a major problem, as the frontcourt collectively hasn’t been good so far. Leading scorer Tyson Walker has looked like an All-American but AJ Hoggard has taken a step back so far and five-star freshman big man Xavier Booker is starting off slow in his development.
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But in the game of “buy or sell”, I’m never going to sell a Tom Izzo team in November. Had they gone just 3/20 from deep in the first game, the Spartans probably would have beaten James Madison and we’re not as worried. But to be clear, they need to play a lot better next week to avoid getting blown out by Duke, allowing the national concerns to really start trickling in.
Buy