What’s different about this Michigan State basketball team? Ability to close games counts

[ad_1]

COLUMBUS, Ohio — So much has changed in a year.

In the early days of 2024, Michigan State basketball couldn’t figure out how to win in the Big Ten. The Spartans opened conference play with four losses in their first five games, three of those coming on the road after dropping the opener at home against Wisconsin.

Those problems persisted as MSU limped along to a 3-7 finish in road games and a 10-10 Big Ten record. Tom Izzo’s team also struggled to hold onto second-half leads, including blowing a double-digit lead and losing at home to Ohio State last February.

With Friday night’s grinding 69-62 win over the Buckeyes, the 15th-ranked Spartans already are perfect in two road Big Ten games this season. They opened conference play a month earlier with a road win at Minnesota. And the change is clear to everyone who was on last year’s team.

Michigan State Spartans guard Jaden Akins (3) sets to shoot the ball during the first half against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025.

RELATED: Couch: Coen Carr’s emerging game is a reason to believe in the possibilities for Michigan State’s basketball team

Senior captain Jaden Akins immediately told his teammates when they returned to the Value City Arena locker room for their postgame debriefing: A year ago, he felt, MSU “would have found ways to lose games like this.”

“Everybody’s on a mission this year,” sophomore forward Xavier Booker said Friday night. “Nobody liked how our season went last year, from the beginning to the end. … There were so many games where we could have closed out and won but we didn’t, and I feel like that’s kind of in the back of everybody’s mind.

“We don’t want to go back to what we did last year, we want to finish out games. And that’s what we did today.”

Friday night, MSU built a 14-point lead on the Buckeyes early in the second half with eight straight points from senior center Szymon Zapala — a dunk to end the first half and then three…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/whats-different-michigan-state-basketball-122211625.html

Author : Lansing State Journal

Publish date : 2025-01-06 12:22:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.