Michigan State had all kinds of trouble getting its offense off the ground in a physical exhibition loss to UConn, and the numbers told the story fast. The Spartans scored just 22 points in the first half, shot 36.4% from the field and 12.5% from 3-point range, and never found much relief in transition, where they were blanked for the entire opening 20 minutes.
The half-court game never really settled in, either. MSU went scoreless over the final 4:15 of the first half, and Tom Izzo said the constant shuffling of lineups didn’t help the offense find a groove.
“I thought our offense got awfully stagnant,” Izzo said. “I think it got stagnant because we just had so many different combinations.”
A lot of that movement came in the frontcourt, where MSU leaned on a four-center rotation without one player taking over the minutes. Senior center Anton Bonke started but played only six minutes and didn’t return after halftime.
Sophomore forward Cam Ward, making his first career start, led the bigs with 24 minutes and worked between both frontcourt spots. Freshman center Ethan Taylor and sophomore center Jesse McCulloch also saw action, and the two combined to go 6-for-7 from the field.
Izzo said the center spot is still very much a work in progress.
“We are a work in progress at the center position,” Izzo said. “I think we have to do some different things coaching-wise for it too and a few different things offensively that I think would help them.”
The one clear spark for MSU came from freshman guard Jasiah Jervis, who finished with 11 points and knocked down two of the team’s three made threes. He brought energy off the ball, darting off screens, driving to the rim and chasing offensive rebounds.
Jervis said that kind of approach is what he wants to keep bringing.
“I know I just had to come in and play my role to the best of my abilities,” Jervis said. “Whether that is to shoot the ball or get low on defense.”
MSU did play better offensively after halftime, shooting 41.9% from the field and drawing 26 free throws, but UConn kept landing the bigger blows. The Huskies shot 57.1% from the field and 50% from three in the second half, a run that put the pressure squarely on Michigan State.
The perimeter numbers were especially rough for the Spartans. They finished 3-for-20 from deep, their worst showing since going 1-for-14 against Arkansas last season.
Junior point guard Jeremy Fears led MSU with 23 points, while Jervis’ 11 made him the only other Spartan in double figures.
UConn’s movement and physical play also gave MSU problems on the defensive end, where screens and slips repeatedly created open looks. The Spartans had trouble communicating on the back line, and that opened the door for easy baskets and clean wing threes.
“Some of our big guys made some mistakes on the ball screens, and those are just coverages that left guys open on the slip,” Izzo said. “So we will fix that. I am not as worried about that as I am about why we didn’t do a better job screening and being physical.”
MSU now has one more exhibition to clean things up before the season opens, with a 1 p.m. Sunday game at Marquette.
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Jesse McCulloch May Be Forcing His Way Into MSU's Rotation
A preseason exhibition can be easy to overlook, but Jesse McCulloch made it harder to do that with his performance at power forward when Michigan State needed someone to fill in for injured Cam Ward. McCulloch showed the kind of offensive touch the Spartans have been hearing about throughout the offseason, finishing with 20 points while also contributing on the glass and giving the staff a look at a different kind of frontcourt option.
What stood out most was how natural the fit looked with his shooting and the possibility of using him as a pick-and-pop threat. McCulloch has spent the offseason working to round out his game, and he has pointed to former Spartan Carson Coopers development as a model for what that process can look like. Whether this becomes a one-night glimpse or something more meaningful for Michigan States rotation will depend on how the next few weeks unfold, but the door looks open. [Read more 🡒]