Jaden Akins reacts to Michigan State's dominant first half vs. rival Michigan

The Michigan State Spartans opened the first half of their final regular season game against the Michigan Wolverines on fire. By the time the opening half was over, they had a 50-28 lead and the Breslin Center was ready to explode for senior day.

One of those seniors, Jaden Akins, spoke to the CBS broadcast at halftime. There, he reacted to the team’s dominant first half effort against rival Michigan.

“It felt great,” Jaden Akins said. “I feel like we came out ready to play and we’ll try to carry it into the second half.”

Akins, playing his last home game as a Spartan, knows the importance of this game and he’s playing like it with nine points, three rebounds, and two assists. However, there’s a freshman in Jase Richardson who is stealing the show. He along with Tre Holloman, leads Michigan State in scoring with 11 points at the half. From Akins’ perspective, that success goes back to how special a player Richardson is at a young age.

“He’s a special player,” Akins said. “I’ve been seeing it since he got on campus and he continues to prove me right.”

Jaden Akins is looking to finish his career at Michigan State on a high note. With this first half effort against Michigan, he’s well on his way. The Spartans already won the Big Ten in the regular season. It was his first Big Ten Championship in his career. Riding a six-game winning streak, now Akins has a chance to help lead the Spartans to a Big Ten Tournament win too, as well as success in the NCAA Tournament.

The latest bracketology has Michigan State as a two-seed. From that spot, the Spartans will look to do some damage. As of now, the deepest run the Spartans have ever made when seniors like Akins were in school was to the Sweet Sixteen in 2023. This could be a year to build on that, previous success and make a deep run in March.

For now, though, Michigan State is going to be focused on the second half against Michigan and finishing the game the way they started it. After all, it would leave a sour taste in the Spartans’ mouths if they were to let the Wolverines get back and make it competitive in their senior day game.

Once the regular season is over, Michigan State will turn its attention to the Big Ten Tournament. There, the Spartans are the one seed and will wait to see their opponent for their first game on March 14th.