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V-Cast: Comparoni & Konyndyk break down Michigan State's loss to Northwestern

On3 imageby:Jim Comparoni•12/05/22•

JimComparoni

On3 image
SpartanMag's Paul Konyndyk and Jim Comparoni at courtside following MSU's 70-63 loss to Northwestern on Sunday. (Photo by SpartanMag)

East Lansing, Mich. – What is the panic factor after Michigan State’s 70-63 loss to Northwestern on Sunday night at Breslin Center?

SpartanMag’s Jim Comparoni and Paul Konyndyk break down that question, and various aspects of the Spartans’ continuing early season struggles in the latest edition of the SpartanMag V-Cast.

Among the items covered in the V-Cast:

* Jaden Akins’ return to the lineup.

On the negative side, Akins’ conditioning level became an obvious problem, midway through the first half.

Michigan State left him on the court too long during one shift in the first half, and it led directly to a pair of easy Northwestern field goals.

“I thought Jaden did a pretty good job considering he has practiced probably a week and a half in the last 13 weeks,” said Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. 

* Pierre Brooks’ continued extended minutes, for better or worse.

With Akins operating at less than a full fuel tank, and Malik Hall out for at least another two-and-a-half weeks with a foot injury, the Spartans are having to give Brooks extended minutes, despite his defensive issues. 

Brooks, a sophomore guard/forward, played 30 minutes. He was 3-of-10 from the field, albeit with three 3-pointers. He had just two rebounds. 

“He played okay,” Izzo said, straining to be diplomatic. “If you play 30 minutes, you hope to get more than two rebounds. We had some issues defensively.

“He has to learn to defend better. Three-for-seven from 3-point range is good, but 3-for-10 is not.”

* Comp and Konyndyk expanded on Izzo’s claim that what the team needs more than anything, aside from a healthy lineup, is time in the practice gym.

“We have to get back into our own flow as far as practicing,” Izzo said.

The brutal November schedule included two trips to the West Coast and a gauntlet of seven games in 20 days. 

“(Assistant coach) Doug Wojcik sent a text to me and said one of our recent practices was just our second practice in 12 days that we had to work on us,” Izzo said. “The schedule, I don’t regret, but the one thing is we didn’t get time to work on Michigan State. It was just walk-through for this team, walk-through for that team.”

And it will be like that for another couple of days as Michigan State gets set to play at Penn State on Thursday. The Nittany Lions are 6-2 with a 61-59 loss to Virginia Tech and a double-overtime loss at Clemson. 

 “The reality is we have to find a way to win some games until we get everybody back,” Izzo said. “The problem for us is the other team (Northwestern) was more physical than us. That doesn’t happen to us very often. Malik and Jaden are a big part of that. I’m not stupid but I can’t make excuses and I have to live with reality.”

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