V-Cast: Is it too early to be worried about this Michigan State basketball team? 

East Lansing, Mich. – In the return of the SpartanMag V-Cast, Associate Editor Paul Konyndyk and Publisher Jim Comparoni discuss the misery factor and worry level coming out of Michigan State’s 70-57 loss to Wisconsin on Tuesday night at Breslin Center. 

Comparoni pointed out that 366 days ago, Michigan State lost its Big Ten opener at home, to Northwestern. Michigan State fell to 5-4 after that loss to Northwestern (not the 4-4 mark that Michigan State finds itself in this time), but close enough.

“You don’t have a Joey Hauser this year,” Konyndyk says. “Malik Hall, I know he was sick tonight, but he still looks like he’s scared when he shoots those 3s.”

“I wouldn’t judge anything Malik did tonight,” Comparoni responds.

“I think Malik Hall is going to get there,” Konyndyk says, “to be able to knock down a couple of threes per game, but he’s not there yet. 

“What I’m trying to get around to is that if Jaden Akins isn’t hitting threes, then it’s all up to Tyson Walker. AJ Hoggard, even though he a couple of threes tonight, his game is downhill muscle ball. The threes are gravy. But if Jaden Akins isn’t hitting threes, Michigan State is losing Big Ten games against good teams.”

Comparoni defined the terms of this game by pointing out how good Wisconsin is at this time of year. The Badgers have won seven straight, and upset No. 3 Marquette on Saturday. 

“Something I was going to say at pre-game is Michigan State has not played one game this season well enough to beat the Wisconsin that played against Marquette,” Comparoni says. “The Wisconsin team that came out there today was not dissimilar from the team that beat Marquette.

“Steven Crowl had attempted only five 3-pointers all season. He was 4-of-4 from 3-point range tonight. AJ Storr was 21 percent from 3-point range coming into this game, 6-of-28 for the year. He goes 4-of-6 from three. When you have two guys like that combining to go 8-of-10 from 3-point range, and the rest of the outfit is typical Wisconsin Badger swing offense, rebounding, and the rest of it, good luck with the rest of it, and Michigan State couldn’t get it done.” 

Michigan State will play at Nebraska on Sunday, and then face No. 6 Baylor a week from Saturday in Detroit. 

“I’m not sure this team is ever going to be the type of rebounding team Tom Izzo needs it to be in order beat good teams like Wisconsin, Duke or Arizona unless they shoot well,” Comparoni says. “This is a jump-shooting team, for better or worse. Michigan State is basically a streak-shooting team right now and with that, they are a streaky losing team, 4-4. I think they will be a good team in time, but they have a lot of work to do.”

Konyndyk retorted: “I’m not saying they’re streaky because they went on that dumpster fire bender at the end. I don’t think that had to do with them being streaky. That had to do with Wisconsin being a tough-ass, physical team and mauling on them. 

“Tyson Walker is as tough as they come but every time he came off a screen, they were beating the crap out of him. When he went to the bench and they were down by 3, he could barely walk. He was exhausted. And then they had some empty possessions.

“Wisconsin was ready for Big Ten play and Michigan State was not.”

Comparoni and Konyndyk discuss Jaden Akins’ struggles on defense and the boards, perhaps stemming from his shooting struggles.

“One of Jaden Akins’ goals was to be on the Big Ten All-Defense team,” Konyndyk said. “If you are going to be on the All-Defense team, you can’t let your offense dictate what your defense does.”

Comparoni echoed the remarks of Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard, who said the Badgers are much better than they were a year ago due to depth. When Wisconsin power forward Tyler Wahl went out with foul trouble in the first half and missed the opening minutes of the second half with a bloody nose, Wisconsin went to the bench and found long, serviceable big men. When Malik Hall was slowed by a flu on this night, with Jaxon Kohler out with a foot injury, Michigan State’s functional depth along the front line paled in comparison to the Badgers.

These were problems for a Spartan team on Dec. 5. It’s still a very, very early checkpoint in a season that will be defined by how Michigan State plays in March of 2024.