Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State basketball's 106-72 win over Northern Iowa
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1. 106 points scored, but some lesson for MSU against Northern Iowa
EAST LANSING — With the score 19-2, barely more than five minutes into the game, you had to wonder if Northern Iowa could get to 10. Michigan State’s defense was that relentless. The Panthers looked that overwhelmed.
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By halftime, Northern Iowa had 44 points. MSU 59. The officials 33 fouls called, playing their part in what might have been a very watchable half, but instead wasn’t.
Two minutes into the second half, it was MSU 62, Northern Iowa 51. This as an actual game, with Jasah Jervis’ 3-point shooting primarily responsible for keeping the Panthers at bay.
In the end, it was a comfortable 106-72 MSU win over an offensively skilled opponent that had a lot more faith in its ability to shoot and score than it appeared in the opening minutes.
There are couple lessons MSU can take from this game:
One, that you can’t knock out every lesser foe with an early punch. Some of these teams have some confident dudes who play. If you see a team with two or three guys on the court who look like Howdy Doody, assume they can shoot and are better than they look. They’re out there for a reason.
Second, MSU has to learn how to be physical defensively and on the glass without fouling. Because while the Spartans withstood having seven players with two fouls each in the first half Friday, that’ll be a problem against some opponents. The officials were too quick with the whistle Friday. There were a number of fouls called that just weren’t. But there were a lot that were. This was a handsy and physical game, a clumsily physical game in the first half especially.
Ultimately, we’re nitpicking a 34-point win over a solid Missouri Valley Conference team where the Spartans scored over 100 points, got 44 points out of their starting backcourt (Jeremy Fears Jr., 24, and Jervis, 20) and took control firmly as the second half went along. But that’s where this team is now. After Tuesday’s wire to wire win over Duke, all that’s left to do against Northern Iowa is nitpick. And this group left Tom Izzo plenty to pick at.
2. Jervis, again, leads record 3-point shooting night
It’s becoming clear shooting isn’t going to be a problem for this MSU basketball team. And that it’ll likely be a strength. You can’t take that just from a record-setting night against Northern Iowa, where the Spartans hit a program-record 18 3-pointers (on 37 attempts) against a Northern Iowa team that’s never heard of a close-out defensively. Still, no team has ever hit that many before and MSU has played a zillion poor defensive teams since the 3-point shot came into play in the 1980s.
Jeremy Fears hit 4 of 5 3-point attempts, Jordan Scott 3 of 5, Jesse McCulloch 2 of 2, and freshman Jasiah Jervis 5 of 6, on his way to 20 points. He’s hit 12 of 23 3s through four games this season. And the thing about him is that I think every shot he takes is going in. That’s a quality that’s hard to quantify in numbers. For example, you probably don’t feel the same about Kur Teng right now, even though before Friday, he was shooting a higher percentage from beyond the arc.
Jervis is just a pure shot-maker, off the bounce and off the catch. He’s a star. He’s that guy — against Duke or Northern Iowa. When MSU actually needed some buckets early in the second half, Jervis delivered two 3s.
This won’t be his last 20-point game this season or probably the last time he hits 5 3s. And, thus, it probably won’t be the last time the Spartans’ blitz a team with outside shots.
3. Kur Teng could still have an important role, but …
On team with two exciting freshman guards and an emerging sophomore star on the wing, junior Kur Teng has looked like he might be left behind early this season. He played a considerable role in the Spartans’ first two games — 15 and 14 minutes against Quinnipiac and Toledo, respectively — but saw just eight minutes against Duke Tuesday night.
The general notion is that he’s a shooter who’s not making shots. Only hasn’t really been the case. Entering Tuesday, Teng was 4-for-9 (44%) on 3-point tries through three games, the highest percentage on the team by anyone who’d taken that many.
But because shooting is the skill that makes him a Big Ten player, there’s a more intense microscope on his shot than there is with others, and he had missed a few memorably wide open looks. He deserves some grace, given he missed most of the offseason after foot surgery. But the season can move along without you, if you don't catch up fast enough.
Friday, he took seven more 3s and made two, getting going for a bit after a cold start with a shorter baseline jumper on an inbounds pass — a smart play to find some rhythm and a good shot. He’s now 6-for-16 from deep on the season. Teng’s value to this team is his shot. MSU needs him to shoot it with confidence and keep letting it fly. And MSU does need him. Because while Teng’s days as MSU’s starting shooting guard are over, lost to the immense talent in front of him, he can be the sort of snipper off the bench that’s just one more weapon to deal with and, perhaps, sometimes, one too many.
But if he’s going to play 17 minutes, as he did Friday, or 14 or 15, as he did last week, in the big games, he’s going to have to do more than shoot 40% from 3. He’s going to have to be solid with the ball in his hands (he had one bad turnover Friday) and on the defensive end, and, most noticeably, hit the open shots when the ball finds him in close games. He’s got to come through when it matters.
Contact Graham Couch at [email protected]. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State basketball's 106-72 win over Northern Iowa