Between Michigan State's confident domination of an overmatched Incarnate Word squad, a narrow but ultimately not-very-close loss to Connecticut, and Sunday's final preseason scrimmage against Marquette, Spartan fans and the coaching staff have plenty to consider.
As Tom Izzo noted in his postgame press conference, the Spartans approached the UConn contest with their familiar early-season strategy of deliberately disrupting their own rotation. Typical of exhibitions and scrimmages, Izzo and his staff experimented with numerous lineups, mixing experienced players with newcomers while continuing to reintegrate Kur Teng, Cam Ward, and Kaleb Glenn as they work their way back to full speed following injuries and offseason surgeries.
The results were disjointed and, in many respects, pretty ugly.
Michigan State rarely looked like a top-10 team, yet the Spartans kept the game close enough that they could easily have won on a different night. At least eight missed layups, nine missed free throws, and a 3-for-20 (15%) shooting performance from three-point range – from a team that could realistically shoot north of 38% from distance this season – doomed the Spartans from a box-score perspective.
But the numbers only tell part of the story.
How did Michigan State really perform, and what should fans be watching during the Marquette scrimmage and the first two regular-season games before the showdown with Duke?
