Comp on Hoops: Analyzing Michigan State's twin towers package, the Brooks situation and more

On3 imageby:Jim Comparoni01/20/23

JimComparoni

East Lansing, Mich. – This was one of Tom Izzo’s favorite kind of mid-season victories. Michigan State showed some offensive explosiveness in scoring a double-digit victory over a Top 25 team, yet the Spartans were lacking in some of Izzo’s key principles, which will yield lessons.

“I’m glad we won and we got our butts kicked,” Izzo said.

Rutgers out-rebounded Michigan State 42-34 during the Spartans’ 70-57 victory over the Scarlet Knights at jam-packed Breslin Center, Thursday night.

Rutgers had 18 offensive rebounds, due in part to having an abundance of opportunities. Rutgers shot just 34.4 percent from the field, but gained offensive rebounds on a whopping 47 percent of their missed shots.

Michigan State won the basketball game. But Michigan State lost the rock fight. Izzo can work with that.

“I saw bodies flying everywhere and unfortunately my guys’ bodies were doing the flying instead of administering it,” Izzo said. “I love the way Rutgers played.”

That’s the way Izzo’s best teams have played, most years. This year’s Spartans aren’t the most physical bunch he’s ever had. But 47 percent is unacceptable. They’ll get to work on correcting that during Friday’s practice before heading to Indiana for Sunday’s game. The Spartans are tired, having played four games in 10 days. But this victory will give them a burst of energy and optimism.

THE REBOUNDING PROBLEM

In the rebounding department, Mady Sissoko will be challenged by the coaches, as will MSU’s wing players.

With Michigan State being merely good, not great, in the length and physicality department, Izzo tasked guards and wings with staying in tighter for defensive rebounding duty this season. 

That wasn’t noticeable at times in this game. If they stayed in to rebound, they didn’t do a good job of it. However, Michigan State was better in the transition game. So there’s a chance that Michigan State relaxed the board work a bit in order to get out into the open court. I didn’t get a chance to review the film or ask Izzo if this was the case, but it might have been.

Michigan State out-rebounded Purdue on Monday. Purdue is the top-ranked rebounding team in the Big Ten. So there’s a chance that Izzo felt that success provided reason to spring the guards and wings out into transition a little sooner and relax their defensive rebounding chores.

Maybe.

But there was still no excuse for some rebounding assignment errors that would make a junior high coach angry.

Izzo yanked Pierre Brooks off the court midway through the first half when he failed to box out his man, and allowed an offensive rebound.

Early in the second half, Jaden Akins was replaced for failing to scrap hard and up to standards on a range rebound.

“When you don’t rebound, when you don’t sprint back on defense, it’s a problem,” Izzo said. “He (Akins) had some plays that way. And to his credit, he took ownership of it. That’s what some other guys need to do – take ownership of it. 

“After that, I thought Jaden played awfully well.”

Akins finished with five rebounds. His 11 points, and 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point range, and his steal which led to his breakout dunk, and a 45-41 lead with 12:51 to play, showcased his talent. But Izzo wanted that rebounding piece to get proper attention. 

Brooks’ rebounding error came a few moments after he was too slow in slaloming around screens defensively. 

This was a key game for Brooks. With Malik Hall out indefinitely, Michigan State needs Brooks to absorb some of Hall’s minutes at the three and the four. But he can’t be entrusted with those minutes if his defense and rebounding aren’t up to standard.

This is the second time this season that Brooks has had this opportunity to get extended minutes while teammates were out with injuries. He showed some growth earlier in the season when Hall and Akins were out with injuries. When they came back, Brooks leveled off and his playing time went down. 

Brooks is a good shooter, and has some crafty scoring ability. But he can’t get a chance to show those skills if he springs leaks in other areas. 

Coaches challenged him to come through in this new opportunity. Instead, he took a step backward.

He finished with 2 points and one rebound in 13 minutes.

Media members noticed Izzo grilling Brooks on the bench after the rebounding error. Prior to that, Izzo seemed to be assigning assistant coaches and other players to holding Brooks accountable. But when Brooks missed that box out, Izzo took over, in a demanding way. 

Izzo was asked if the confrontation was due to seeing Brooks perform well in practice but fall short of carrying it over to the games. 

No. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, either.

“I’m not seeing those things in practice,” he said. “What I’m most upset with is when we are guarding someone and the shot goes up and we are standing there looking at the ball. 

“Missing a shot? No problem. But effort-related things, major problem. That’s the way it’s going to be here.

“I think Pierre has a chance to be a heck of a player. I need Pierre to be better. We need him to be good. We have to get him more minutes. I’m not giving up on Pierre. I really think he has a lot to give but there are lessons to be learned.”

Misery loves company in this department.

A.J. Hoggard learned some of them,” Izzo said. “Remember his freshman and sophomore year? He didn’t take care of himself the best he could, and got better and then he got a lot better. 

“I like Pierre. I just don’t like some of the things he does. Hell, I didn’t like Jaren Jackson fouling all the time. I didn’t like Miles Bridges doing this, didn’t like Mateen Cleaves doing that. Man, you should have been here when Draymond was here. There were confrontations in the shower for godsakes. That’s just the way it is.”

IZZO ROLLING WITH MADY

Sissoko played a season-low 16 minutes. He had four rebounds, but seemed a step late most of the night. 

With Jaxon Kohler having a fine first half, the Michigan State coaches went to Kohler earlier in the second half. Kohler continued to play well, so they rode him late.

With 7:40 left in the game and Michigan State hanging onto a 6-point lead at 55-49, Kohler checked in for Sissoko. Kohler played the rest of the way, and Michigan State outscored the Scarlet Knights 15-8 for the remainder of the game. 

Kohler led Michigan State in plus-minus at +17.

Last week, Kohler was beginning to lose playing time to fellow freshman Carson Cooper. But Kohler has responded with what seems to be a little more hop, better hands, betting timing, better touch around the rim and less slippage on defense. This resulted in more playing time, which led to more shot attempts and more points. 

In November, Sissoko emerged as an unexpected positive. That glow has subsided quite a bit. Coaches will work to bring him back along. They need him to begin finishing on screen-and-rolls again. Sissoko also has a back-to-the basket game that hasn’t really shown itself in games yet. But he has it. I’ve seen it.

Now, Cooper has emerged as a functional set of legs as a screener, defender and all-around spaz.

And Kohler, easily the more skilled of the three, is now catching a positive wave. 

Add that to Akins’ continued recovery toward daredevil athleticism, and Tyson Walker and Joey Hauser being more comfortable in hunting shots, and Hoggard more equipped to deliver, and the entire outfit suddenly came together and proved capable of staging a 13-point victory over a Top 25 team like Rutgers – even without Hall.

When asked where he feels the team is, 19 games into the season, Izzo said: “I think we’re ahead of where I thought we would be when the season started, because we were without two guys and everything that happened. I think we’re ahead because Hauser has played better, and Walker has played better and A.J. has played a lot better. 

“And yet we have been kind of a mixed bag of nuts. We’re not really smooth. We don’t look real polished, and why would you when you have situations where you are moving different people in and playing different people?

“The exciting part is one of these days we are going to get everybody back. We are competing now. I mean, we got our butts kicked on the boards, but some of it is that they just have bigger, better athletes than we had. We have to do a better job of cutting out. Our wings got kicked tonight a little bit and uncharacteristically so did Mady. But I’ll roll with Mady. I ain’t worried about him.”

TWIN TOWERS?

With Hall unavailable and Michigan State needing to find ways to give Hauser some rest, the Spartans had a choice of either trying Brooks at the four, which they’ve done in the past, or go with two centers on the court at the same time – which they haven’t done (aside from :15 seconds of the Purdue game).

Michigan State opted for the latter, partly due to Brooks’ problems in the first half.

Michigan State played approximately eight minutes with two natural centers on the court at the same time on Thursday night, spanning three possessions in the first half and nine possessions in the second half. There were no major malfunctions.

Sissoko and Cooper shared the court for a short stint in the first half, and again in the second half. Then Kohler checked in for Sissoko and shared the court with Cooper for the first time in their young careers. 

“I thought they did a pretty good job,” Izzo said. “Give (assistant coach) Monty some credit. He’s been working on trying to come up with things if we have two bigs on the court. We moved some things around. We kept it simple. We have a couple of basic sets we run when we have that.”

Michigan State went with twin towers for six straight minutes midway through the second half. The Spartans outscored Rutgers 9-6 during that span, turning a 41-37 lead into a 50-43 lead. 

MSU’s nine points came via a Sissoko put-back, an Akins steal and dunk, a Kohler jumper along the baseline, and a Hoggard 3-pointer.

Hoggard also hit a 3-pointer while on the court with twin towers in the first half.

Akins’ steal and dunk was one of the turning points of the game.

The twin towers look didn’t get Sissoko going, despite his put-back bucket. Moments later, Sissoko allowed a put-back to Rutgers second-string center Antwone Woolfolk, and fouled him in the process. 

Moments later, after Akins’ dunk, Michigan State subbed Sissoko out, but stayed with the twin towers look, with Cooper and Kohler on the court together. 

As for the best moment of the night for the twin towers, it came when Cooper blocked a shot attempt by 6-foot-11 honorable mention All-Big Ten center Clifford Omoruyi with Michigan State up 47-41 with 11:35 left. Kohler collected the rebound. 

This was a big play at a pivotal time. 

However, there are no long term plans for the “twin towers” look to become a favored package. It’s a necessity for now.

“If we have to do that for a little while longer, then we have to,” Izzo said. 

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