V-Cast: Who's hot for Michigan State, who's not and what's next
East Lansing, Mich. – Did Michigan State deserve to beat Iowa? Maybe not, but the Spartans overcame a sloppy performance to defeat the Hawkeyes 63-61 at the Breslin Center. This game saw senior forward Malik Hall return from injury to play 24 minutes. Without Hall, the Spartans would have lost this game to Iowa.
After the game, SpartanMag.com publisher Jim Comparoni and associate editor Paul Konyndyk checked in from the Breslin center for post-game SpartanMag V-Cast.
Topics touched upon include:
Hall’s return: Hall led the Spartans in plus/minus while playing 24 minutes. He scored 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting and ignited the crowd with a monstrous transition dunk in the first half. Hall was instrumental in overcome an early 10-point deficit.
Ball-Screen Defense: The Spartans changed its ball-screen defense some for Iowa. This was a game where Spartan centers struggled with ball screens, and Iowa point guard Ahron Ulis got into the paint way too easily. Junior Mady Sissoko had a rough time of it on defense, but gave Michigan State big lift overall with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
AJ Hoggard: It was some good, some bad night for Hoggard, who played very good defensively against Kris Murray. On offense, however, Hoggard had an off-shooting night for the Spartans. He also missed the front end of a 1-and-1 late in the game that would have put the game away.
Michigan State improved to 6-4 in Big Ten play with this win. Now, they travel to Purdue, where they have typically struggled in road game.
