Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State basketball’s 85-67 exhibition win over Ferris State

1. MSU’s exhibition win over Ferris State is revealing of lineup possibilities

EAST LANSING – Ferris State made Michigan State work for this win. There’s good and bad in that for the Spartans. The good being that the competitive nature of the game and the ways the Bulldogs pushed MSU revealed some things — strengths, concerns and, most of all, lineup possibilities.

I think MSU’s best lineup right now includes three players for sure: Jaden Akins, Coen Carr and Jaxon Kohler. The rest is TBD.

In Tuesday night’s 85-67 win at Breslin Center, Jeremy Fears Jr., Tre Holloman and Jase Richardson played big parts in pulling away when things got dicey in the second half.

The whole bit about Kohler being MSU’s best rebounder is clearly true. He had 11 rebounds, three offensive, in 21 minutes. It’s not just the numbers. He just seems to have a nose for it and doesn’t get pushed off the ball the way some others do. Kohler also had nine points. He’s going to have to be on the court for MSU a lot, which means he’ll be playing some center, too. He did Tuesday night in MSU’s three-guard lineup, with Coen Carr at power forward, as MSU steadied things in the second half.

Carr is a difference-making athlete. No longer just a spectacular one (More on him below).

MSU’s big guys, other than Kohler, had some tough moments. In their defense, Ferris State played several smaller lineups that were tough covers. Still, there are some rim-protection and rebound concerns.

Akins isn’t scoring a ton — he had three points on five shots, five rebounds and two assists in 23 minutes. We’ll see if that changes when the competition requires more from him offensively. But he’s the glue in a lot of ways out there.

Frankie Fidler, Holloman, Fears, Richardson, Xavier Booker, Szymon Zapala — you could make an argument for any of them right now. Fidler led MSU in scoring with 14 points, but didn’t have a rebound. Fears had eight assists and one turnover. I’d be a little surprised if he…

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Author : Lansing State Journal

Publish date : 2024-10-30 01:19:00

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