Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State basketball’s 71-52 win over Iowa

1. MSU showed its style can match up with any style and any pace

EAST LANSING — That was a really good win for Michigan State’s basketball team, believe it or not. That Iowa team is going to wind up being trouble a lot of nights in the Big Ten. And this could have been a thorny night for the Spartans, if they’d let it.

Things didn’t start easy. They were playing against a different style and more deliberate pace than anything they’d faced yet this season. They didn’t have their best freshman, Cam Ward, who missed the game with a sprained wrist. He would have been useful in this matchup. They had to figure out how to control the game without a fast break. 

But they did, turning a prickly first 10 minutes into an emphatic home win, 71-52, imposing their will on team a that didn’t have the big men to match up in the paint and on the glass. Their energy was only matched by Pat Fitzgerald’s energy, as MSU’s new football coach introduced himself to the Breslin Center crowd Tuesday night during a first-half timeout. He told the fans they were the difference in MSU’s run just before that break. They might have been.

But one thing we’ve learned about this MSU team is that to have a chance to beat it, you’ve got to match its toughness and be able to handle its physicality. The Hawkeyes could do neither. Iowa would have to shoot the daylights out of the ball from beyond the arc — which the Hawkeyes are capable of doing — to have any chance.

This game looked dangerous on the calendar because the Hawkeyes are better than MSU made them look and because human nature says this was a little bit of a look-ahead spot, if a Big Ten opener can ever be that. Getting Duke at Breslin Center this coming Saturday is an event. Something to look forward to. This MSU team, though, hasn’t looked distracted all season. We should begin to trust they won’t be. Especially not to open conference play, at home, the beginning of a title defense, and for a core group that looks out to prove something.

The rebounding numbers and points in the paint told the story of the difference between the teams. The Spartans out-rebounded the Hawkeyes, 37-18, including 24-12 on the offensive end (MSU rebounded 52% of its missed shots), outscored them in the paint, 34-18, and hit 22 of 25 free throws.

“That takes care of a lot of things,” Izzo said of MSU’s work on the glass especially.

MSU created a lot of contact in the first half, getting to the line to loosen up its offense and spur an 11-0 run in a game that was 9-9 at the midway point of the first half.

Neither team shot well from the perimeter. The problem for the Hawkeyes is that they live by the 3 much more and took many more. 

Now MSU can focus on the fourth and final of its marquee non-conference matchups, likely the biggest test of its ceiling and also of its improvement since the exhibition at Connecticut. At 8-0, and with how they’ve played, the Spartans have earned the hype this game will come with. 

2. An impressive night for Coen Carr

There were several impressive performances by MSU on Tuesday night. Jaxon Kohler’s dominance early on the glass set a tone in the paint (He finished with 12 points and 11 rebonds). Jeremy Fears Jr. got to the line repeatedly and didn’t miss there (going 10-for-10), and made Iowa star Bennett Stirtz’s life difficult. 

But Coen Carr, perhaps, deserves as much credit as anyone. This wasn’t a matchup built for him. Because Iowa doesn’t play a game that allows for transition offense. Carr had to work his way into this and figure out how to impact the game. And he did, with 15 points and five rebounds, almost all of his production coming in the final couple minutes of the first half and in the second half. 

That was a good sign for Carr. He didn’t force things, but he also didn’t accept that this wasn’t going to be his night. He got on the glass and started attacking the lane on the drive. Iowa didn’t have an answer for him.

3. Freshman thoughts — the Iowa edition

Jesse McCulloch played a season-high 17 minutes, in part because Cam Ward missed the game with a sprained wrist. MSU will and has faced teams with better front lines, but McCulloch made the most of his opportunity, with nine points and two rebounds. The redshirt freshman big man sometimes has been overmatched this season. But he played well in a short spurt against North Carolina and then in a longer stint Tuesday.

He’s got a skilled offensive game and we saw it against Iowa, especially with a couple buckets late. The more he holds his own on the glass and defensively, the more we’ll see him.

The other MSU freshman that played, Jordan Scott, had another Jordan Scott-like game. They ought to just name the plus-minus stat after him. At halftime, he had six points and was plus-18 in 10 minutes. Nobody else was better than plus-10. He finished with those six points and five rebounds. He’s a gritty player who makes MSU better when he’s on the court. He also hit one of MSU’s three 3s. If he starts making more, he’ll be a 20-minute per game player every night. You could argue he already should be.

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.