It was a great day for the Michigan State athletic department on Saturday, and I was there to take it all in. Well, I was a few minutes late to the basketball game because I stuck around for the hockey
press conference. The action continued on Sunday with a Big Ten championship on the line for the Women’s Soccer Team, though they lost in penalty kicks. And Robyn Fralick’s Women’s Basketball Team won 92-60.
Looking back on all of it, I decided to throw all my notes into one super-sized version of Likes & Dislikes. Spoiler alert: I was not finding 3 dislikes from each of these games. I’ll start off with the 2-game sweep our hockey team enjoyed over #3 Penn State. I could have easily gone past 3 positives here.
3 Things I Liked (Hockey Edition):
1. The Penalty Kill. MSU went a combined 9-9 killing the PSU man-advantage over two games, that on a team that came into the series going 15-65 on the power play (23.1%). The Spartan penalty kill certainly knocked the Nittany Lions’ success rate down a few percentages. And while giving up 9 power plays over two games may feel like a lot (even more so considering there were some matching penalties throughout the series), Coach Nightingale said in the press conference after the Saturday win that he is okay with a lot of those penalties. He said that his team plays with a lot of emotion, and that emotion contributes to the physicality of the game. If sometimes that leads to a penalty, he is fine with it because the alternative – not playing physical – is not how he wants his team to play.
2. New Stars emerging. Last year, the biggest stars on this team, at least offensively, were Isaac Howard and Daniel Russell. Howard, after winning the Hobey Baker Award is off in the NHL playing for Edmonton. Russell, who was second on the team with 13 goals and tops with 7 game-winners, is back for his senior season though he is certainly not lighting the lamp as much as he was a year ago. Charlie Stramel and Tommi Mannisto are leading the way with five goals apiece. Stramel had a four-point game yesterday with 2 goals and 2 assists. Senior Tiernan Shoudy and freshman Anthony Romani each have three goals. In total, 14 players have at least one goal and 19 have at least one point. As Nightingale – and Stramel – said in the press conference, this team has four lines that can score. And I did not even name one very important name to this topic…
3. A Recruiting Coup. For those of you who don’t follow hockey recruiting as closely as some other sports, or simply don’t remember what transpired this past offseason, Michigan State was in the running for the talents of Gavin McKenna, the presumed #1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. In the end, MSU ended up as the runner-up in that arms race. Shortly after missing out on McKenna, Adam Nightingale secured another name from north of the border. Porter Martone from Ontario may have been considered a consolation prize at the time, but that is certainly not how it has turned out. Porter is now playing on MSU’s top line, leads the team in points with 11 (4 G, 7 A), and +/- at 9. Not only that, but he is playing that physical brand that his coach and older teammates preach. Martone received a ten-minute misconduct late in the game for his involvement in a friendly rumble where he flexed his muscle against an inferior opponent. Skating to the penalty box after the official finally peeled him off the PSU player, he was shouting and revving up the crowd. He looked like the similarly named Dean Portman of The Mighty Ducks movies.
And for comparison, while Martone had a goal and an assist and was +3 on Saturday, McKenna struggled mightily and finished with a -3 (he did have the lone PSU goal on Friday). He appeared to be slow to get back in the defensive end in the second game. I will reserve judgement if that was from being tired or from lack of effort. Either way, I am happy with the way these rosters ended up. Martone is certainly becoming one of my favorites on this year’s squad.
*I have no dislikes for hockey.
Moving along to the men’s basketball game last night, while it was certainly far from the blowout that the hockey game was, it was still plenty entertaining to watch. That said, we will have some dislikes from this one, but we will get to those after.
3 Things I Liked (Basketball Edition):
1. Cam is the new Jase? Last season, it took until the sixth game for freshman phenom Jase Richardson to be the high scorer in a game; he recorded 13 points in the win over Colorado. This year, four-start recruit Cam Ward only waited until the second game. Against a higher-ranked Arkansas team, Cam Ward led his team with an 18-point, 10-rebound, 2-steal performance. That is a remarkable improvement from the handful of points he had in his debut. It was not just the fact that he led MSU in points, but also how he looked doing that. He regularly was sliding around in the low post to get open for a pass and an easy bucket or outworking a Razorback to get to a rebound. Among his ten boards, three were on the offensive glass and two of those led to immediate putbacks (though he missed one of those two). Though he only is 6’8”, he plays much bigger than that and is already showing to be a matchup problem for opponents, even a top 25 team. Let’s see how good he can be.
2. This team has depth. The four captains, er, returning starters are all proven commodities at this point, and are probably even improved from last year. Aside from them, MSU has received strong contributions from the rest of the roster – freshman, transfers, and guys who did not play much last year if at all. While the other two returning players, Kur Teng and Jesse McCulloch, both saw their minutes reduced in game 2, I feel each has shown the ability to contribute when given the chance. Teng may actually be our best three-point shooter and McCulloch has demonstrated some touch on his shot.
Transfer player Trey Fort hit the only triple for MSU yesterday and now has 3 of the team’s 7 on the year. He, too, saw his minutes diminished in game 2, but he still got on the stat sheet with 5 points and had a number of hustle plays. He had one board at each end, a steal, and a block. Most importantly, he has been a sound defender.
The other transfer player, Divine Ugochukwu, has had a bit of a hybrid role through two games. Before I get into his performance, I have to say this. Ugo is listed on the MSU athletic site as being 6’3” and 195 pounds. I spoke with him in the locker room after the game. Now I am not saying that he is not that big, but if he is, then I must have had a recent growth spurt and he must have had his skeleton replaced with a titanium steel frame. On to the game, most of his 11 minutes against Arkansas came in relief of Fears, but he also got some run where the two of them shared the court. He may not have had much for the box score – 2 assists and 1 rebound on 0-5 shooting through two games – he has also shown himself to be a capable defender, particularly on the perimeter. While he has not shown yet that he could help this team when it needs points, I do believe he could help preserve a lead when Fears needs a breather.
Lastly, to the two freshmen, I am going to go ahead and say this may end up being the best two-person freshman years we have seen under Izzo. I’m not saying best class; obviously Jaren Jackson had an amazing freshman year while Xavier Tillman turned into one of the best Robin-to-someone’s-Batman in MSU history. But I think both of these two will be “Diaper Dandies” and be the best pair of freshmen of the past 31 years. Jordan Scott started with a 6 & 6 game and then followed that up with a 6 & 7. He has 5 offensive rebounds through two games and has shown off some elite athleticism.
Cam Ward, if he keeps playing like he did yesterday, is going to force Coach Izzo to make some tough decisions about playing time. I am not lobbying for him to be inserted into the starting lineup, now will I do that even if he continues to play like yesterday. I would like to see him continue coming off the bench, providing a boost for the second unit, all while continuing to develop cohesion with some of the other younger guys (i.e. Scott). I also don’t think moving a senior captain, Kohler or Cooper, to the bench would be appropriate for this team. But a talent like this is going to need at least 20 minutes a game.
3. Getting a top 25 win. The narrative of Tom Izzo loading up the non-con schedule each year with some of the biggest names in college hoops, but we have not always seen the best results in those early season contests. Getting a win against #14 Arkansas, and a hard-fought win at that, could mean that this team is already ahead of previous versions. And it was easy to see that this Spartans team could be even better than what we saw Saturday. Izzo said after the game that this was the best game Coen Carr has had as a Spartan; it is hard to think he peaked in the 2nd game of the year. Carson Cooper had to miss the majority of the 1st half after picking up a pair of early fouls, the second of which he said was a generous call. But in that second half, he scored nine points and had a smattering of other stats. His skill in the pick & roll and getting open for easy lobs seems to have taken another step. Jeremy Fears may have struggled with his shot, going 0-7, but he did not let that affect his play and he did a great job getting everyone else involved, finishing with 9 assists and bringing his season total to 19. And Jaxon Kohler, already with a double-double on the year, finished with a 10 & 7 performance, showing consistency in his game. Let the upperclassmen continue to lead this team while the newbies continue to grow and learn from them. If that happens, my prediction of us only losing one non-conference game this year may just come true.
3 Things I Disliked (MSU Edition):
1. Free Throws. It may have been better than it was in the opener, but MSU still shot under 70% for the game. They missed 8 freebies, including one front-end from Fears. Can’t be leaving available points on the board against quality opponents.
2. Narrow margins of victory. After winning their opener by 86 points, the women’s hoops teams barely escaped with a 32-point triumph.
3. Penalty kicks to decide soccer games. In case you did not already know this about me, I am a massive soccer fan. That said, I am a massive hater of penalty kicks at the end of a game. Michigan State fell in the Big Ten Championship today, losing in PKs 4-1. After being the better team through most of the 90 minutes of regulation and another 20 minutes, though unable to get the winner, the trophy was decided in the worst of ways. The final result was not representative of how the game went.
