Michigan State basketball: Jaden Akins' slump mirrors Spartans' struggles

EAST LANSING — To say Jaden Akins is mired in a slump would be both an understatement and unfair.

Yes, the Michigan State basketball junior’s shot isn’t falling, affecting his all-around performance. The same can be said for the rest of his teammates.

Akins’ rebounding also has dipped in recent weeks. Then again, the rest of the Spartans' has, as well.

“We just got to play better and make open shots,” Akins said after Tuesday’s 70-57 home loss against Wisconsin to open Big Ten play. “That's really it.”

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MSU (4-4, 0-1 Big Ten) enters Sunday’s game at Nebraska (7-2, 0-1) among the nation’s worst 3-point shooting teams. They’ll try and fix it against a Cornhuskers defense that’s among the best at defending the arc.

Tipoff is 6:30 p.m. (Big Ten Network) at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The Spartans enter the weekend making just 27.5% of their 3-point attempts, to rank 328th out of 351 Division I teams. Three of MSU's starters who can shoot from deep — Akins, Malik Hall and A.J. Hoggard — are a combined 16-for-70 (22.9%) from 3-point range.

But outside shooting isn’t the forte of Hall (3-for-18) and Hoggard (4-for-19) like it is Akins'.

The 6-foot-4, 190-pound wing is 9-for-33 (27.2%) from beyond the arc this season after making 42.2% of his 116 attempts from 3-point range last season. Akins went 0-for-2 from deep and 1-for-2 inside the arc against the Badgers. It was his third game this season without a 3-pointer.

He finished with two points and no rebounds — both season lows — in 21:17 of court time. It was his worst offensive output since going scoreless in 13 minutes against Davidson in the first round of the 2022 NCAA tournament his freshman year.

“I think he's working on it morning, noon and night,” said coach Tom Izzo, who benched Akins to start the second half against Wisconsin. “He's just gotta relax. And I gotta push him more maybe. He's gotta make shots for us. That's his job.”

Akins and Hoggard both tested the NBA draft process in the spring before withdrawing and returning to MSU. Each has had struggles early in the season.

For Hoggard, some of that has been looking for his outside shot too frequently instead of attacking the basket off the dribble. For Akins, Izzo believes, it is the opposite that is affecting his 3-point production.

“He's shot the ball for so long, so good, that I don't mess with his shot much. I just tell him, ‘Shoot it with confidence, don't pass up shots,’” Izzo said after Thursday’s practice. “I think some of the things he did is he wanted to be able to put the ball on the floor more, and that's OK. But when he's coming off wide open, he doesn't need to put the ball on the floor, he needs to shoot the ball. And if you're not thinking shot, usually you don't shoot it as well.”

Overall this season, Akins is shooting 39.7% and averaging 9.6 points and 5.1 rebounds.

“We just continue to tell him to be yourself,” Hoggard said. “He's just gotta continue to be confident in his game. We believe in him, everyone in this building believes in his ability. He's just got to believe it in himself, and he can't let it affect him on both sides of the ball.”

The rebounding is another issue, however: Tuesday was Akins’ first game without a rebound since his freshman season. MSU was outrebounded by 14 and gave up 11 on the offensive glass, leading to 19 Wisconsin second-chance points. Izzo went into the game demanding better gang-rebounding from his guards, which didn’t happen.

“Sometimes shots aren't going in how we know they're capable of, from what we did in the summer all the way to the fall,” Hoggard said. “And we get out here to the games and it's not going how we know it can, we can't let that affect us. Just do our jobs and do our staples — defend, rebound and run — and everything else will take care of itself.”

Izzo said he feels some of his team’s shooting struggles have hampered their defense and rebounding ability. And he continues to preach that his best players need to improve their performance.

That starts with Akins and Hoggard, who is averaging 10.1 points and 4.5 points but just 3.3 rebounds while also enduring his own defensive deficiencies early in the season. The 6-4, 210-pound point guard had 14 points, seven assists and four rebounds against the Badgers but played out of position defensively against 6-7 AJ Storr, who scored 22 points with five boards. That was partly due to Akins’ struggles and partly due to Hall’s illness.

“Jaden is struggling. I think Jaden and A.J., expectations were high for them with themselves. Not that other people put on them, that they put on themselves,” Izzo said. “And I think A.J. had one of his best games the last game if you look at this all-around game.

“Jaden, we spent a lot of time after and the next day. There's not a better kid on my team than Jaden Akins, not a better student on my team than Jaden Akins. And I think this summer, one of the best shooters on my team was Jaden Akins. So I don't have all the answers, I'm not the big fella upstairs. But I know this: He's working on it.”

Hall said he feels the key to unlocking Akins and their other teammates offensively boils down to one simple thing: Trust.

“I'm pretty sure they already have a bunch of people that are telling them, ‘You got to play better, you got to do this better, you got to do that.’ So I just gotta trust them and encourage them,” Hall said. “’We've seen you do before, only you know how to figure it out. So you gotta to be able to trust yourself, and then just know that we're gonna trust you. And we know that you're gonna figure it out at some point, no matter what it looks like.’”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball has a simple plan: 'Just do our jobs'