Michigan State basketball's most critical player finding himself at most critical moment

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tyson Walker was dazzling. Malik Hall was resilient. Jaden Akins was relentless. Mady Sissoko was revelatory.

Joey Hauser?

He was relaxed, and confident, and undisturbed by his missed shots and meager box score before hitting one of the biggest shots of the night Sunday at Nationwide Arena. He’s chill like that. And a killer like that. And when he lost his shoe and plopped down on the hardwood to put it back on with the game iced?

Well, it’s hard to imagine a sweeter serenade. Hauser earned those chants of “Joey, Joey,” from the Michigan State basketball fans cheering him on.

He helped earn the Spartans a Sweet 16 appearance this Thursday in New York, too. No wonder Tom Izzo teared up again as he walked across the court for his postgame interview with CBS.

Hauser’s journey is this team’s journey, and these Spartans suddenly, perhaps improbably, look like a squad that can keep going.

How far it goes is obviously up to Hauser and Walker and Hall and Sissoko and Akins, and they all deserve their flowers for crunch-time playmaking in the 69-60 win over No. 2 seed Marquette.

The barometer of this team, though, got his pocket picked on the first play of the game. It led to a layup and a quick 2-0 deficit.

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A.J. Hoggard responded by curling a bounce pass to Sissoko on a slip screen for a dunk. After a defensive stop, he crossed over his defender, got to the rim and made a layup. Two possessions later, after two more stops, he hit a 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock.

His spurt helped MSU to a 9-2 lead. He’d flushed the turnover and made a statement by making the right play on both ends the next four possessions.

“They came at him all day,” said coach Tom Izzo. “To A.J.'s credit, that's where I think he's grown, because I said to him, ‘he could have just died then.’ Then he made two great plays in a row. And I think he made some big steps and was the key.”

He’s always the key. Has always been the key, even when it isn’t always so obvious. It’s easy to get distracted by the form on his jump shot or his occasional bad shot, but his shooting form or desire to fire an ill-timed shot isn’t what influences his team’s performance.

His body language is. He energy is. His focus is.

During the one-man push to let Marquette know it was gonna be a long evening, Hoggard stood between Izzo and Akins when Akins had drawn Izzo’s ire. He was saying: “I got this coach.” And: “It’s gonna be OK, Jaden.”

Friday during the USC game, Hoggard could be heard directing his teammates and raising his voice when someone missed an assignment. His teammates listened and wanted to listen to him because of the way he sees — and feels — the game.

They won’t listen in the same way, however, when they sense he isn’t with them in the way they know he can be. His gravitational pull is that strong. And why Izzo mentioned, unprompted, his bounce-back after his turnover to start the game.

A year ago, shoot, a couple of weeks ago, Hoggard might have sulked had he started a game with a turnover. Though let’s be honest, Hoggard didn’t need to turn the ball over to sulk. Or lose focus.

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Some games he just started that way. As he did during the first half of the Ohio State game in the Big Ten tournament, which led to a sit-down with Izzo … in the middle of the bench.

Izzo isn’t hard on his point guards because he enjoys torturing them. He’s hard on the players he thinks can change everything. Hoggard is one of those players. He showed that Sunday night in Columbus.

“When he’s on it, man, we can go as far as he wants to take us,” said Hauser. “I honestly think that. He just does a great job of being kind of the head of the snake defensively and, offensively, he can get downhill, spray the ball around, make an open shot when you leave him open.”

Walker may be the closer. Hall may be the connector. Hauser may be the floor-spacer. Sissoko may be the X-factor. Akins may be the showstopper.

But Hoggard is the controller.

The junior point guard isn’t the team’s most gifted player — that would be Walker or Akins. Yet he’s its most critical.

He calls himself an extension of Izzo on the court. Izzo agrees.

“He’s the quarterback,” Izzo said recently, relying on an oft-used analogy from a game the MSU coach adores.

If Izzo came back in another life, he’d surely coach football. In fact, you could argue he coaches basketball as if he were a football coach. Nowhere is that more evident than in his relationships with his point guards, nearly all of whom he compares to Mateen Cleaves at some point in their careers.

Not in talent or style or even temperament, but in leadership and decision-making. Cleaves set the standard. Cassius Winston set his own standard. Hoggard is trying to set his. A few more games like Sunday’s and he will, as long as he can stay out of foul trouble.

Hoggard picked up his second foul with five minutes left in the first half against Marquette and sat the rest of the way. The Spartans were up 10 when he sat. They led by five at the break.

Those five points didn’t cost MSU on Sunday. They could Thursday against Kansas State. Or Saturday against Tennessee or Florida Atlantic if the Spartans reach the Elite Eight.

Hoggard’s second foul was questionable. At his best, his bully-ball runs to the basket are nearly unstoppable, which is quite a feat considering he isn’t guarded like a shooter. That will — and strength — is a devastating option for the Spartans when things get sticky.

He is still learning when to use it. Yeah, the refs could’ve swallowed their whistle on the offensive call.

Why leave it in their hands, though?

Because when you do, you risk sitting, and this team can’t afford for him to sit too long. In the second half, he only sat when he needed a breath. That is learning, too.

“That’s what you work for,” said Hoggard, “to be on this stage and make plays and help us win games.”

He played like it in Columbus the last two games.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State's A.J. Hoggard proving why he's most critical player