Michigan State basketball's (very) tall task: Fixing shooting, rebounding vs. Arizona

EAST LANSING — Every year, Tom Izzo laments the schedule he’s made for himself and Michigan State basketball. Usually around Thanksgiving as the ranked opponents begin to pile up before Big Ten play begins.

By March, though, the Hall of Fame coach and his players typically are thankful for the lessons learned and growth achieved during the first month of the season.

While it isn’t a full-bore, three-games-in-three-days holiday tournament like most years, the 19th-ranked Spartans face No. 3 Arizona in a Thursday matinee that Izzo hopes will provide his developing squad with another measuring stick moving forward.

Oh, yeah, and another thing.

“Yeah, I think I'm looking to win one,” Izzo joked after practice Monday.

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But not just that. MSU’s 29th-year head coach also admitted he wants his team to “play better in all areas” after losing to No. 9 Duke in the Champions Classic and No. 8 Tennessee in an exhibition game.

Scouting report

Improving outside

MSU’s 3-point shooting slowly is getting better after an abysmal 2-for-31 start through two games. And it isn’t as if players are shying away from the arc.

The Spartans are 23-for-64 from 3 in their past three games. They are coming off a 40% effort, 10-for-25, in Sunday's 81-49 blowout of Alcorn State.

MSU did it without leading scorer Tyson Walker, who was sick but is expected to play Thursday. Sophomore Tre Holloman went 5-for-5 on 3-pointers to finish with a career-high 17 points, and junior Jaden Akins hit 3-of-6 from deep and had 13 points.

“I hit my first couple shots, and then (Holloman) hit two 3s back to back,” Akins said Sunday. “He kept getting found in transition, so I just let him do his thing, and he was delivering.”

Line time

Even with that incremental improvement, the Spartans continue to miss at the free-throw line at a somewhat alarming frequency.

MSU shot a season-worst 52.4% at the line against the Braves, going 11-for-21. It was the third time already this season the Spartans shot less than 70% as a team on free throws, including 7-for-12 (58.3%) against Duke and 23-for-37 (62.2%) against James Madison, both losses.

What makes it even more perplexing to Izzo is how well MSU has shot as a team in practice this summer and fall after making 75.9% a year ago, which was 35th out of 352 Division I teams last season. However, like he did with the outside shooting, Izzo isn’t about to panic because he believes the past success is a predictor for a recovery.

“It's been great. It's great in practice, it's great the night before games in the shooting things we do. I still can't dwell on it,” he said after practice Monday. “The other night (against Alcorn State), we made some free throws, we were shooting 70-some percent and then all of a sudden, you start missing a few. It is what it is. But again, when a couple of your guys that were shooting 80% last year are shooting 50 and 60 now, they've already done it; they just gotta get back to doing it.”

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Board concerns

Perhaps the biggest worry, though, is the Spartans’ rebounding.

A hallmark of Izzo’s program, MSU’s ability to rebound so far this season has been troublesome. The Braves had a 41-38 advantage on the glass, including a 16-10 edge on the offensive boards.

“Some of that was cutting out those smaller guards, some of that is exactly what I'm just saying now that I try my hardest not to call people out, so I'll just say guys did not cut out, our guards especially. And (Alcorn’s) guys went in there and got rebounds,” Izzo said. “So we haven't rebounded as well. We're not as big a team, we understand that. But we gotta get a lot tougher and a lot more physical.”

The Spartans have been outrebounded three times, including 51-48 by JMU and 35-33 by Duke. They have given up eight or more offensive rebounds in every game and 58 for the season while grabbing 62 themselves.

“I think defensively, we're better than I thought we were. We're not rebounding as well, so then your defense doesn't get the credit it should really get,” Izzo said. “Because to finish a defensive possession, you gotta get a rebound.”

Opponent update

Arizona’s third-year coach Tommy Lloyd set an NCAA record with 66 wins in his first two seasons, and the Wildcats are off to another sizzling start thanks to some key veteran transfers. Former North Carolina point guard Caleb Love (12.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.8 assists) and ex-Gonzaga big man Oumar Ballo (12.4 points, 5.6 rebounds) are among six players scoring in double digits. Keshad Johnson, a 6-7 sophomore forward transfer from San Diego State, averages 13.4 points. Sophomore guard Kylan Boswell leads with 13.8 points and adds 4 rebounds and 4 assists a game. The Wildcats had 15 offensive rebounds in a win at Duke, 78-73, on Nov. 10, and average 16 offensive boards a game. Defensively, Arizona is limiting opponents to just 37.6% shooting overall and 31.7% from 3-point range.

Last meeting

These two storied programs have not played since Arizona’s 65-63 win in the Armed Forces Classic to open the 2016-17 season in Honolulu. The Spartans trail the all-time series, 5-2, Izzo is 2-3 against Arizona, with wins in the 2005 Maui Classic and a home victory Dec. 15, 2001. His Spartans lost to the Wildcats in the 2001 Final Four, and Izzo's national title team also dropped a road game in Tucson, Arizona, on Dec. 11, 1999.

Prediction

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

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Next up: Wildcats

Matchup: No. 19 Michigan State (3-2) vs. No. 3 Arizona (5-0).

Tipoff: 4 p.m. Thursday; Acrisure Arena, Palm Desert, California.

TV/radio: Fox, WJR-AM (760).

Chris Solari's prediction: Izzo tries every way imaginable to slow down the bigger Wildcats in the paint, but Arizona’s size advantage gets the Spartans into foul trouble they can’t overcome. Walker and Akins keep MSU in it from deep, but Arizona hangs on in the final 2 minutes. The pick: Arizona 77, MSU 69.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball vs. Arizona: Scouting report, prediction