On Tuesday night, the Spartans were back in action against Rutgers. They came out with a 68-45 win, moving their B1G record to 2-3. Our reactions from the game:
NICK
I was stunned to see zero Julius Marble in this game. He is a big presence, and could have provided some valuable minutes against a post threat like Myles Johnson. It’s been interesting to follow Tom’s rotation, as it appears Bingham is back in after disappearing against Nebraska. Sissoko is still such a raw basketball player, but his size is going to get him on the floor.
It feels great to win a game against a Top 15 team. It feels even better to win one that we frankly didn’t play well offensively. Overcoming 18 turnovers is something refreshing for this team, and they seemed to find that “kill switch”. Rutgers threatened and they didn’t let them back in.
Aaron Henry played with confidence last night, something we haven’t seen in some time. He attacked the basket, the glass and the defensive end. His value to this team’s potential was on full display last night.
Rocket Watts didn’t play early in this game, and people on Twitter were frustrated. I think personally that this was a good move. He has struggled as of late, and he needs to earn his minutes back. It seemed to push him to prove himself, as he scored 11 points in 15 minutes and looked more comfortable.
Josh Langford played within himself for the second straight game, and although he may play an extra minute or two than some hope for, he does have value. As long as he isn’t forcing things offensively, he can be an asset to this team.
I love Thomas Kithier! (ZT put that first, but I want to echo his statement!)
ZACH
Huge win for the Spartans tonight over the 15th ranked Scarlet Knights. Every win in the league is huge this year but I think this one especially, just because this is the way we all expected this team to play like this season, is big. If they can consistently play like this, the sky’s the limit.
I keep going back and forth on this game, yes, I am happy that we won and dominated the entire game, always having the lead, and even getting it up to 25, but 18 turnovers is not going to win many games. Luckily, this was a different story. Turnovers have been a huge story for this team all season, and that number needs to go down.
Is Josh Langford the player he once was? No. Will he ever be that again? No. So I think everyone needs to reevaluate their expectations for him. With that being said, I think this was one of his best games of the season. He played within himself and totaled 11 points in the second half. At half, Sam and I had a conversation about how he needs to see less time but he proved that wrong.
AJ Hoggard is not only the PG of the future, but also the PG of now for this team. I don’t think it is a coincidence that as soon as he is inserted into the starting five, the play of Aaron Henry has gone up exponentially. Hoggard’s numbers aren’t flashy but I think he was the missing piece of the puzzle amongst many other things that this team needed. In his two games as the starter, he has 11 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals, again, not flashy, but needed.
I think most people would say Aaron Henry was tonight’s player of the game with 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 blocks, but the undoubtedly unsung hero was Malik Hall. In 27 minutes, Hall only had 5 points and 4 rebounds, but the job he did on defense, especially on Ron Harper Jr. was an absolute masterpiece unlike anyone else on him this season.
I’m not going to lie but if you told me that Joey Hauser had 14 rebounds after the game, I wouldn’t have believed you. I told Sam that when he isn’t going on offense, I almost forget he is even on the court. 9 and 14 is a really good line for Hauser but I think if this team wants to be elite, he needs to score more. Tonight it did not matter, but Josh and Rocket aren’t going to get double figures night in and night out.
I love Thomas Kithier
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