Michigan State's Severe Concern Becoming Harder to Ignore
The Michigan State Spartans fell to the Memphis Tigers in the Maui Invitational on Tuesday night, losing by a score of 71-63 to drop to 5-2 on the year.
While there were actually a couple of good things to take away from the loss, one massive concern remains: 3-point shooting.
To be fair, Michigan State went a respectable 7-of-20 from downtown against Memphis, which was actually the team's best long-distance shooting output of the season.
But that's still only a 35 percent effectiveness rate, and the fact that that is what is considered a nice perimeter shooting effort means there is a major problem at hand.
The Spartans are shooting just 22.1 percent from distance on the year. Only four Division 1 schools rank lower than Michigan State in that category: Cleveland State, Morehead State, Delaware State and Oakland. That's it.
At this point, the Spartans have been good enough defensively to mask their deficiencies from long range, but what is going to happen when Michigan State begins playing the meatier part of its schedule?
Yes, it did hang in there with Kansas. That much is true. But there is no way the Spartans are going to stand any chance of making any sort of significant run in March if they can't find the bottom of the net from beyond the arc.
Heck, even Jaden Akins, who is a lifetime 37.1 percent shooter from deep, is connecting on just 21.2 percent of his triples this season. So it seems like the inefficiency of the rest of the unit is even corrupting one of Michigan State's top scorers.
The funny thing is, Akins and Jase Richardson actually leads the Spartans in 3-point makes this year with a measly seven (interestingly enough, Richardson is a very efficient 7-for-13). Tre Holloman comes in second with five.
Are things eventually going to begin to even out for Michigan State (maybe its shooting against the Tigers was a positive sign)? Is this all just a mirage early on and a direct result of a small sample size?
Or are the Spartans legitimately one of the very worst outside shooting teams in the entire country?
If it's the latter, Michigan State can kiss any chance of a genuinely successful season goodbye. There is no way the Spartans are accomplishing much of anything with that sort of ineptitude from three-point land.
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