WATCH: Michigan State's Jaden Akins Speaks on Standout Showing Against Monmouth
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- After what was an underwhelming preseason, Michigan State senior guard Jaden Akins shined as the best player on the floor in the Spartans' win over Monmouth on Monday night.
Akins finished with a career-high 23 points in the victory. He also added nine boards and five assists.
The veteran addressed the media after the win, reflecting on his and the team's performance.
You can watch below:
Below is a partial transcript from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's opening statement from his postgame press conference:
Izzo: "A year ago, we were 0-1, and now, we're 1-0, so I guess there's some positive things here. And actually, a lot of them I am reminded by my good friend Doug Herner who always says '[If] the ball doesn't go in the hole, nothing looks good.' I mean, the ball didn't go in the hold, and we had 23 assists and we shot 49%. So, there were some positives. One of our biggest fears was the way Jaden [Akins] had been shooting and playing, and Jaden looked like every bit the senior he should be, and he was. He took the ball to the basket. He got nine rebounds, 23 points, he had five assists, he had one turnover in 26 or 7 minutes. So, his running on the break is what we were complaining about. And he vowed he was going to do a better job. And he did do a better job. So, I was really happy for him. Some of our new guys, Frankie [Fidler], struggled a little bit, even missed some free throws, which he's dynamite at, but got 9 points. ... I thought our 3s that we had -- we took 18, I thought 15 of them were great shots, and Book [Xavier Booker] and [Frankie] Fiddler, and even Jaden was 1-for-4 from the 3. Tre Holloman has been shooting the ball really well. Now, he never got into the game because he was in foul trouble. I thought the guy that's been playing the best was Jaxon [Kohler], and he just struggled tonight. He just couldn't keep his hands on the ball, and I don't know why; he hasn't done that all summer. And maybe the couple of stars, you know, Coen [Carr], and I thought Jase Richardson for a freshman -- not only played well, but he played with a purpose. He he has a great basketball IQ, so when we were struggling there, we put him and Jeremy [Fears Jr.] together. I thought that really helped us. I thought that's when Akins played well and and Cohen, some at the 3, some at the 4, did some nice things. So we rebounded OK. Turnovers, we had 13, but we had 11 going in the last couple of minutes, playing a lot of people, that's something we have to get used to each other a little bit."
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