LAHAINA, Hawaii — No need to keep things close this time around, right?
Because while Memphis never fully pulled away from Michigan State on Tuesday in the Maui Invitational semifinals, it comfortably led the Spartans for most of the second half, en route to an eventual 71-63 win. (Hilariously, this was only the second of six Maui Invitational games to be decided by more than one basket.) With the victory — Memphis’ second top-35 win in as many days — Penny Hardaway’s team has positioned itself to play the winner of No. 4 Auburn and No. 12 North Carolina in Wednesday’s tournament final.
“Be in the championship game,” Hardaway said, “man, that’s just God.”
Maybe we all missed on Memphis, or at least what it was capable of, in the preseason.
But there’s no missing the Tigers now.
“I think Penny likes his team,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said, “and rightfully so.”
Regardless of what happens in the championship game, Memphis — which wasn’t even picked to finish first in the American Athletic Conference — should catapult up the polls, quite possibly even into the top 10.
All that, after Hardaway fired three assistant coaches two months before his team’s season opener and had forward Tyreek Smith depart the program the first week in November.
Memphis looked like it had a chance to run away with it in the first half, when it built a nine-point lead — but then Michigan State pulled back by doing something it hasn’t all season: making 3-pointers. Izzo’s team entered Tuesday ranked 362nd out of 364 Division-I teams in 3-point shooting and had downed only 20 percent of its 3s all season, or roughly 4.2 per game. So of course the Spartans drained five 3s in the first half of the semifinals, with four coming from Jase Richardson and Jaden Akins alone.
“We knew at some point they were going to get hot, because they’re not going to shoot the ball that poorly,” Hardaway said. “We knew that wasn’t going to continue. They’re competitors.”
The really shocking part? Michigan State made more first-half 3s than Memphis, which entered the game second nationally in 3-point percentage and which made 12 triples vs. UConn on Monday.
But in the second half, Memphis went on another one of its runs behind the dynamic backcourt of Tyrese Hunter and PJ Haggerty. Hunter hit the fourth of his eventual game-high five 3-pointers — three of his seven career games with four-plus made 3s have now come in his first six games at Memphis — and Haggerty drained his first trey of the night, falling onto his back as he did; he eventually finished with 16 points, nine rebounds, and four assists. When Moussa Cisse drew an and-1 on an offensive putback with 10:50 to play, and then made the subsequent free throw, Memphis led by 15.
Because double-digit, second-half leads have been so safe this week in Maui.
Memphis, naturally, proceeded to miss seven of its next nine shots, while Michigan State made four of six, slowly whittling down its deficit. It got to nine with 6:33 to play, after Memphis big Dain Dainja fouled out and MSU forward Frankie Fidler — who finished with 10 points and five rebounds — hit two of the Spartans’ eventual 12 shots from the charity stripe. Getting to the line was paramount in Michigan State keeping things close in the first half, and seemed like it might loom large from then on — especially since Dainja fouling out left Moussa Cisse as the Tigers’ lone true center. He eventually fouled out, too, with 2:52 left to play.
But by then, the Tigers had fortified their lead, again largely because of Hunter, who has been arguably the best player so far in this tournament. His fifth and final 3-pointer, with 4:33 to play, sent him sprawling on the hardwood, and he drew the foul in the process.
“Give Hunter a lot of credit. He made some shots that, I don’t know if Penny made those shots when he played,” Izzo joked, “and I mean that. He was falling right, falling left, end of the shot clock, and he drained them.”
After Hunter sank the free throw, Memphis’ cushion was back to 11, and Michigan State didn’t have the time or firepower to clip fully away at another deficit that size. That’s especially true since Sparty reverted back to its typical 3-point form in the second half, making just two of its nine looks from deep.
As for Hunter, he’s now made 12 3-pointers the past two games. Haggerty is still arguably Memphis’ top talent, but Hunter — the former Iowa State and Texas transfer — has made his case in Hawaii. His 23 points again paced the Tigers.
Other than Fidler, Richardson and Akins were Izzo’s other two standout performers. Richardson — the freshman guard whose father is former Michigan State All-American Jason Richardson — has looked special early this season, and the Maui Invitational may be a breakout event of sorts for him; he had a team-high 18, including three made 3s on five attempts, and almost floated through Memphis’ defense.
“For a guy that has the experience that he has in college so far,” Izzo said, “I thought he played very well.” As for Akins, he rebounded after a four-point effort vs. Colorado on Monday, registering 12 points and five rebounds.
As for Akins, he rebounded after a four-point effort vs. Colorado on Monday, registering 12 points and five rebounds.
Michigan State will play the loser of Auburn and North Carolina on Wednesday in the third-place game.
How good has Hunter been?
Just ask Izzo:
“Someone is going to have to really play well, no matter what they do, (for him) not to be MVP of this tournament the way he shot it,” Michigan State’s coach said. “The shots he made, I can’t blame any of our players for some of those. There were some hellacious shots.”
Technically, Haggerty — who is eighth in KenPom’s too-early Player of the Year rankings — is probably still the guy. But we might be witnessing Hunter wrestle that away from him in real time. The 6-foot graduate guard is shattering his previous best shooting season by draining a staggering 52.6 percent of his 3s, which ranks just outside the top-50 nationally. (And that’s including his 0-for-5 night from deep vs. San Francisco, Memphis’ last game before heading to Hawaii.)
Per Synergy, Hunter has now made six of his seven 3-point attempts this season as a pick-and-roll ballhandler. And of course, there’s no way to measure his clutch factor, which has arguably been more impressive than his raw volume. Against both UConn and Michigan State, Hunter was pivotal to the Tigers’ second-hand push. There’s no way the Tigers beat either team without him. It’s fair to say he was the best player on the floor in both of Memphis’ wins — and if he keeps up this torrid pace, he’s going to be battling with Haggerty for AAC Player of the Year honors.
What’s Michigan State’s reasonable ceiling?
Izzo hit the nail on the head in his assessment of his team, too. After desperately hoping the Spartans would find some juice from behind the 3-point line, MSU finally did, only to take a step back defensively and on the boards.
“I’m the one complaining about missing all those threes,” Izzo said, “so today we shoot 35 or 36 percent from 3 — and lose because we didn’t guard as well.”
Between this and Michigan State’s loss to Kansas in the Champions Classic, it’s not hard to see the vision Izzo has for this bunch. Among Akins, freshman Jeremy Fears, junior Tre Hollomon and Richardson — who, for this writer’s money, will almost certainly be Sparty’s best player by season’s end — Izzo has a quartet of guards who all complement one another, and who can have their night any given game. And in Jaxson Kohler and Szymon Zapala, he has two bigs who both rebound it well and are generally efficient inside the arc. Fidler, the Omaha transfer, completes the puzzle on the wing, again, in theory. It’s a team without a singular star, but one whose sum can be greater than its parts.
MSU entered Tuesday 11th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency rankings, and in holding Memphis to 34.8 percent from 3 — well off its 45.4 season-long rate — the Spartans showed signs of becoming a truly stingy defense. Offensively … we’ll see. The shooting is a real worry, and while Michigan State’s perimeter played better on Tuesday, its bigs came up short for essentially the first time this season.
“I don’t know why,” Izzo said, “but maybe some of it was the competition.”
Izzo hasn’t had a team finish top-25 in adjusted offensive efficiency since 2020 — the year the NCAA Tournament was canceled — and it doesn’t appear that’s going to change this season. But there’s enough parts, if the shooting gets up to even, like, 30 percent from deep, to make a run at a top-four finish in the Big Ten.
(Photo of Memphis coach Penny Hardaway: Darryl Oumi / Getty Images)
