Though the Spartans have shined offensively, it is masking a serious problem with this team through the first two games: Defense. 

Through two games, the Spartans gave up 174 points and allowed opponents to shoot 42.9 percent from 3-point range, causing MSU coach Tom Izzo to be quite displeased with his team’s performance on that side of the ball. 

"As far as my team goes, we're having trouble guarding anybody," Izzo said after his team’s victory over FGCU. "We gave up 92 and 82 and we've got some guys on this team that think we can outscore people, and we can when the teams aren't good enough. But as the teams get better, we will not outscore people, evident the other night (last Tuesday against Kansas)."

The Spartans did not allow over 80 points in back-to-back games at any point last season. To add to that, if you wanted to see the last time Izzo’s squad let up 82 points to an unranked opponent in nonconference play, you’d have to go back to December 2015 when Michigan State topped Oakland in overtime 99-93.

Finishing is a problem

Of FGCU's 82 points, 47 came in the second half. After being held to just under a 38 percent shooting clip in the first half, the Eagles shot just over 51 percent in the second, including 60 percent from 3-point range.

“We had a good first half, we scored a lot. I thought we did a pretty good job defensively,” guard Matt McQuaid said. “But in the second half it just went downhill for us. We’ve got to do a better job of finishing games, and rallying when other teams get runs on us, too.” 

The problem for Michigan State is that thus far they have showed more focus on only one end of the court, and it is showing in their ability to guard opponents.

"I think we got so caught up in our offense that we just let the defense go," Winston said. "I think we were scoring so many points and scoring at a high rate, that you're just kind of like 'you know, we're just going to score another basket,' and that’s not the mentality we want to have."

Communication is key

Improving on defense is easier said than done, and according to guard Josh Langford, their problem is that they are not communicating on that end enough.

"I think it’s on communication,” Langford said. “If you want to be a great defender, or a great defensive team as a whole, you have to be a great communicating team. I think communication, communication is big with us.”

This is a rather complex issue in the sense that there isn’t really a practice drill that can fix lack of communication. The only way to fix it is to simply be more vocal on the court, and according to Langford, this team is more than capable of making that change. 

“With our defensive principles  — when we play defense, you have to always be talking, you have to always be letting your guy know what’s going on,” Lanford said. “If we use our voices on the defensive end, I think everything else will kind of fall in place.”

Like Langford, Winston believes this team will find the right remedy as the season goes on. It will just take more time on the floor to work out the kinks on the defensive end.

“I think when this team wants to, we’ll definitely lock in on the defensive end, we do a good job at that,” Winston said. “Today we probably just got caught up a little bit just scoring the ball. We’ll do a better job next showing for sure.”