It seemed like everyone was getting in on the passing action. The ball movement against Stony Brook is some of the best the Spartans have pulled off in years. 

In Thursday’s game more than ever, Hoggard had a firm grasp on the offense from the jump and facilitated much of the successful ball movement. Head coach Tom Izzo praised his leadership following the dominant performance.

“I talked to A.J. and Tyson a lot in the last couple days,” Izzo said. “Last night I texted A.J. about some team that got upset, and his text back was, 'don't worry, I'll have them ready to play.' That means he's starting to take over the team. That's very encouraging. I thought he did a phenomenal job with that … What he did tonight was just control the game, control the team, got players involved, made shots when he had to, didn't take that many shots, made most of his free throws.”

One of the common denominators in all five of Michigan State’s losses so far this season is that they have been five games with the lowest number of assists on the season. Earlier in the year, passes were sloppy and led to turnovers rather than buckets, recently that hasn’t exactly been the case. 

With the Spartan backcourt re-finding themselves at this point in the season, the MSU team has been playing unselfishly and getting everyone on the court involved in their fast-paced style of play — the style of play that sees them dominating games. 

“There are watershed moments in a game, there's things you look for,” Izzo said. “There were a couple times Tyson took a couple shots that were too quick, Jaden took about two and I told them that. The next time he passed one up and it was a phenomenal play. That as a coach makes you feel good, guys are listening, then guys are putting what you told them to work.” 

On the receiving end of many of the assists, Thursday night was junior guard Jaden Akins. 

Akins logged a career-high 22 points against Stony Brook and led the team in scoring. The Farmington native has been relatively quiet this season having had some issues from beyond the arc hitting 15-47 treys prior to the game against the Seawolves—Thursday night he hit 4-7. 

“I mean I knew it was coming,” Akins said. “I didn't know when but when you put in the work I feel like it's bound to happen so it's good that it happened tonight.” 

Michigan State will be back in action Dec. 30 at 2 p.m. against Indiana State back at home at the Breslin Center.