EAST LANSING – The good news for Michigan State is that with a game under its belt, it has a better idea of its personnel, what it has done well and what it needs to work on.
The bad news is that it had little idea of what its next opponent will bring to the game.
No. 13 Michigan State (1-0) plays Notre Dame on Saturday (8 p.m., BTN) at the Breslin Center in its second game of its young season.
And while Tom Izzo knows more about his own team now than he did a few days ago, he knows very little about the Irish, who haven’t played a regular season game this year and played no scrimmages or exhibition games due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“We’re going completely unseen,” Izzo said on Friday. “That makes it a little more difficult.”
After watching the film of his own Michigan State team in a Wednesday night season-opening win over Eastern Michigan, though, Izzo said there were more positives than negatives.
The list of positives started with the play of Foster Loyer, who had a career-high 20 points after winning the Spartans’ starting point guard job for the opener.
“He’s gotten stronger and he’s better defensively and he’s kind of figuring out when to take a shot and when to take a pass,” Izzo said. “He’s done a good job running our team.”
Izzo was also complimentary of Aaron Henry for his versatility in the Spartans’ opener and thrilled that his team recorded 27 assists on 30 made baskets.
And about some of the negatives, there were explanations. Michigan State had 18 turnovers against Eastern Michigan, but half of those were committed by Joshua Langford and Joey Hauser, who were both playing their first competitive basketball games in over a year.
“That is one of the problems, dealing with the fact that those two haven’t played in two years,” Izzo said.
The coach also revealed on Friday that sophomore guard Rocket Watts, who had a quiet two-point game against Eastern Michigan, missed five days of practice soon before the Spartans’ opener due to a bone bruise in his knee.
Izzo said the team isn’t concerned about a long-term injury but said it has affected his shot and his speed.
“He’s still dragging that thing a little bit so we’re trying to get some treatment on him,” Izzo said. “He has a couple of good days, a couple of bad days. It’s nothing I’m worried about long-term, but something I am concerned about short-term.”
Those players made up a rotation that ran 10 players deep in Michigan State’s opening game.
Don’t expect the size of that rotation to change soon, as Izzo looks to keep his team prepared for the possibility of losing some members of that playing rotation due to COVID-19.
“It’s partly because I think we have good depth,” Izzo said of keeping his rotation deep. “It’s partly because some guys haven’t raised their games above other guys, which I think has to happen. And it’s partly because I want to be sure that we have a lot of guys that can play, so if we get hit by the COVID virus that we don’t just crumble.”
Notre Dame is coming off a 20-12 season last year and is picked to finish near the bottom of this year’s ACC. While this year’s Irish team may not be familiar, Izzo called point guard Prentiss Hubb, the leading ACC returner in terms of assists and a 12.1 point per game scorer last year, “really, really, really good.”
He’s also plenty familiar with Irish Mike Brey, who is in his 20th season at Notre Dame and will bring a familiar type of team to the Breslin Center, even if Izzo doesn’t know exactly what to expect.
“The culture, they shoot 3′s, they’re solid defensively, they turn it over very, very little,” Izzo said. “They foul even less, and it’s just a very well-coached team.”