Madeline KenneyThe Detroit News
Detroit — The importance of winning Saturday against No. 6 Baylor was twofold at least for A.J. Hoggard.
Two years might’ve passed, but he hadn’t forgotten what happened the last time the Spartans played the Bears. Hoggard, then a sophom*ore, still remembered the painful feeling of walking off the court as Baylor danced on the court after a lopsided victory in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship in the Bahamas.
Both team’s rosters look very different now compared to 2021. But Hoggard still sought vengeance.
“I don’t got short-term memory loss,” Hoggard said. “That stung a little bit. That was a championship we could have won in the Bahamas. So I wasn’t leaving without this hard win.”
From the very beginning of Saturday’s game at Little Caesars Arena, Hoggard joined Tyson Walker in setting the tone for Michigan State, playing with fire, confidence and hunger.
Walker led the team with 25 points, including four 3s, and five steals. Hoggard added 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting, five assists and three steals as Michigan State obliterated Baylor, 88-64.
“It’s personal for sure,” Hoggard said after the win that brought Michigan State back to .500 on the season. “This was a get back. This is a feel-good (win).”
And not just because he got his redemption on the Bears.
The Spartans needed a win like Saturday to silence the outside noise and remind themselves what they were capable of.
Tom Izzo’s squad entered this season ranked No. 4 in the preseason and a favorite to make a run to the Final Four. But the Spartans hadn’t lived up to the offseason hype.
Sure, they took No. 1 Arizona down to the wire and stormed back before falling to No. 21 Duke. But Izzo isn't big on moral victories, and being competitive doesn't matter much if the game's outcome results in tallies in the losing column. Michigan State had yet to exert its dominance and slam a door on a quality opponent this season.
That changed Saturday.
Baylor coach Scott Drew said he knew Michigan State would be a tough opponent, but didn’t expect the game to play out as it did.
“We knew coming in Michigan State’s a lot better than the record indicated, and Coach Izzo is a Hall of Fame coach,” Drew said. “They’ve lost a lot of close games for whatever reason, but today I think they showed who they are and who they’re going to be the rest of the year. ... Desperate or not, they kicked our butt in the first half.”
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Michigan State went back to its roots. It defended hard, aggressively rebounded and pushed the pace. The Spartans recorded 15 steals, the most they’ve had in a game since 2016, and forced Baylor, the second-most efficient offensive team in the country, into 21 turnovers.
Michigan State’s fundamentally sound defense led to easy buckets in transition and helped the Spartans find their offensive groove early.
“We did what a lot of you’ve seen a lot” over the years, Izzo said. “We just kept grinding and that’s who we need to be. You know (what’s) funny is you can score 87 points against a good team by grinding it. That’s a good deal.”
The Michigan State team that ruled the court Saturday was what Hoggard envisioned for the Spartans this season.
“This is the team that we are,” Hoggard said. “We just had to fine tune some things to get back to the drawing board. This is not the end all, be all. This is not (a) Super Bowl win for us. But we definitely got to build on this. Feeling good right now.”
Izzo called Saturday a “step in the right direction.”
Michigan State will close out 2023 with three nonconference games before resuming Big Ten play in the new year. The Spartans will host Oakland on Monday and Stony Brook on Thursday before taking on Indiana State after Christmas.
The Spartans, who opened Big Ten play this month with losses to No. 23 Wisconsin and Nebraska, would benefit from a nice little win streak heading into conference games.
“You need the wins under your belt when March comes around,” Hoggard said. “I’m not looking a little bit too far ahead, but you also want to feel good about yourself. A win like this for the way that we’ve been struggling is definitely a momentum-builder for us and we got to build on it.”
mkenney@detroitnews.com
@madkenney
