1. It’s not too early to wonder if MSU has enough shooting

EAST LANSING – At a certain point, Michigan State’s lack of shooting should become a concern for the Spartans. I don’t know if we’re there yet. But a 2-for-31 start to the season from beyond the arc isn’t nothing.

MSU finished Thursday night’s 74-51 win over Southern Indiana 1-for-9 on 3-point tries — not making its first until nearly 35 minutes had gone by — following a 1-for-20 performance in an overtime loss to James Madison on Monday.

The Spartans have some good shooters on this squad. Jaden Akins and Tyson Walker both shot 42% on 3-pointers last season. So they’ll come around. 

What MSU is missing is Joey Hauser’s 46% shooting from deep from the 4-spot and how that opened things up. Malik Hall, Xavier Booker and Coen Carr are in that role now. Those three were a combined 0-for-2 Thursday, after going 0-for-4 Monday. Five of those tries are from Hall. MSU could use a decent shooting year from him, but he’s not Houser as a shooter. Booker is more natural at it. As he grows into the season, that’ll help (more on that below).

Even when Walker and Akins find their form, MSU has to find more shooting help than just two guys. Tre Holloman and Jeremy Fears Jr. are the other two most likely possibilities. Those two are 1-for-6 thus far. 

The Spartans don’t have an abundance of shooting on this roster, but they might have enough. But it does limit lineup flexibility. Akins or Walker, with Booker, Holloman or Fears, need to be on the court at all times. 

One other consideration: Freshman Gehrig Normand. He was brought to MSU to shoot. We’re not there yet, but if Tuesday night’s game against Duke further reveals this is an issue for the Spartans, it might be time to work him into the rotation. 

Two games in, Tom Izzo said Thursday he isn’t concerned, because he watched his team shoot it well all summer and fall. The rest of us weren’t in most of those practices. We’ll have to wait to see it in games to be sure.

“A month from now, I might be speaking differently,” Izzo said. “But I just went five months watching guys shoot. So that doesn’t faze me.”

2. Freshman thoughts — the Southern Indiana edition

Two games and 22 minutes into Xavier Booker’s career at MSU, I’m convinced that his development is critical to this MSU team meeting expectations. He potentially provides a lot in one package — rim protection, offensive rebounding and shooting. Booker can help alleviate that latter issue. Eventually. 

He’s going to have to grow into this season, much the way Deyonta Davis did his freshman season eight years ago. Booker is more skilled than Davis was during his lone season at MSU, though Davis contributed more early on a team that didn’t have as much depth. But by the middle of the Big Ten season, MSU was a significantly better team when Davis was on the floor, no matter how many mistakes he made. 

MSU has a better frontcourt cast around Booker than it did around Davis, especially once Jaxon Kohler returns from injury. But it doesn’t have anyone else with his length — and that was the primary difference Davis provided, too. Those two 3-pointers by Southern Indiana’s Jack Mielke early in the second half, cutting MSU’s lead to 43-24 … Mielke doesn’t get those off over a close-out from Booker. Booker might not always be in the right place at the right time right now, but as he figures it out, his value will increase. MSU needs it to.

Thursday night, he had a couple good moments defensively at the rim in the first half and a strong rebound in the second. And, after a couple shaky moments trying to finish near the rim early, he found offense cutting to the basket in the second half, playing 17 minutes in all. He’s got to be stronger at the rim. He’s skilled enough to figure it out. 

It’s early. But Booker matters to this season. Tom Izzo knows it.

“I love Xavier Booker. He’s just got to get a lot stronger and a lot tougher mentally,” Izzo said afterward. “And we knew that. He knew that. His family knows that. And we’re just going to work on it every day. I mean, believe it or not, he’s made some progress. Those two dunks he should have had, he just kind of went up soft and that’s not how he’s been. … It’s all part of the growing process. But he’s just got to learn how to keep that motor running. We have a free-throw cut out, he doesn’t do it, and he’s got to do that. And he knows that.”

MSU played some of its best basketball Thursday night when Jeremy Fears Jr. was on the court. He had five assists, two steals and no turnovers and found a little of his own offense in the second half, helping to reignite MSU’s offense after a bad stretch — with Fears on the bench.

A.J. Hoggard is a huge key to this season. But so, too, is Fears. Because a year ago, when Hoggard struggled, especially later in the season, MSU turned the offense over to Walker, who ran the point efficiently during key stretches in a number of games. Those backup point guard minutes are all going to Fears now. So for MSU to be better at the position than a year ago, he’s got to be better than Walker at running the show. 

Coen Carr played more like a freshman Thursday, coming off a strong showing against James Madison and, to his credit, was ticked off at himself about it. He was more often just kind of out there, until late when he flashed a couple times. That’s going to happen. Better in this game than against Duke. More often than not this season, I still believe MSU will be better off with Carr on the court. 

As promising as they’ve been, Izzo did make this clear about MSU’s freshmen in this coming Tuesday’s Champions Classic game against Duke:

“They’re not saving the day on Tuesday,” he said. “The day is going to be saved by the veterans who have been through the wars. And then (the freshmen) going to supplement in.”

3. MSU needs to get Jaden Akins going offensively  

Jaden Akins has done some things really well in MSU’s first two games — namely 18 rebounds. And Thursday he showed signs of getting going offensively — both in transition (from his defense) and creating for himself and others, off the dribble and with one quick catch-and-pass that led to a dunk. He finished with 13 points, on 5-for-10 shooting, seven rebounds, four steals, three turnovers and two assists. 

I think he can do more. That begins with outside shooting. I know he doesn’t want to be a catch-and-shoot guy in the corner. That’s not why he came back to MSU. But there are shots to be had there and he’s MSU’s best outside shooter. He’s also showing signs that he can be an effective secondary initiator of the offense. He’s trying to fit into an expanded role in a cluttered rotation. But MSU needs him to take another step offensively and to stretch defenses. His defense and rebounding are exceptional. His play offensively is critical to this becoming less of a grind for the Spartans. 

Some of the struggle offensively is the lack of continuity in lineups, which, Izzo said, in the first two games has been by design to see a lot of different pairings. There will be less of that Tuesday against Duke, he said.

“It’s definitely a process,” Akins said. “There’s been a lot of different lineups myself and other players have just been out there with, trying to see which ones fit. And it’s just something that we’ve got to try to find sooner than later.”

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.