1. That was the best we’ve seen MSU yet, riding what might be an emerging defensive identity

EAST LANSING – Michigan State remains a ways from being an ideal basketball team. But we saw a defensive identity emerge in Friday night’s 74-54 home win over Butler that’ll perhaps give the Spartans a chance to win enough while they grow into something more.

MSU held Butler to 29% shooting, while firmly out-rebounding their Big East opponent, 42-32, in a game that, even when close, felt like the Spartans controlled. Because it seemed like they’d be able to get enough stops to pull away eventually.

This isn’t MSU’s first sound defensive performance — only Duke has made more than 37% of its shots against the Spartans and no one is yet to shoot 30% from beyond arc against them. But you could really feel it Friday.

Offensively, MSU made a season-high seven 3-pointers on 20 attempts, after going 6-for-19 on Tuesday against Duke. From long range, that’s who this team is right now, at least until Jaden Akins gets going. It probably won’t be much different then. Akins made 2 of 6 3-pointers Friday. Jeremy Fears Jr. and Tre Holloman each made one, as well. As did freshman Xavier Booker. Booker is the guy whose shot could one day change this offense. Until then, MSU has two guys who qualify as bona fide “shooters” — Akins and Tyson Walker. When one of those two isn’t on the court, it stands out. The Spartans tried it for a couple minutes Friday and the offense stalled. They shouldn’t try that again.

This, though, was a determined effort by MSU — by Walker, who was appropriately aggressive early and finished with 21 points, and by Hoggard, who wasn’t always great but had 14 points, six rebounds and four assists, and by Hall, who directed traffic with MSU’s centers defensively and made 6 of 9 shots, while tallying nine rebounds and three steals. Akins had some strong moments on the defensive end, too.

“With A.J. (Hoggard), Tyson and Jaden, I think we have the best defensive team that I’ve had in a while,” MSU coach Tom Izzo said. “And we bring a guy off the bench like Jeremy, who, by the way, played very well tonight. That’s encouraging. … Malik (Hall) covered up a lot of things. And I don’t know if you could tell, but both (Carson) Cooper and Mady (Sissoko) did a lot of stuff on some of those dribble handoffs to keep them contained. Those guys both did a hell of a job.”

I don’t know how good Butler is — the Bulldogs were 3-0 with three decisive wins before Friday, but hadn’t played anyone of note. But this felt like a step for MSU toward something, a game when the Spartans turned defense into offense and suffocated a decent opponent. We’ll see next Thursday when MSU faces its next measuring stick — an Arizona team that’s already beaten Duke at Duke.

The Spartans didn’t become some high-flying offensive team Friday. But they were the best version of themselves we’ve seen yet.

2. A needed changing of the guard at center

Tom Izzo and his staff saw what everyone saw on Tuesday night — MSU was best with Carson Cooper in the game at center. It didn’t take long to make a move, a sign that Izzo is willing to veer from the original plan as performances warrant change. Cooper was in the starting lineup Friday night ahead of Mady Sissoko and played close to starter’s minutes — 22 of them to Sissko’s 15.

Cooper is giving MSU more in every way right now — especially offensively and on the glass. He hauled in 11 rebounds Friday, four on the offensive end. And while Cooper said Tuesday that one of his goals for this season is to become a threat as a scorer in the low-post, he recognizes that’s not his game at this point (he air-balled his only hook-shot attempt Friday and scored just three points, two of them coming on an open dunk). He’s MSU’s best offensive center by a ways right now because of how he sees the game, his passing and screening on dribble-handoffs, and because his teammates know he sees what they see and they know what he’s going to do.

‘He’s a smart basketball player. He knows how to read situations,” MSU senior point guard A.J. Hoggard said of Cooper. “And I think he just gives us a different look. He did a good job on both sides of the ball, being aggressive on defense, challenging shots at the rim.”

When Jaxon Kohler returns from a foot injury in the coming weeks, MSU will have another big man it can play through, or at least include, in the offense.

Sissoko is still an important player on this team — his physicality and athleticism can still make a difference. Anyone in the college game would want him as a backup center. But the change to Cooper needed to be made.

Before the game, Cooper thanked Izzo for starting him, taking it all in, considering how improbable his story is.

“It all doesn’t happen if he doesn’t give me the opportunity first, which is me coming here in the first place,” Cooper said. “At the end of the day, on paper, I shouldn’t be here. Like I came from nowhere, I came from IMG’s second team and everything like that. I just wanted to thank him for putting me in this position and entrusting me and giving me some confidence.”

RELATED: Couch: This is a flawed Michigan State basketball roster, but there’s a really good team in there somewhere

3. Pierre Brooks returns: Boos, a 3, elbows to the face, a dunk, a tech and a good fit

Nothing says welcome back to East Lansing like a Mady Sissoko elbow to the face. Brooks has probably felt that a few dozen times in practice. Sissoko, one of the nicest humans on earth, didn’t bother to help him up after Brooks hit the deck late in the game. It was fitting of the vibe, which began with the Izzone booing Brooks, Butler’s starting wing, during player introductions.

I was surprised to see that. I probably shouldn’t have been. It’s a student section — this country’s closest thing to soccer hooligans, perhaps more educated, but with the added element of not yet having fully developed brains or being old enough to see Brooks as just a college kid. Because they’re just college kids. To them, booing Brooks during introductions wasn’t as cringeworthy or insensitive as it felt to me. They only know him as a player who left and is now playing for the opponent. One member of the Izzone — wearing a Sissoko jersey, no less, in the first row — was especially relentless in his taunting of Brooks, who’s never said a bad word publicly about MSU and gave two years of his life to the program. It was painful to watch. Maybe that’s just me.

This game was a big deal for Brooks. You could sense it. It would have been strange if it wasn’t. MSU was where he planned to be right now, where he chose to be coming out of high school, as part of a promising recruiting class with Jaden Akins and Max Christie two years ago. Christie is playing for the Los Angeles Lakers. Akins is starting for the Spartans. And Brooks is at Butler, after transferring following last season. A mutual decision of sorts. It never happened for Brooks at MSU. He made some mistakes in terms of his commitment to being the best player he could be. But he’s a good dude, by every interaction and conversation I ever had with him. And a talented player.

We saw some of that talent Friday night. He hit a 3-pointer early to tie the game 5-5, skied for one early rebound, a reminder of the athlete he is, and later in the first half, dunked over help defense from Coen Carr. Then got a technical for tapping his head in celebration? It was a bizarre tech, after which he replied, “Ref, people do that all the time.”

Brooks played a lot — 36 minutes in all. He scored 13 points and grabbed four rebounds. He’s found a place that needs him. It’s hard not to feel good for him.

Contact Graham Couch at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.