EAST LANSING — Unbeaten and coming off their two most notable wins of the season, Robyn Fralick and her coaching staff made the sort of lineup change you’d expect from a team that’s struggling. Not one that’s setting the world on fire.
It was another reason to believe in Fralick and Co. and what’s taking place with Michigan State’s women’s basketball team and program.
Not because they decided to bring point guard Theryn Hallock off the bench and start Nyla Hampton instead. But because, in doing so, they were telling us that a perfect early season record isn’t the standard they’re chasing and that they’ll explore every bit of data they can to maximize their roster.
And, they also understand, they can’t afford not to. A program-best 9-0 start is about to be tested by matchups that won’t always favor them. Perhaps as early as Sunday’s noon showdown with Iowa at Breslin Center (on Big Ten Network) in the conference opener for both teams.
“We came back from the California tournament and we had a little time, and one thing our staff spends a lot of time on is film, lineups, plus-minus analytics, who’s best together,” Fralick said after an 89-61 win over DePaul last Sunday. “And I think with our team, in particular, we’ve got to pay close attention to who plays well together. Because we do play a good amount of players off the bench. That’s where the decision came in. We just felt like we needed to switch up who was playing together.
“We still have the same expectations of Theryn, to make a big impact on the game and really help our team. But we had a little time to really deep dive into our group, and our job is to always zoom out and try to figure out what’s the best thing for our team and what are the best rotations for our team.”
Through nine games in Fralick’s second season, MSU has mostly overwhelmed its competition — with its pace and press, its depth and versatility and superior talent.
What they tried to do last year with a seven-person rotation and without any real size, they’re now doing with 10 players and with 6-foot-3 Oregon transfer Grace VanSlooten and 6-3 freshman Inés Stotelo, from Spain, joining Julia Ayrault as front court options.
“I’m excited for us to have better matchups size-wise,” said Ayrault, who’s leading the team averaging 16.4 points and 8.5 rebounds, just ahead of VanSlooten’s 15.5 and 8.4. “I think Grace brings a lot of just strength and size for us on the inside. She’ll be a really good matchup for all the post players in the Big Ten.”
There is perhaps no opposing coach in a better position to evaluate the Spartans right now than DePaul interim head coach Jill Pizzotti, who’s faced MSU each of the past two seasons with the Blue Demons and, this year, has also already played against No. 6 Texas, No. 11 Oklahoma and No. 12 Kansas State, along with the 19th-ranked Spartans. MSU wants to be in that realm, competing for a Big Ten championship and a more favorable seed in the NCAA tournament.
“That tandem of Ayrault and VanSlooten is tough,” Pizzotti said Thursday. “And Ayrault’s ability to step out and knock them down, I mean, those two are really, really tough inside. The difference with playing Michigan State versus some of these other teams, Texas pressed us full-court like Michigan State, but we felt like Michigan State does a great job of staying with their pressure a little bit longer (each possession). Certainly, they had the persistence of a team like Texas to just get up the floor for 40 minutes and press you and they’re deep enough to maintain it.
“I think the big difference is those other teams, they have the 6-5 and the 6-6 big-bodied center. So it will be interesting to just see how those different styles work to take advantage of each other. … All of those teams also really have some special guards and Michigan State is certainly strong and deep in the guard spot. But it’ll be interesting again to just see, with Theryn Hallock going against (an elite guard like) a Rori Harmon (of Texas), that kind of kind of competition. Hallock is as tough of a kid and as quick, but to be met with the same level of abilities, I’ll be interested to see some of those types of battles.”
Size was a problem for MSU last year. This year, it’s still a concern. The 7-1 Hawkeyes no longer have Caitlin Clark, but they’re 6-4 and 6-2 across the front line and they’re most efficient scoring in the paint.
“I think in the Big Ten, size would still be something we’re going to have to continue to figure out,” Fralick said. “The league’s big. That’s a piece. I think our ability to consistently rebound, we’ve got to figure out. We’re rebounding offensively much better this year, but our defensive rebounding rate, we’ve got to get our guards more involved in that.”
“The Big Ten, interestingly, is so varied. There’s just so many different styles of play and different kinds of matchups. So I share all that, and then you’ve got to be really good at what you do.”
So far, they have been.
MSU’s relentless full-court pressure defense and depth has helped it wear down opponents, including its best two opponents to date, Cal and Vanderbilt, who they beat on consecutive days in Palm Desert just before Thanksgiving. The Spartans won 78-70 and 78-72 by outscoring Cal and Vandy 30-12 and 33-21, respectively, in the fourth quarters. These were pretty sound teams, with Cal ranked 39th and Vandy 17th, per the women’s basketball analytics site, HerHoopStats.com. MSU is No. 13 there, higher than in the major polls. Iowa is 10th.
For the season, MSU has outpaced its opponents in the fourth quarter a whopping 242-110, an average of 26.9 to 12.2.
“Well, with the way we play, if you do it right, you should wear the other team out,” Fralick said. “Not that that happens every time, but that’s part of the point of can we sustain at a higher level for a longer amount of time? Can our capacity be better? And the second thing is, we’ve had a good bench, and so when you can count on your bench throughout a game, I think that makes a big difference, especially in the fourth quarter.”
MSU is going at least 10 deep most games, with a roster that’s still evolving. Stotelo, the freshman from Spain, is playing an increasing role, and someone like sharpshooting freshman Juliann Woodard, who’s sometimes just outside the rotation, has played important minutes recently.
“I think Ines, every game, she’s getting more and more confident,” Fralick said of Stotelo. “One of the things that she’s bringing all the time is she can guard. She can guard about any spot. We can get her on essentially a 1 through 5 and she’s reliable. She’s going to do what we’re supposed to do. And then Juliann, it’s been fun to watch her. I mean she’s just really gotten so much better since where we were in the beginning of practice, and her ability to shoot and rebound is really helpful.”
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The numbers tell us it’s been a blistering start, even if the competition most nights hasn’t been close to what’s around the corner in the Big Ten — a league that sent seven teams to the NCAA tournament last year, then invited two new teams in USC and UCLA that are perhaps better than anyone in the conference.
The Spartans’ 38.3 average margin of victory leads the nation, their 91.4 points per game is fifth. Their offensive rating is ninth nationally, per HerHoopStats, their defensive rating 13th. Their shooting percentages — both overall and beyond the arc — are in the top 16 in the country and their defensive field goal percentages are both in the top 30 out of 362 Division I schools.
The Spartans have three players already with 20 steals or more — Hampton, Jocelyn Tate and Arizona State transfer Jaddan Simmons, and two more with at least 15 in Hallock and Ayrault.
MSU is fourth nationally in assists per game, steal rate and block rate, boosted by a school-record 14 blocks against DePaul.
“I was teasing them in the locker room because they were excited about that,” Fralick said. “I think half of them were when we were late to help.”
We’ll see what it looks like in a month. But MSU has made itself into one of the more intriguing teams in the sport through nine games.
“I think one thing we’ve done really well this year is we play hard,” Fralick said. “I’m encouraged, because I think we can get that effort piece to even another level.”
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and on BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State women’s basketball is seeking more than a record start
