Spartans freshman A.J. Hoggard's promise outweighs foibles in second start

East Lansing — Late in the game on Tuesday night, Tom Izzo was able to laugh for a second.

It came in the final minutes as No. 23 Michigan State was putting the finishing touches on a 68-45 victory over No. 15 Rutgers at the Breslin Center, and junior Aaron Henry was cutting freshman guard A.J. Hoggard some slack for a rookie mistake.

In that moment, it was light-hearted. But Izzo’s message for Henry and his young floor general was clear.

“Aaron said, ‘He was like me as a freshman,’” Izzo said. “And I said, ‘No, no, no, we can't do that, because he’s the point guard.’ And he laughed, and I laughed and it was late in the game. But I think that is the deal with him right now. It's the intensity and realizing how tough it is to play that position.

“He’s just got to continue to work, work, work. And he's done better, but he's got a ways to go. But I am proud of him and the way he played.”

It was Hoggard’s second straight start at point guard as Michigan State continues to keep pushing buttons to find the right combination in its rotation. And after a solid debut on Saturday at Nebraska, Hoggard was more of the same in the victory over Rutgers.

He played a career-high 25 minutes and scored three points, handed out six assists and had two steals while committing only two turnovers.

“There are some things I really liked, but there are some things like he gave up a three just because,” Izzo said. “He’s got to learn to grind and he made a couple of turnovers that I thought were kind of unforced, ridiculous turnovers. But that’s gonna happen. He's a freshman. He also had six assists, so he did some things very well. He can drive and get in there a little bit better. I'm pleased with what A.J. did, but I know it's got to be better and better and more consistent if we're going to be a real good team.

“But for his second start — pleased.”

Seeing time

Michigan State played 11 players until emptying the bench late in the game.

One player who didn’t see any time was sophomore forward Julius Marble. After seeing his playing time increase earlier in the season, Marble played only four minutes at Nebraska before not getting on the floor on Tuesday.

“Julius was unbelievable on our scout team, and we were gonna get him in there,” Izzo said, “But I told you I'm gonna have to shrink that (playing) group a little bit and it will be different guys. We wanted Marcus (Bingham) to be in there and we’re going to go against some size now and maybe that'll make a difference.

“But I don't feel any different about Julius as far as later on. We’ve just got to get him in there because he's worked his tail off and has been very good.”

Busting the boards

After getting outrebounded in each of its previous two games, Michigan State held a 45-25 advantage on the glass over Rutgers. Joey Hauser led the Spartans with 14 rebounds while Aaron Henry had eight and Thomas Kithier seven.

“Really it’s effort,” Hauser said. “Rebounding is effort, defense is effort and it’s using a little bit of just your basketball IQ. But effort is where it starts and making sure your guy is not getting rebounds. Cutting out is a huge part of the game, and like I’ve said before, it opens up our offense a ton, too. But it started on defense and that's why we rebounded the ball so well.”

mcharboneau@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @mattcharboneau