Thoughts following win over Indiana

This is Denny in for Joe. MSU picked up a big 80-65 win over Indiana on Thursday night to hand the Hoosiers their first loss of the season.

My first reaction is that was probably the best 15-point game I've seen. The crowd was really into the game. It felt like a late February tilt between a couple of teams who were shooting for a regular season conference title. It was a couple of good basketball teams (both will be in the NCAA tournament) playing one another real hard. For a conference opener, it was just about all you could ask for.

MSU was balanced and Derrick Nix took another big step tonight. He was able to hold Cody Zeller real well when the two of them matched up and Zeller was just exhausted by the end of the night. He only played 23 minutes but the bodies that MSU threw at him were just too much.

We've been seeing that Keith Appling can be a point guard and a scorer. It's not something I thought he could do with sudden success, but he's doing it. His 25 points tonight were a new career-high and he also dished out seven assists against two turnovers. After watching him put up 49 points in the Class A state title game I said this guy needs to be off the ball, slashing and coming off picks for shots or dribble drives. But he is turning into a quality point guard right before our very eyes. On a night where Travis Trice was a little off (0-for-2, two fouls in 16 minutes), Appling really stepped up and was a major reason why the Spartans were able to win. He was 7-for-12 from the field and 9-for-10 at the FT line when MSU was trying to salt the game way.

Credit Indiana, this is not the same team that lost to Lipscomb and Northeastern at home and finished 6-25 a few years ago, and they don't even have Mo Creek who is out with injury. They've grown up, they play together, they're confident in how good they are and they have a star in Christian Watford, who Draymond Green struggled with most of the night. I like their team a lot, I just hope they haven't expended themselves too much with this early magic. It'd be a shame if they have used up too much energy by March and are simply worn out by the time they make the NCAA Tournament. They haven't played many meaningful games past the middle of January in a few seasons, it'll be interesting to chart their staying power throughout a long grind. They are a good basketball team, but they will take some lumps in the Big Ten.

Bottom line - MSU needed this win and got it. Nebraska has had a history of getting a team or two at home when they played in the Big 12 and MSU will need to be on their guard when they head there Saturday. A 1-2 or (gulp) 0-3 start after Wisconsin would have really been damaging after all the confidence they built up during this 12-game win streak. However, the ball keeps rolling in the right direction and this MSU team is getting better with each game.