For Michigan State's new main man Jaden Akins, judgment day arrives
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Jaden Akins’ new role with Michigan State’s men’s basketball team doesn’t really jibe with his personality. He is among the least bombastic and self-promoting athletes you’ll ever meet.
It’s fitting that Akins plays on a team with Barry Sanders’ son, because if Akins ever scored a touchdown, he’d probably just hand the ball to the official and get on with it.
That’s why it’s fun to see him take joy in being THE MAN for the Spartans — he’d cringe trying to describe it that way. But it’s what he wants. And what MSU needs from him.
Thursday night, with MSU trailing Niagara 9-2 early on, Akins understood the assignment. From the top of the key, he drove the lane and dunked over a defender. It changed the vibe of the arena, on the court and in the stands. Akins tried to hold in a grin, his tongue briefly out as he smacked his hands together.
“It felt good,” Akins said in the locker room after MSU’s 96-60 win.
Less than two minutes later, his step-back jumper tied the game at 11. He was brimming with confidence.
Three days earlier, the moment was more pronounced — nine straight points from Akins in a game where the Spartans’ sizable lead against Monmouth had dwindled to six points early in the second half.
“I feel like they were looking to me, for me to make a play for me or for somebody else,” he said Monday after the 81-57 win. “That's been different. Usually I’d be watching Tyson (Walker) or A.J. (Hoggard) make that play.”
Akins said it all so matter-of-factly, without the emotion you might expect from someone who’d just experienced a high point in his career, scoring 23 points, with nine rebounds and five assists — beginning a season where such a performance is in line with expectations.
“It is fun,” he said, a sheepish smile taking over his face. “I mean, I just waited for it. And getting to get the opportunity, it's fun.”
Through two games, among the most promising signs for the Spartans has been Akins. Not that he’s a 20-point-a-game guy every night. He’s not naturally enough of a volume shot-taker to do that and MSU’s deep backcourt doesn’t require it. If you get to know Akins, you’ll know how he sees his role as THE MAN on a night-to-night basis this season: “Our Mr. Do It All,” as fellow captain Tre Holloman described him.
“Jaden knows when to take his shots and when we need rebounds and stuff,” Holloman said.
To Akins, being the go-to guy means staying aggressive with his shot, recognizing when the team needs to create something, having infectious energy, avoiding bad body language and, at the end of games, being “someone who’s trusted to make the right play.”
If that’s creating a better shot for a teammate, OK.
It is everything he wanted a year ago when he came back for his junior season, only to realize it still wasn’t his turn yet. Now, as a senior, it’s more than an opportunity. It’s go time. Time to elevate his game and elevate his team — and not just against Niagara and Monmouth, but also against Kansas on Tuesday and likely Connecticut in Maui and night after night in the Big Ten.
“He’s a senior. That's what (Denzel) Valentine did,” Tom Izzo said. “That's what's what Cassius (Winston) did (as a junior). I mean, when you're in a program for four years, you should be able to do that.”
Akins is an example of everything Izzo is hoping his program remains in the transfer portal/NIL era — a player patient enough to stick with it and rewarded for doing so. Izzo didn’t try to bring in an upperclassman alpha personality scoring guard in the portal. He thought Akins could do it. And had been telling him, for years, he’d get his chance. It’s an example Izzo will be able to use with the next player who’d like a bigger role, earlier.
“I'm going to rely on my guys,” Izzo reiterated Thursday night, after playing a team with 14 new players. “I’m going to be loyal to my guys, and if they don't get better, some of that's my fault, too.”
So far, Akins has been up to it, the hours and hours he’s put in paying off. He's in the gym rat category of Izzo’s “live it, love it or like it” assessment of players.
The standard for Akins isn’t 23 points, nine rebounds and five assists, as he tallied Monday, or 10 points, six rebounds and two assists, like Thursday.
“It’s that same effort, same approach, that mental approach,” MSU assistant coach Thomas Kelley said this week after a practice, as Akins, Frankie Fidler and Kur Teng ran through countless on-the-move, off-ball shooting drills under his watch. “I’ve got to have it every day.
“This is what you asked for and this is what you came back for.”
What no one knows yet is how it’ll all look against big-time competition, when some of MSU’s notable depth suddenly struggles with a matchup or the pressure of the moment. That’s when Akins has to both lead and fill in the gaps.
“I'm excited to see that,” Kelley said. “I’m genuinely excited to see how he's going to respond. How's he going to lead? What is he going to do? I've watched Jaden Akins since his freshman year of high school. I recruited him when I was (coaching) at Western Michigan. I’ve been watching this growth. I've been a fan of his game. To be here and coaching him up and going through this process with him … I'm excited to see how he's going to do in his first marquee game like that. Is he going to lead the group? And understand, it ain't all about stats here. It's all about wins. Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes on that night to win the game. And can you lead that group? I want to see how he handles that.”
It won’t be the first time that Akins has been asked to rise to the occasion or has done so. I’d still argue that if he’d been tasked with guarding Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell earlier in their 2023 Sweet 16 matchup, MSU would have won that game. Akins also scored 23 points and made seven 3s in the home win over Michigan last season and was stellar in the first round of the NCAA tournament against Mississippi State. There are plenty of other strong performances on his resume. But it’s never before been on him to do it, on him to answer for the team’s struggles or defeats. The ball wasn’t in his hands.
“He’s going to get the toughest matchup and he’s got to perform,” Kelley said.
On both ends. Every possession.
“Defensively, he is now becoming more like a Gary Harris and more like some of these guys where he is guarding the hell out of his man,” Izzo said.
That part is more natural to Akins. And brings out leadership, because others see it and respect it, and he knows where everyone is supposed to be and can communicate it. The rest of it, he's still learning.
“Jaden has been through every stage of (being a player at) Michigan State,” said Holloman, who’s been with him the last two-plus seasons. “Seeing him grow like that just makes me happy, because when Jaden was a sophomore, Jaden was quiet. Jaden wasn't really trying to help nobody. But now, he’s talking more, he's being that leader, taking on that role. … I think he has really bought into what coach wants him to do.”
“He is passionate,” Kelley said. “He wants to be successful at basketball, and who knows what that will be. But I pull for people like that. It matters to him.”