INDIANAPOLIS — Max Christie put on a three-level show of his skills to impress the ghosts inside Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Michigan State basketball‘s freshman showed off his 3-point shooting prowess and flashed his midrange game with a feathery touch. But it was Christie’s assertiveness in traffic in Wednesday’s 73-52 win at Butler that got coach Tom Izzo fired up most about his young shooting guard.
“I tried to come into the game a little more assertive, be more aggressive looking for myself,” Christie said after scoring a season-best 18 points. “But at the same time, my teammates found me in the right spots, and I had to knock down some shots.”
The 6-foot-6, 190-pound five-star rookie went 6-for-9 from the field, hitting a pair of 3-pointers in a team-high 32 minutes. His breakout performance against the Bulldogs comes after opening his career with a 3-for-10 performance and nine points in 31 minutes in a loss to No. 3 Kansas at Madison Square Garden. He posted six points and six rebounds in a win last week over Western Michigan but made 2 of 8 shots.
“I got on him the first game, and he looked at me kind of strange. And then I realized, why wouldn’t he? I haven’t been on him since he got here. It’s not even any fun to coach him sometimes,” MSU coach Tom Izzo jokingly said. “So I asked the team, ‘Who am I on the least?’ They said Max, and I said why? They answered the same way I did: ‘Because he doesn’t do a lot of things wrong.’
“He’s solid as the day is long. He’s gonna be a special player.
Senior captain Gabe Brown has been equally as impressed with Christie three games into his college career.
“At the end of the day, he’s a pro,” Brown said. “I mean, he does everything right. He does his job every single day, he comes in, he works — works more than a lot of people that you would know. … He drinks his water, he gets his rest.
“He does he does everything right. Like, literally, everything right. I’ve never seen a kid that does everything right.”
It was Christie’s attacking both from the wing and top of the key off the dribble, though, that stood out offensively.
In the first half, he came off a screen, caught a pass, took one dribble and elevated, and floating a one-handed shot from inside the free-throw line for his first basket.
A minute later, Christie gave his defender a fake at the arc after taking an A.J. Hoggard pass in transition, then used his long strides to zip through the lane for a layup.
Christie had nine points at halftime and continued his inside work in the second. It included one of his two rebounds in which he elevated over two other big men and snagged the board and drew a foul. His teammates and Izzo immediately erupted in enthusiastic approval.
It was one of a team-high five fouls drawn by Christie, who also went 4-for-5 at the free-throw line.
“I think everybody was really excited because I really went up and got it,” he said. “I think it was a really big possession, a really big play to get that rebound.”
That board came during the Spartans’ put-away 13-2 run in which Christie hit his second 3-pointer and made perhaps his most impressive drive and maturing moment.
As the shot clock started to churn, Christie collected his dribble after a bit of a flub on a catch in MSU’s motion offense. He pulled the ball back out and called for a high ball screen. Marcus Bingham Jr. set the pick, and Christie accelerated past four Butler defenders for a layup.
Christie laughed and shrugged off Brown’s high praise as he sat next to him.
“I don’t think it’s possible to be perfect. I mean, I make mistakes all the time, of course. I do a lot of things wrong. He’s just giving me compliments, and I appreciate him for it. But I don’t do everything right.”
At least for one night, inside the Midwest Mecca of basketball, he did.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
