Some observations after Michigan State’s 118-57 basketball exhibition victory against Northern Michigan:

1. A year ago, State lost an exhibition game to Grand Valley, 85-82. Tonight the Spartans came out with energy and aggressiveness on both ends of the floor. On offense, they pushed the ball, and especially early on, they took the ball to the rim and didn’t settle for jump shots from the newly extended 3-point line. Defensively, they played with good intensity that they were able to sustain for long-for-preseason stretches. Given the nature of the game and the obviously overmatched opponent, the defensive effort was nice to see — and probably came in part from trying not to repeat last year’s performance. And with a 69-30 halftime lead en route to a 61-point win, I’d say they succeeded.

2. Everybody looks great in a game like this, but I’m especially impressed with Kalin Lucas, who looked and acted like the team’s emotional leader; Durrell Summers, who scored 30 points in 16 minutes, including 11 straight first-half points; and I was surprised by Isaiah Dahlman (7 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals), who gets a bad rap but looks much stronger, smoother and more confident than a year ago. I can now believe the reports that he’ll crack the rotation, even as walk-on Austin Thornton got minutes and looks solid as well in a similar role. If our goal is to play up-tempo to make use of our depth, then two good signs is that the up-tempo approach looked good, and we look deep.

3. Just before halftime, officials called what looked like an obvious charge on Northern Michigan’s Raymont McElroy, but NMU’s coach, Dean Ellis, argued the call — and was ejected. In the first half. Of an exhibition game.

4. Raymar Morgan, Chris Allen, Marquise Gray cut their hair since last season. (Freshman guard Korie Luscious did, too.) The fashion winner is Morgan. Gray, on the other hand, seems less intimidating with the close-crop.

5. I love the BTN for providing a video stream of the game. And I love them more for going lo-fi with the score and clock graphics:

Finally, here’s the box score.