Michigan State: Why Branden Dawson Will Have a Breakout Season

By Trevor Lowry
Mike Carter-US PRESSWIRE-Look for Branden Dawson to have a breakout season.

With the departure of Draymond Green, Branden Dawson will play a much bigger role for the Michigan State Spartans in the 2012-13 college basketball season.

Dawson averaged 8.4 points per game and 4.5 rebounds per game last season. Not bad for a freshman or for a person who only got to play 20.6 minutes per game.

Well, Dawson will be seeing less bench and much more playing time in the upcoming season.

What makes Dawson so special is his defensive abilities. He is a very physical defender, who plays hard and can also rack up the boards. At 6’6”, Dawson is a very elite athlete, who has a pretty decent jumper and can get to the basket when he wants to.

With all of that said, Dawson did go down at the end of last season with a torn ACL. So, he missed the entire Big Ten tournament, along with the NCAA tournament.

Dawson shot 57.7 percent from the field last season, which is pretty impressive no matter who you are. He also only shot 6.1 times on average last season, and this number will go way up in 2012, which should result in more points for the Spartan. Dawson did not shoot a single three-pointer last season, so this tells you how much faith Tom Izzo has in his deep range shooting. Dawson may play a bigger role on offense in the upcoming season, but the fact that he is such a great defender is the biggest reason why he will play so big this year.

 

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