Michigan State Men’s Basketball: Gabe Brown, Malik Hall and Max Christie earn Big Ten honors

The Big Ten Conference announced its postseason honors for the 2021-2022 men’s basketball campaign on Tuesday, and three Michigan State Spartans earned accolades.

Senior forward/wing Gabe Brown earned All-Big Ten third-team honors, as voted by the coaches. He also received an honorable mention nod from the conference’s media members. This is the first time in Brown’s career that he has received All-Big Ten honors.

Brown, a team captain, is one of the hardest workers in Michigan State’s program, but like most Spartans this season, has had his ups and downs. He has started all 31 games for the Spartans and leads MSU in scoring at 11.5 points per game, and with 355 total total points scored, in the 2021-2022 campaign. Brown also averages 3.9 rebounds per game and 1.2 assists per game.

He has made 41 percent of his shot attempts from the floor, and converted at a 37 percent clip from three-point distance, while leading the team in free-throw percentage at nearly 92 percent.

Purdue’s Trevion Williams, Nebraska’s Bryce McGowens, Illinois’ Alfonso Plummer, Rutgers’ Geo Baker and Ohio State’s Malaki Branham join Brown on the third-team, as selected by the coaches.

Junior forward Malik Hall received All-Big honorable mention recognition from the conference’s coaches for the first time in his career.

Hall, a team captain along with Brown, spent the majority of the season coming off of the bench as Michigan State’s sixth man, but has also started seven games this season. He ranks second on the team in scoring, behind only Brown, averaging 9.6 points per game and scoring 299 total points on the season.

Hall also ranks third on the team with 4.7 rebounds per game. He also averages 1.1 assists per contest. Hall shoots 53.8 percent overall from the field, 48.3 percent from behind the arc and 71.2 percent from the free-throw line.

Freshman shooting guard Max Christie made the Big Ten’s All-Freshman team and was also Michigan State’s recipient for the conference’s Sportsmanship Award.

Christie joins Michigan’s Moussa Diabate, Wisconsin’s Chucky Hepburn, Nebraska’s McGowens and Ohio State’s Branham on the conference’s All-Freshman team.

Christie has been named Big Ten Freshman of the Week on five different occasions this year. Like Brown, he has struggled with consistency. Christie, who has started 30 games for the Spartans as a true freshman, averages 9.3 points per game (third on the team) and has scored a total of 280 points on the year. He also averages 3.4 rebounds per game and just under 1.5 assists per game.

Christie has his moments, but has struggled with his shot a bit, connecting on 38 percent of his total attempts and just 30.6 percent of his three-point shots. He ranks third on the team from the free-throw line, hitting 82.3 percent of his attempts at the charity stripe.