Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State basketball's 79-73 win over Duke at the Champions Classic
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1. As early season statements go, that was a big one by Michigan State
CHICAGO — You could see it from the first couple trips up and down the court Tuesday night: Michigan State’s players had a look about them, like guys who’ve been here — in the exhibition season, against Duke last season, in other Champions Classics, and in arenas like this deep into March.
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And Duke initially looked a little surprised by the Spartans, too.
Turned out, it was more than a look.
As early season statements go, this was something. The Spartans led wire to wire, taking down a Duke team many think — or thought — might be the best in the country. MSU just joined that conversation on Nov. 10, with a 79-73 win that’ll reverberate throughout college basketball and send expectations for the Spartans soaring.
This was a performance that’ll go up there with the most memorable Champions Classic and early season showings by MSU in the Tom Izzo era.
It wasn’t how they started but how they held off the Blue Devils when Duke tried to make a run, and how they finished when the Blue Devils cut the deficit to a dicey 73-68 with 2:03 remaining.
Jordan Scott responded with the biggest bucket of his career — at least that I can remember — driving to the basket for a layup. A calm play in a moment when calm seemed to be leaving building and all eyes were on how the Spartans would handle the moment.
For the most part, they handled the whole night well.
Scott had a signature night defensively while only scoring five points. At one point late in the first half, he had as many blocked shots (five) as Duke had made shots. He finished with six blocks — another important one late on a Duke 3-point try — along with nine rebounds and two steals. He was menace of the defensive end.
Jeremy Fears Jr.’s stat line might not have matched Denzel Valentine’s triple-down 11 years ago in the Champions Classic, but a similar message was sent in an 18-point, 11-assist, five-round effort, that, while not always the cleanest performance, featured a number of plays when you thought he’s just not going to let MSU lose.
Cam Ward (see below), Jasiah Jervis, Carlos Medlock Jr., Coen Carr, and Jesse McCulloch all had games or moments within the game that led to this victory.
Maybe Duke isn’t quite what they’re expected to be yet (though the Blue Devils’ exhibition wins say otherwise). Maybe MSU just had a night.
Still, when you have a night on this stage, it’s usually real.
2. Cam Ward makes his actual season debut
Of all the significant and strong performances by MSU’s players on Tuesday, only one of them was truly a surprise: Cam Ward’s 11 point, five-rebound, one-block night. And that was the first half. He finished with 14 points and six rebounds, his bucket at the rim as he was fouled — and ensuing free throw — with 4:59 remaining as important as any play he made all night.
For MSU, it was like adding a strong and athletic 6-foot-9 power forward to the roster for the third game of the season.
After missing time in the fall in an ankle sprain and struggling to find himself through the exhibition season and the first two games of the season, Ward remembered who he is as a player — a board-chasing, defensive-switching, offensive-cutting, live-round-the-rim garbage man (in the best possible terms). He even hit his free throws. And when he didn’t, he drew a lane violation with his funky shot release.
The version of Ward we saw Tuesday night, battling his own teammates for rebounds — Jordan Scott might have had three more, if not for Ward — and playing within himself, is one that’ll be a difference-maker all season, playing both behind Coen Carr and some at center, especially when the opponent’s big guys are the size of Duke’s.
Izzo said he had a conversation with Ward coming into this game and felt good about where his sophomore was mentally. No kidding. What a difference.
3. Freshman thoughts — the Duke Champions Classic edition
As well as some of MSU’s veterans played, the Spartans don’t win that game without the performances of freshman Jasiah Jervis, Carlos Medlock Jr., and Ethan Taylor.
Jervis helped set a tone and a level of play early that let everyone know the Spartans had the goods to win this game. And he was a big part of that — hitting a couple early shots, including a 3, communicating defensively, even getting into teammate Anton Bonke for a mistake, the sort of thing you don’t expect from a freshman. But his 3-pointer to put MSU ahead 70-58 with a little more than five minutes left was the sort of bucket last year’s team wouldn’t have found.
Medlock’s most important sequence came in the middle of the second half, with Fears on the bench and Duke beginning to heat up. His pull-up 3-pointer put the Spartans ahead 55-42. Then with Duke back within eight, Medlock struck again from the top of the key off the dribble. Those two shots kept Duke from ever really making a run.
A lot of MSU teams in recent years couldn’t trade buckets in a game like this. Sometimes it takes doing so for stretches. This team can, in no small part because its freshman guards are comfortable making plays on this stage.
Taylor, who early on looked bit too excited, settled in, adding five points and two rebounds in eight minutes. His rebound and put back after Medlock was blocked on the drive, put MSU ahead 60-49 and helped the Spartans keep setting the pace. Those were important minutes. He was up for them. I think by mid-January, he’s going to be playing close to 20 minutes a night.
Contact Graham Couch at [email protected]. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State basketball's 79-73 win over Duke at the Champions Classic