If you had “disappointing exhibition performance to begin the season” on your 2026-27 Michigan State basketball bingo card, you can cross that one off.
Sloppy, sluggish, and a little disjointed had to be the three words to describe the Spartans’ exhibition loss to No. 4 UConn on Tuesday night, 78-70.
UConn was aggressive from the get-go and Michigan State was playing from behind much like it did in that NCAA Tournament game just seven months ago. The Spartans dug themselves into too big of a hole and just didn’t have the gas late to pull off a comeback, especially since UConn couldn’t seem to miss from three for a long second-half stretch.
In the end, it’s just an exhibition game and will really just be used to learning and Tom Izzo is going to do a lot of that when he watches the film from this loss.
Here are my immediate thoughts about this loss.
Jordan Scott is going to be a problem this year
This is obviously meant in the most positive way possible. Jordan Scott isn’t just going to be a problem for opponents all year, but also for Izzo because he’s not going to be able to take him off the floor. He looked like a budding star and he’s clearly worked hard on his all-around game.
Scott was aggressive, hunting his own shots, and he defended at a high level. He’s going to be a really good player all season long and he is emerging as that clear No. 3 option behind Jeremy Fears Jr. and Coen Carr. He only scored seven points, but he did everything really well, stuffing the stat sheet.
The sophomore might end up playing 35 minutes per game this season. If the team wasn’t so loaded, that would probably be a lock which is rare under Izzo.
Side note: Jasiah Jervis is going to be a problem, too.
3-point defense is already an issue
Michigan State’s 3-point defense was really the reason the Spartans were playing catch-up all game long. Every time Michigan State would make a run or pick up even a sliver of momentum, UConn would march down the floor, swing the ball around, and find an open man for an instant-response three.
Several times throughout the second half, Michigan State pulled within two or three and then UConn responded with a big three because of some lackluster perimeter defense.
We should fully expect Izzo to work on that and fix it before Big Ten play, but this could be a bit of an issue early on unless this was just a case of the Spartans shaking off rust.
You can’t let a team like UConn shoot 10-for-25 and expect to win.
Yet another slow shooting start coming?
I mean, rinse and repeat this headline every single year. Michigan State struggles from deep to begin almost every season but we were tricked into thinking it wouldn’t be an issue after a red-hot shooting performance against Incarnate Word.
Outside of Jervis, the Spartans couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. They were brick city from beyond the arc once again to begin a year. They finished 3-for-20 from three and outside of Jervis, they were 1-for-15. Woof.
Maybe this was just a one-off and they’ll be hot again when they face Marquette before the real season opener, but the lid was on any rim the Spartans were shooting at.
Bonus: Jaxon Kohler, Carson Cooper will be missed
While Michigan State did add some key players to its post like Anton Bonke and Ethan Taylor and has some rising stars in Jesse McCulloch and Cam Ward, but the rebounding dominance that Carson Cooper and Jaxon Kohler flexed at MSU is going to be sorely missed this year.
The Spartans surrendered way too many offensive rebounds and that led to too many second-chance buckets for UConn.
Clean up the rebounding and clean up the perimeter defense and Michigan State is going to be just fine. It’s not as easy as just saying it obviously, but the Spartans at least know what they need to fix in order to be playing at a Final Four level.
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