Saturday night was everything that Michigan State basketball fans have wanted for years: a great non-conference home game in November. It had been a while since the Spartans hosted a top-15 opponent in non-conference play, but Tom Izzo and John Calipari changed that on Saturday.
Michigan State was able to hold on in a thrilling defensive showdown, 69-66.
The Spartans got off to a solid start, but fizzled out right before halftime, trailing by three at the break. The second half was almost all Michigan State. The Spartans stormed back, took a lead, and essentially never looked back, even building a lead as large as eight late in the second half.
Arkansas made things interesting at the end with a strong final push, but Michigan State’s defense and rebounding were really the difference in this Top 25 victory.
Some quick thoughts:
1. This freshman class is special
When Tom Izzo landed Cam Ward and Jordan Scott in his 2025 recruiting class, everyone knew it was a solid haul, but it’d likely be one that would take 1-2 years to really have an impact.
Boy were we wrong.
Scott showed a ton of promise in the UConn exhibition game and the opener against Colgate, and then he played a key role along with Ward in Saturday night’s win over Arkansas. Ward led the Spartans in scoring (18) and rebounding (10), while Scott added six points and seven rebounds of his own. And both came off the bench.
Yes, we expected this class to be good, but not first-off-the-bench against No. 14 Arkansas in game No. 2 as true freshmen good. We’re all glad to be wrong here.
2. Jeremy Fears Jr. will have to play huge minutes this year
While I think this team may have a higher floor than we originally expected, the ceiling all depends on if Jeremy Fears Jr. can stay healthy.
When Fears is on the floor, the team runs much more smoothly. The offense is firing on all cylinders with an elite facilitator out there, and the defense feeds off his energy at the point — he always has active hands. When he’s on the bench, the team is disjointed.
Fears played 35 minutes on Saturday night and his impact was felt even though he was 0-for-7 from the floor. He’s one of those guys who will always be a net positive on the floor.
3. Tom Izzo is already trimming his rotation
It’s still early in the season and things could definitely change, but it felt like Izzo trimmed his rotation on Saturday night. LIke I said, this isn’t final, but it felt like he played the best 7-8 guys 10-plus minutes, and a couple of potential rotational pieces saw their minutes slashed.
Trey Fort replaced Kur Teng in the starting lineup and he hit the Spartans’ only 3-pointer and looked confident on the floor, but he only played 15 minutes. Teng only played five, and it looked like Jordan Scott took over that two-guard role, playing 26 minutes off the bench.
Teng may have just faced a bad matchup against Arkansas, but after struggling in the exhibition games and against Colgate, Izzo gave his sophomore guard a mental reset. He could ultimately average 10-15 minutes per game, but I think throwing him into the fire early was a smart move by Izzo to see if he’s ready yet. It feels like Teng and Jesse McCulloch will be solid contributors, but they have to prove they can hang.
Ward and Scott? They can already hang.