Michigan State had a lot of flaws exposed in its two exhibition losses to UConn and Marquette back-to-back which is to be expected from the first couple of showings every year against good teams.
Michigan State unfortunately looked far less ready to compete than anyone expected.
Something just wasn’t clicking for the Spartans against UConn and Marquette and Tom Izzo spoke about that to the media on Thursday. He’s had time to digest what happened last week and watch the film and he’s come away with one impossible-to-ignore problem that his team is facing with the season about to tip off in a few days.
Izzo says "communication is really a problem" right now with some of his players. "I've never had so many quiet guys," and points to Kaleb Glenn as being one of the quietist. Learning on the fly during exhibition games after missing last season with injury.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) October 29, 2026
On paper, Michigan State has several leaders and potential captains like Jeremy Fears Jr., Coen Carr, Jordan Scott, Kaleb Glenn, and Cam Ward, but they’re not acting like leaders on the floor through two exhibition games. Izzo said he’s “never had so many quiet guys” which is something he shouldn’t have to worry about with Mateen Cleaves 2.0 playing point.
Mateen would have chewed his teammates out if they didn’t communicate and meet his expectations. It’s time for Fears to take the reins and do the same thing.
For Glenn to be one of the quietest guys on the team after being around for a season already and being a veteran with familiarity with everyone, that’s pretty concerning. That’s something that the team won’t be able to sweep under the rug. A lack of communication usually rears its ugly head in the form of lifeless losses.
It’ll be up to Fears and Carr to get everyone talking and on the same page before facing behemoths like Duke, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Gonzaga over the next 1.5 months.
Tom Izzo wants a player-led team
Izzo has always alluded to the fact that he loves when he has a player-led team. He loves when he has guys challenging him and pushing him to be better and Fears does just that.
It can’t all be on Fears’ shoulders, though. The rest of the team needs to wake up.
There’s no doubt that Fears is a vocal leader and one of the best captains that Izzo has ever coached, but he needs other voices. He can’t be the only one talking and communicating but he also hasn’t been perfect to start the year. This is a critical time when we learn what kind of leader Fears is. Will he rally the troops and get things back on track with some motivational tough love or will the team crumble around him?
Izzo is going to rely heavily on Fears to figure out what went wrong last week and make sure that it doesn’t carry over into the regular season.
It’s time for Fears to really earn that Mateen comparison.
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