It was an exciting night in the Breslin Center on Saturday, as Michigan State basketball hosted John Calipari and his No. 14 Arkansas team for a huge early season match-up.
The Spartans were able to pull off the huge win 69-66. Takeaways from the win below:
1. MSU will live and die by Jeremy Fears Jr.
It is pretty clear at this point that this Michigan State team will go as far as Jeremy Fears Jr. can take them. Fears drives the entire offense, and he looks like he’s added a step to his speed after a healthy offseason. However, his flaws are obvious; he is not a scorer and definitely not a shooter. It will be painful at times, but ultimately, Fears is the prototypical Izzo point guard, and his scheme tends to thrive with a point guard like Fears who is willing to run in transition.
Fears did not hit a field goal in this game, which was really tough, but did have nine assists on the night.
2. Cam Ward has arrived
Arkansas is long and athletic, and talented, and MSU countered with their own talented, monstrous freshman, Cam Ward, who had an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double in the best game of his early career. Ward has announced himself as a legit rotation player for Michigan State with this performance.
3. Coen Carr shows how he can dominate
Coen Carr can get to the basket on almost anyone in the country. He finally shot the ball better at the free-throw line tonight against Arkansas. If he can do that consistently, it will be almost impossible to stop him.
4. Carson Cooper is sneakily one of the most important players for MSU
Carson Cooper wasn’t able to play much of the first half after picking up two early fouls, and his presence was sorely missed. On offense, Cooper sets bone-crushing screens and is a sneaky-good roll man in the pick-and-roll. On defense, he is the anchor and probably underrated in that department.
5. Tom Izzo’s rotation decisions drive me crazy
With 2 minutes left in the game, Michigan State could not get a bucket and eventually lost their sizable lead to Arkansas. On the floor at the time, MSU had two non-shooting point guards and two non-shooting bigs, as the offense became suffocated. It was a baffling decision by Izzo to play his backup point guard at shooting guard in crunch time, and it did not work.
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