This was one of those games that was over before it finished. The Spartans were simply a much more talented team than the Spartans, and it was going to very difficult for the Spartans to keep up with the Spartans.
Okay, that’s enough of that. I can’t use the word “Spartans” anymore. Here’s a brief recap.
Michigan State took the opening jump and picked up two fouls on San Jose State, the second coming on Coen Carr’s dunk, though he missed the and-1. By the time the game was a minute old, MSU was up 4-0 and SJSU had 3 fouls. Trey Fort, starting for the second consecutive game, scored the second basket. San Jose did score a bucket afterwards to get on the board, but then MSU scored the next 12 points. At the under-12 timeout, MSU led 16-2.
In the early going, San Jose was mostly relying on taking 3s, probably trying to avoid going into the interior of the MSU D. MSU was taking their offense to all layers but was also struggling with their deep shot. For the first half, they shot 2-10 from deep, with both makes coming via Kur Teng. In fact, Kur Teng ended the first 20 with ten points, second most on the team behind Carson Cooper. You can’t spell ‘Teng’ without ‘ten’. And Alley Coop wasn’t just scoring. He also had 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 1 assist, and 1 block. Remember last year when whoever was the starting center, Cooper or Zapala, was always the first player subbed out? This year, Tom Izzo is letting Cooper play longer in his first shift. Carson was the last of the starters to get subbed out, exiting just before the under-12.
MSU had completed a full line change so Divine Ugochukwu, Teng, Jordan Scott, Cam Ward, and Jesse McCulloch all were out there together. They managed five points, all by Teng, before Izzo began subbing his starters back in. The lead gradually increased; MSU was up 26-9 at the under-8, 37-17 at the under-4, and 46-23 at halftime, doubling the score of the visiting team.
The MSU offense came out cold in the second half and SJSU’s shot was suddenly falling as they went on an 8-0 run out of the locker room, and MSU called an early timeout with the score 46-31. MSU threw the ball away right out of the T.O. but finally got a stop on the defensive end when Trey Fort blocked a shot. Coming back on offense, Fears hit Cooper with another lob pass for the dunk. 48-31 at the under-16.
After the break, San Jose used a 7-2 run to get within a dozen. Jeremy Fears hit a three after an offensive rebound to end the run. Kohler scored on MSU’s next possession to notch a double-double (he was at 10 points and 14 rebounds at this point). Kohler hit a triple after another stop to regain a 20-point advantage, but SJSU would answer with a layup. After matching turnovers, Fears found an open Ward for a dunk. On defense, Ward was whistled for a foul. 60-40 at the under-12.
San Jose opened the next segment with a triple, then Ugo responded with a dribble-drive layup for his first MSU field goal. A foul on McCulloch put MSU in the penalty with over 9 minutes remaining. The pace of the game slowed down at this point, as the foul calls became more frequent. Maybe the constant stops in play were getting both teams out of their rhythm. Kohler even missed a layup. And then a triple. A foul by Ugo got us to the under-8 with MSU leading 62-46.
The unkind rim persisted and MSU sent SJSU to the line again, where they made both to get back to within a dozen. Cooper put the ball on the floor and attacked the rim but was fouled on his way up for a dunk. He split the pair for MSU’s first points in over 3 minutes of game time. Next time down, a Kohler layup ended a streak of seven straight missed FGs. San Jose answered with another triple. Cooper drew a foul gathering an offensive rebound to get MSU into the bonus, and he made both freebies. After an empty possession by each team, San Jose came streaking down the court and scored inside while collecting a foul. The FT was no good, so it was a ten-point MSU lead. SJ got another stop and won a battle for a loose ball, but they could not score on their possession. At the under-4, MSU led 67-57.
The final segment began with Kohler drawing a shooting foul as he missed a layup. The foul was the 5th for San Jose’s Ben Roseborough. Kohler hit both FTs. Jeremy Fears hit a three on the next MSU possession. After a Kohler blocked shot, Fears brought it up and hit Carr for another alley-oop. San Jose responded with a triple off the glass, and Fears answered that with his second triple in three trips. Up 77-60, Izzo called a timeout with 47 seconds remaining. Nick Sanders came into the game. Fears hit a midrange jumper off a curl. A shot clock violation on San Jose State ended the action. Michigan State prevailed 79-60.
3 Things I Liked:
1. Carson Cooper all over the stat sheet. Cooper finished tied for the team lead in points, scoring 17 on 6-7 FGs; he went an uncharacteristic 5-10 on his FTs, but he made up for that with 7 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists, and 1 block. As the announcers said, his game has improved from last year. The lob pass from Fears looks like they practiced that 100 times a day all summer. And his defense is locked down. He never lets his guy get open, his hands are always active to swipe at it, and he is just generally a menace for the other team. But my favorite thing I saw from him today does not even show up in the stat sheet. On that Coen Carr dunk early in the game where he took off from outside the paint, you could see Cooper down low blocking out two San Jose players to ensure that Carr was cleared for takeoff. Total heads-up play from #15.
2. Winning the rebounding battle. This should not have come as any surprise, but the final numbers are still impressive. MSU pulled down 45 rebounds to SJSU’s 26. 13 of MSU’s 45 were offensive, while San Jose only had 19 on defense, so MSU was getting the rebound on 41% of their misses.
3. Dunk City. Coen Carr made four FGs tonight on his seven shot attempts. All 4 were dunks, and three of those were for the highlight reel. Still no more exciting player in college basketball. The NBA should invite him for this year’s Slam Dunk Contest.
3 Things I Didn’t Like:
1. Free Throws. Even Izzo showed his frustrations with this recurring issue. MSU was 17-25 (68%), but still not good enough. Cooper deserves the bulk of the blame here as he missed 5 of those MSU bricks. He is much better than a 50% FT shooter, so hopefully this was just an off night for him.
2. The scoring drought. In the second half, MSU didn’t score their first points until nearly four minutes elapsed while San Jose began to rally. After scoring 46 in the 1st, it took Michigan State nearly eight minutes to get to ten points for the half. An 8-0 run followed by a 7-2 run made this game closer than it had any right to be.
3. Three-point shooting. Trey Fort was 0-5. Jaxon Kohler was 1-5. Kur Teng 2-5. Jeremy Fears got hot late in the game to finish 3-5 on the triples. No other player hit from deep, leaving MSU at 6-25 for 24%. This needs to improve for the Kentucky game. They play horrible defense (at least they did against Louisville). We can’t beat the good teams without being able to shoot from deep.
Victory for MSU!!!
