Michigan State basketball game into the State Farm Champions Classic as the No. 5 team in the country. You can rest assured that they will be ranked higher than that next week. The Spartans took it to No. 2 Duke on Tuesday night, taking down the Blue Devils 79-73 in Chicago to earn their third win of the season.
Below, you can find our top five takeaways from the huge win:
1. Jeremy Fears Jr. takes over the United Center
All summer, the hype train was rolling for Jeremy Fears Jr., with multiple outlets naming him their preseason Player of the Year. On Tuesday night, we saw why. In a game full of future NBA players, Jeremy Fears Jr. stood out above everyone as the best player in the game.
Fears ended up with 18 points, 11 assists, and seven rebounds in a huge game in front of a national audience,
showing the world why he's considered to be one of the best players in college basketball.
2. Jordan Scott is a certified Spartan Dawg
I don't care how many points he scored. Jordan Scott blocked five shots in the first half. Read that again. Jordan Scott blocked five shots in the first half against the No. 2 team in the country.
Blocks aside, Duke is a team littered with NBA talent, and Scott was moving from player to player, locking them all down and making their lives miserable, shutting down Duke almost single-handedly. While he may not have ended up with a lot of points, he was arguably the most impactful player on the court.
3. Jasiah Jervis is the best pure scorer at MSU since...?
When Duke started to make a run towards the end of the second half, Jasiah Jervis took a step-back three and drilled it. That's some impressive stuff from a freshman. In my opinion, Jervis is one of the best pure scorers MSU has had in the starting lineup in a while. You may need to go back to a pre-injury Joshua Langford to find a player who can score at all three levels like we've seen Jervis do so far this year.
Jervis finished the game with an efficient 10 points and hit 2-for-4 of his threes, and I think his easy offense will be a huge help for a program that has famously experienced some cold spells on offense in the modern era.
4. Carlos Medlock Jr. is a very welcome addition at backup point guard
This might be a smaller point in a game with a lot of takeaways, but I think this could prove to be a massive thing to monitor for the Spartans. Carlos Medlock Jr. looks like the backup point guard for Jeremy Fears Jr. that he simply hasn't had available in his time at MSU. It will take a huge burden off Fears to have someone who can give him some actual rest this year, and spell him if he gets in foul trouble.
5. MSU's defense looks dominant
The second half was a bit of a different story, and I think MSU fans will probably blame some of the actions of the officials for that as well, but in the first half of this one, we saw how dominant this defense can be, holding Duke to just 25 points, with a lot of that coming at the free-throw line. The defense is elite.
Honorable Mention: Welcome back Cam Ward
I would be remiss not to mention that Cam Ward had a tremendous game, scoring 14 points and adding six boards in a great night after he has dealt with some annoying injury issues this fall.
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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Five takeaways from Michigan State basketball's huge win over Duke
