Michigan State basketball gets a “measuring point” against No. 1 Kansas

by Junna Base November 12, 2024

EAST LANSING – Tom Izzo always wants Michigan State basketball to compete against the best competition on the biggest stages.

There are few things more difficult than facing No. 1 Kansas, and few events can rival the Champions Classic evening that the two programs have competed in since 2011. And Izzo relishes every opportunity to not only showcase his program, but also find out exactly where the Spartans stand in early November.

“I don’t know if we appreciate it, I don’t know if our graduates appreciate it, I don’t know if Michigan State University appreciates it,” Izzo said Monday. “It’s a privilege. … There are a million other programs that would die for this.”

The Spartans (2-0) and Jayhawks (2-0) meet at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. It is the first of two games in the annual showcase, with no. 6 Duke and No. 18 Kentucky is the late game at 9 p.m. Both will air on ESPN.

“Our boys did a great job. “The last two practices were really as good as we were,” Izzo said. “What does that mean? This means you sleep so much better, but it doesn’t actually affect the game. You still have to play the game. And who knows how, when the lights come on, how everyone deals with it differently, on their team and on mine. But compared to the last month and a half, I like where we are now. I think we’re doing the things we need to do.”

MSU started off with two relatively easy wins, both of which exposed some flaws and showcased some strengths. The Spartans started well against Monmouth, hit a lull midway through the game and then pulled away with an 81-57 victory in their season opener last Monday. Then on Thursday, MSU shook off a sluggish start and beat Niagara with a 96-60 win that focused on the strength, size and balance of Izzo’s squad.

“Right now we’re kind of enjoying this evening. But at the same time, we’re mentally preparing for a really big game,” sophomore Jaxon Kohler, who had a career-high 20 points and 13 rebounds against Niagara, said after Thursday’s win. “We know there will be a lot of fans, a lot of people and a really good team. We’re going to focus on what are we going to do to win this game?”

Kansas already has one big win under its belt: Friday night’s 92-89 rout of No. 11 North Carolina in Lawrence, Kansas. Bill Self’s team opened the season with a 30-point win over Howard.

The Spartans know one of the Jayhawks’ top players, former Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson. The 7-foot-2 fifth-year senior scored 20 points and 10 rebounds against the Tar Heels after being a vocal nemesis for Izzo and his players during his three seasons with the Wolverines.

“I think he’s been pretty consistent,” Izzo said of Dickinson, who is in his second season as a Jayhawk. “I don’t think he shoots as many threes now as I thought he did at Michigan. … He’s still a deep threat. He hasn’t changed much, he’s the same old man but he’s got more experience now.”

Transfer Zeke Mayo leads the Jayhawks with 20 points per game, along with 4.5 rebounds and two assists. The 6-4 Lawrence native returned home from South Dakota State in the offseason; As a Jackrabbit, he and Frankie Fidler each competed eight times while the MSU transfer was in Omaha.

Izzo said he needs to get more from Fidler, who averaged 19.9 points and 6.2 rebounds per game for the Mavericks last season but got off to a slow start after two games with the Spartans (10 points and 3.5 rebounds per game).

“Sometimes you have different problems as you go through the levels. For example, why would someone leave one major to switch to another? Maybe he’s a different type of kid, maybe there are problems there. I don’t know,” Izzo said. “But usually guys at the lower (levels) want to take a risk and deserve a chance. Tyson (Walker) did it, Mayo did it, Frankie did it.”

The Jayhawks also have another face familiar to MSU coaches and players: 6-7 transfer AJ Storr, last year’s star at Wisconsin and a second-team All-Big Ten selection, who is his third school in visited for three seasons. Storr had 13 points against North Carolina, while Mayo had a game-high 21 with five rebounds and four assists.

The tipper for Kansas, however, is a homegrown product in KJ Adams Jr. The 6-7 senior swingman is only averaging 10.5 points with 3.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game this season, but Izzo gave him plenty of praise and sharpening the awareness that Adams brings to the Jayhawks.

“He just won a lot of games there. He does all the dirty work,” Izzo said of Adams. “He’s kind of like Draymond Green, he’s kind of like Xavier Tillman. He’s somewhere in between. Doesn’t shoot very well, just makes plays. Sort of a magical Johnson – he makes some of the best passes of any great player I’ve seen at 6-7. So it will be a great test for us to see how we do.”

MSU is 5-8 overall in the Champions Classic and 2-2 against Kansas in the event, having lost in 2021 and 2018 after defeating the Jayhawks in 2012 and 2015. The Spartans’ last win in the Champions Classic came as an unranked team at then-No. 4 Kentucky in 2022.

The last time the two teams met was an 87-74 Jayhawks victory over the Spartans at Madison Square Garden. This is the third time in the last four Champions Classics that MSU has competed unranked.

“It was my first college game ever, so I was a little nervous out there,” senior guard Jaden Akins said Thursday of the loss to Kansas in 2021. “I mean, they beat us. They had a good team back then, they had a few professionals on that team. But I feel like we were better prepared this time.”

Akins averaged a team-leading 16.5 points in his first two games this season. However, the senior’s 3-point shooting woes (1 for 7) mirrored the rest of the team’s woes from beyond the arc (25%), a concern for Izzo that hasn’t yet turned into panic with such a limited sample size.

“I think that’s the best measure we can have, positive or negative,” Izzo said. “Would you like to play a few more games?” Perhaps. But why not find out where you are now? Because we tell them where we think they are. And until it happens, you don’t know if they really see it that way.”

Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.

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