Michigan State basketball misses revenge chance in sloppy loss vs UConn

EAST LANSING – There would be no revenge for Tom Izzo on Dan Hurley.

Not for Michigan State basketball’s exhibition loss a year ago to Connecticut nor its season-ending defeat to the Huskies in the Sweet 16. Even if this one didn’t count.

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The sixth-ranked Spartans struggled with No. 5 UConn’s experience and size en route to a 78-70 exhibition loss on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Breslin Center.

Jeremy Fears Jr. finished with 23 points and eight assists and played through an ankle injury he suffered early in the second half. The fourth-year junior went 12-for-14 at the free-throw line and made 5 of 12 shots from the field. Freshman Jasiah Jervis scored 11 points with two 3-pointers off the bench, the only other MSU player to reach double figures.

Nik Khamenia had 19 points and Silas Demary Jr. 16 for UConn, which lost in the national title game to Michigan in April after eliminating the Spartans. The Huskies led by as many as 15 points with 5:51 to play, but Izzo’s team could get no closer than seven in the final four minutes.

Here are the starting five thoughts after MSU’s second of three exhibition games:

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No. 1: Fears factor

In a flash, Fears gave a glimpse of his past and what Izzo and MSU fans hope is the future return of his explosiveness. And in another moment, the Spartans’ worst fear.

With 6:22 left in the first half, Fears took the ball at the top of the key and zoomed past Demary and Hines downhill into the lane. As 6-6 Colben Landrew stepped up to challenge him, the smaller Fears – 6-2 in your program, 6-foot at the NBA Scouting Combine in May – didn’t stop.

Fears elevated over Landrew and delivered a ferocious tomahawk dunk as Hines tried to swat at it from behind. It was reminiscent of the driving and leaping ability Fears flashed briefly as a freshman in 2023, before he was shot in the upper left thigh that Christmas and missed the rest of that season while recovering from his bullet wounds.

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Early in the second half, though, Fears…

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Publish date : 2026-10-21 01:35:00

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