Next Up – Michigan State

Date 11/10 || Time 7:00 || Venue Cameron Indoor Stadium || Video ESPN

Duke travels to Chicago on Tuesday to take on Tom Izzo’s always tough Michigan State Spartans in this year’s Champions Classic.

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Michigan State is currently ranked #6, while the Blue Devils are #2, but rankings this early are basically meaningless.

What’s not meaningless? Michigan State’s culture and experience. Izzo brings back Jeremy Fears, perhaps the nation’s best point guard, 6-6 Coen Carr, a tremendously athletic player, 6-7 Kaleb Glenn, 6-11 Jesse McCulloch, 6-8 Jordan Scott, 6-5 Kur Teng, 6-8 Brennan Walton, 6-8 Colin Walton, and 6-9 Cam Ward.

Izzo generally has hard-nosed teams that give Duke a very tough game every time they play.

Nothing much will change in East Lansing as long as Izzo is there.

That said, this team, at this point in the season, has some issues.

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First, free-throw shooting is erratic. Aside from Fears, who is shooting 80 percent so far, the rest of this team has really struggled at the line. Carr and Glenn are hitting just 66.7 percent, Ward, 62.5, , and Medlock just 1-6 so far for 16.7 percent.

The only player, other than Fears, who is shooting better than 66.7 percent is freshman Jasiah Jervis, who is hitting 75 percent.

It’s early in the season, obviously, but perimeter play has been an issue. Against Toledo, Michigan State had 14 turnovers, including 4 by Fears.

The Spartans have also stacked up considerable foul trouble, getting whistled for 24 against Toledo.

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Additionally, Ward has struggled to regain his form after a preseason ankle injury. He fouled out in just nine minutes against Toledo.

And 7-2 transfer Anton Bonke has struggled to move up to the Power Conference level, which has forced Izzo to go with freshman Ethan Taylor, or else resort to small-ball.

These are serious problems, but Izzo is obviously a great coach, and these are points of emphasis this week. Presumably, they’re being addressed.

It’s possible that these issues will play…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/next-michigan-state-123000899.html

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Publish date : 2026-11-09 12:30:00

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