3 Instant Observations from MSU's Round of 32 Win vs. Louisville
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BUFFALO, N.Y. --- The weekend has been won.
(3) Michigan State outlasted (6) Louisville, 77-69, on Saturday afternoon at the KeyBank Center to advance to the program's second consecutive Sweet Sixteen. Jeremy Fears Jr. and Coen Carr led the way, both recording double-doubles. Carr had 21 points and 10 rebounds. Fears had 12 points and an MSU NCAA Tournament-record 16 assists.
It's going to be on to Washington, D.C. next weekend for the Spartans, where they will face either (2) UConn or (7) UCLA, with those two teams meeting for the right to face Michigan State on Sunday. MSU's Sweet Sixteen matchup against either the Huskies or the Bruins will be on Friday, March 27 (time TBA).
Here are some quick, at-the-buzzer observations from the Spartans' win on Saturday, which cemented the first time the program made consecutive second weekends since doing it four times in a row from 2012-15:
Turnovers Let Louisville Hang
MSU certainly looked like the better team during the first half. The Spartans' threes were falling, and they were defending the perimeter relatively well on the other end. It seemed like a first half where Michigan State should be enjoying a 10- or 12-point lead at the break, but turnovers were an issue.
There ended up being nine of them through 20 minutes. Giveaways have been an issue for MSU nearly the entire season, ranking 207th nationally in turnover rate on KenPom, but it felt like the Spartans would have that double-digit lead if it was even happening at a normal pace.
At the very least, some of the turnovers had the right idea in mind. There were two instances in the first half where Jeremy Fears Jr. basically tried to throw the basketball version of a touchdown pass, firing it deep to a big man behind the defense, but those passes ended up going out of bounds. Fears is used to feeding those passes on target as the nation's best passer, but not those times.
This issue bled into the second half, as Michigan State ran the turnover total up to 12 by the first media timeout. Some more of these turnovers were relatively unforced errors, one being when a relatively routine pass from Cam Ward to Fears was off and led to a backcourt violation.
Trey Fort Steps Forth
The minutes from Trey Fort were simply clutch. Fort hit multiple triples in this game, and all of them felt like big ones. He had a four-point play later in the first half that came while MSU was in the middle of a difficult time offensively.
During the second half, he hit another that extended the Spartans' lead out to eight at the time. Louisville worked it to a one-possession game a couple of minutes later, but then Fort hit another one to make it a six-point game.
Fort's confidence is clearly much, much higher than it was a handful of weeks ago when he was hardly playing. It certainly helps that the three-point shot is dropping at a higher rate, but that could also be the product of the increased confidence.
It's a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg question. All that matters is that Fort is playing his best basketball for MSU right now. It's certainly not the role or season Fort may have been expecting, but this run in March is ultimately how the season gets judged in East Lansing. It's good to see Fort overcome some of that adversity and leave a fingerprint on the biggest games of his college career.
All About Coen Carr
If there has been a "Coen Carr" game to this point in his Michigan State career, it was this one. Carr had never had a double-double in his collegiate career through 105 total appearances. He had one on Saturday, scoring 21 points and grabbing a career-high 10 rebounds (with two blocks thrown in) to lead MSU to the finish line.
Carr was an efficient 8-for-13 from the field, drilling two of the four three-pointers that he attempted as well. He made sure to get his patented dunks in, slamming one of them so hard that the net got tangled on the rim, but the Spartans' athletic star used his physical gifts in the best way during this one.
A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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