3 Observations from Michigan State's Blowout of East Carolina

No. 11 Michigan State beat East Carolina by 33 points on Tuesday afternoon. The 89-56 final score wasn't indicative of how close the game went.

Not because the Pirates were closer, but because MSU really blew them out more than that.

Nov 25, 2025; Fort Myers, Florida, USA; Michigan State Spartans forward Jaxon Kohler (0) and guard Divine Ugochukwu (99) react after a basket against the East Carolina Pirates in the second half at Suncoast Credit Union Arena. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

The Spartans are 6-0, but they have another challenging game on deck against No. 16 North Carolina, who beat St. Bonaventure on Tuesday during the Fort Myers Tip-Off, as well. UNC's game was much closer than Michigan State's, but the Tar Heels were facing a more worthy opponent.

But for now, here are the things that I noticed from MSU's lopsided victory against East Carolina:

Threes Keep Falling

Nov 25, 2025; Fort Myers, Florida, USA; Michigan State Spartans forward Jaxon Kohler (0) and guard Divine Ugochukwu (99) react after a three point basket against the East Carolina Pirates in the second half at Suncoast Credit Union Arena. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Michigan State hit 13 three-pointers during the victory. That's a lot.

So much so that the last time MSU made that many in a game was when the Spartans hit 13 in their Sweet 16 loss to Kansas State in 2023. Michigan State played 77 games in between that game and Tuesday, spanning the entire 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, and the first five games of this campaign.

The Spartans had already proven that they could be one of the most dangerous teams in the country when the threes are going down when they shot 11-for-22 from deep against Kentucky, but the question was if that game was somewhat of a fluke.

East Carolina is not a team of the caliber of the Wildcats', but this is a second message to opponents that they must respect the Spartans' abilities from deep. Multiple individuals did it themselves: Jaxon Kohler went 4-of-4, Divine Ugochukwu was 3-for-4, and Jeremy Fears Jr. went 2-for-4. All three of those players averaged no more than 1.4 three-point attempts per game last year, but they showed that that aspect of their games has improved now.

Divine is Divine

Nov 25, 2025; Fort Myers, Florida, USA; Michigan State Spartans guard Divine Ugochukwu (99) controls the ball against the East Carolina Pirates in the second half at Suncoast Credit Union Arena. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

The performance that sticks out the most is Ugochukwu's. After scoring just 11 points over MSU's first five games of the season, he exploded for a career-high 16 on Tuesday. He also had two assists and two steals, while being plus-20 in 16 minutes.

It's the type of day that could pay dividends for Michigan State later this season. This is Ugochukwu's first game as a Spartan of truly high quality, and it should certainly get his confidence up.

He's a critical component of this roster, since he's the one who becomes the point guard when Fears is off the bench. That takes away perhaps the best distributor in college basketball and an elite defensive presence from the Spartans' on-court personnel, which puts plenty of pressure on Ugochukwu to perform.

Ugochukwu is still a sophomore who has some ways to go in his development, but if he can become a true offensive threat and play the defense he did on Tuesday, that would be huge.

21-1 Second-Half Run

The shining moment for Michigan State in this game was the massive run it went on during the second half.

MSU basically already had this game locked up before the run even started. The Spartans had a 52-30 advantage early in the second half. It's too early to completely take the foot off the pedal, but it seems like enough where it would have been easy to go 70 m.p.h. in the right line of the highway, rather than 100 m.p.h.

Instead, MSU revved up to 120. It was almost horrifying to watch; the Spartans had already ended the first half on a 38-15 extended run to build this advantage. They had already proven themselves to be multiple tiers above whatever basketball the Pirates were playing, but apparently the 22-point lead wasn't enough.

That 22-1 burst stretched the lead into the 40s, and Michigan State was more than doubling up ECU's point total for a while. To me, the run itself wasn't the most impressive part, but when it happened.

Nov 25, 2025; Fort Myers, Florida, USA; Michigan State Spartans head coach Tom Izzo looks on against the East Carolina Pirates in the first half at Suncoast Credit Union Arena. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Keep up with all our content when you follow the official Spartan Nation page on Facebook, Spartan Nation, WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE, and be sure to share your observations from MSU's win over East Carolina when you join our community group, Go Green Go White, WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE. Don't forget to give us a follow on X @MSUSpartansOnSI as well.