What to Look for During MSU's Exhibition at UConn
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Michigan State will play its last exhibition game on Tuesday night, as the Spartans are in Storrs to take on Connecticut. The contest will be a great litmus test for 22nd-ranked MSU; the Huskies are No. 4 in the preseason AP Poll.
The Spartans defeated Bowling Green, 75-66, during their first exhibition game last Thursday. UConn took down Boston College, 71-52, on Oct. 13.
Several things were clear from Michigan State's first go against live competition: Coen Carr is looking to score more, and Jeremy Fears Jr. appears to be a much more confident three-point shooter, for example. But that's against a MAC team; the Huskies are one of the best programs in the sport, with back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024.
On this episode of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast, let's break down some of the key players for MSU in this one and some of the things Spartan fans should be hoping to see before the games start counting. Michigan State's season opener is against Colgate on Monday, Nov. 3.
Watch the MSU Spartans Insider Podcast here:
In addition, a partial transcript from head coach Tom Izzo's postgame press conference following the BGSU exhibition has been provided.
Tom Izzo
IZZO: What an exhibition game. You know, I thought there was some really good things that we did and there were some really poor things that we did. I felt like we got out and ran.
I'll take the negatives first. I didn't think we guarded anybody. Second half, we were a little better. That was very disappointing, the defense that we played. We didn't rebound the ball very well, but when you don't play good defense and you let teams penetrate on you, you never rebound the ball as well, because they're either getting layups or they're getting penetration and other people help. So, I understood that.
I was actually very impressed, the first half, offensively. I thought we moved the ball well, thought we got a lot of good shots. We missed some early, then we made a bunch later on and got a good lead.
I think the ball movement, I thought was great. When you have 24 assists on 27 baskets...
You know, we had 14 blocks. I don't know how that happened. We're not a shot-blocking team. And we only had eight turnovers. So those were the serious, serious positives.
The negatives are the free-throw line. We've worked so hard on that, and I feel bad for Coen [Carr] because he shot the living daylights out of it in practice, so I'm not as concerned that that'll be a consistent thing. But if you make some of those free throws early, you're a lot better.
I thought we had some really good three-point opportunities, and I think we're a better shooting team than we were last year, and yet we didn't make some really good shots.
We tried to play a lot of people. Jordan [Scott], who's been playing real well, probably played the least amount of minutes that we're hoping he would play. We're trying to get him up to 12 or 14, but other than that, we kept it pretty much what we thought we would.
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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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