1. MSU shows it can do more than compete with the top teams in college basketball
EAST LANSING — Man, did Michigan State need that.
The Spartans needed to win one of these shots against the top few teams in college basketball. For a long while Saturday night, this one looked like it was going to go the way of the others.
Instead, MSU had enough this time.
I don’t think MSU is better than Illinois — you don’t prove that by winning 85-82 in overtime at home. But I think the Spartans needed to know they could do more than play with the Illini, or Michigan, or Duke. Those are the sort of teams they’ll have to beat in the second and third weekends of the NCAA tournament.
And, on a given day, MSU showed it has the goods. The Spartans have work still to do if they’re going to beat this sort of team regularly. But if you can do it once and be in the game every time, you’ve got a chance.
They played through some things Saturday — Jordan Scott’s cut and stitches above his eye, the back of Coen Carr’s head slamming against the court. They made enough shots, with Jaxon Kohler hitting three 3s and Kur Teng hitting the biggest one of his career in the final 10 seconds of regulation. They defended the 3-point line reasonably well, holding a scary-shooting Illini team to 28%. They went after rebounds like their season depended on it, out-rebounding their sizable opponent 48-38. They attacked this game with grit and vigor right from the jump.
And their best players came through, doing what they do best. Jeremy Fears tallied 26 points and 15 assists, with 11 points in overtime, the ball almost entirely in his hands. Kohler had 16 rebounds, the most he’s had since November, including one on the offensive end among the trees at the end of regulation that led to Teng’s big 3. The Spartans, Jordan Scott and Fears, held Illinois star freshman Keaton Wagler to 2-for-16 shooting. Scott had another strong performance.
All of it was enough. Finally.
MSU is a really good team. The team we saw in Saturday night’s win over the Illini might win last year’s Big Ten and should be a fierce out deep in this year’s NCAA tournament. And, on a given night, as they showed Saturday, who knows?
The Spartans have seen the top of college basketball this season three times, against Duke, Michigan and now Illinois, all at Breslin Center. In each game, they’ve had the lead well into the second half. This time, they finished.
It’s a heckuva way to emerge from a midseason slump.
2. An important showing by Cam Ward
This was the version of Cam Ward I thought we’d see regularly the way he started the season. I think we might have more often earlier had he not suffered a wrist injury on Thanksgiving. His aggressiveness attacking the rim Saturday — on the glass and with the ball — stood out Saturday. It really began with his dribbling fast-break dunk over 7-foot-2 Zvonimir Ivisic to tie the game, 12-12, early on.
Later, after fouling a 3-point shooter on one end, he scored through Zvonimir Ivisic in the post, as MSU was battling to stay within striking distance. His tip-in in overtime with a minute left came close to clinching the win.
Ward finished with eight points and seven rebounds. He was a team-best plus-15 in 18 minutes. No one else was better than plus-six.
“I think if anybody needed a game like this, it was him,” Tom Izzo said.
That was the sort of impact game the Spartans need from Ward night in and night out the rest of the way.
3. The trip that that wasn’t, but looked like it was
I don’t know what was in Jeremy Fears Jr.’s head as Illinois’ Zvonimir Ivisic approached him from behind running down the court with a little more than three minutes left in the first half. It looked like Fears stuck out of his foot slightly after Ivisic arrived, sending Ivisic tumbling to the ground, as Fears found Jaxon Kohler for 3-pointer, tying the game 31-31.
Illinois coach Brad Underwood was incensed. A possession later, the refs stopped play mid-Fears dribble to review it. No foul. Nothing over the line, in their opinion. Opinions were varied on press row.
“There was nothing on the trip,” Underwood said after the game. “They looked at it. (Fears) stops and it’s what he does. He was terrific. … He’s crafty, he’s smart and he did a nice job tonight.”
People are watching Fears. He’s got to be smart or it’s going to really cost him and this MSU team at some point. That play raised some doubts.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU basketball beats Illinois in overtime: 3 quick takes
