East Lansing — For a player who’d just scored 17 points and corralled 18 rebounds in a 79-60 win over San Jose State, Jaxon Kohler sure had a pensive mood sitting in Michigan State’s locker room Thursday night. The Michigan State forward sat disappointed, frustrated even, as he broke down his performance.
“I want to get the numbers the right way,” he lamented.
After a win. Really, it was a blowout.
But not the kind of blowout Michigan State expected. Not the right way. Upstairs that night at a podium in the Breslin Center media room, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo made it clear that no matter how many players broke career highs or how wide the final lead stood, what mattered to him was the process behind it all. And there was a lot to be disappointed in there, after the Spartans came out flat in the second half — an evident hangover from beating Arkansas the week before.
“We got fat and sassy at halftime,” Izzo said. “And for two seniors and a junior to get fat and sassy, that tells me that we’re not where we need to be, which is the good thing.”
The good thing, because No. 17 Michigan State (3-0) got a reminder of how much ground there is to make up before its next game. The Spartans face yet another SEC juggernaut — No. 12 Kentucky (3-1) in the Champions Classic this Tuesday at Madison Square Garden (6:30 p.m./ESPN).
Given a weekend to mull over Thursday’s outing, on Sunday Izzo doubled down on the principles he has built his program around the past three decades. He has high standards. That’s well-known. It’s not his job to coddle his players with praise and platitudes. And if the Spartans want to get anywhere near the goals each player set at the beginning of the season, it’s his job to push for constant improvement.
“These guys — compared to the guys that I used to coach — they can take it,” Izzo said Sunday. “If mommies can take it, and agents can take it, and runners can take it, they can take every much the same. Because they’re human beings, and human beings are meant to be pushed, and if they aren’t meant to be pushed, I wouldn’t have a job.”
Michigan State’s players understand the expectations of playing for Izzo’s team. His tough love and high standards are the reason some of his players chose this program, same as the spotlight games like Tuesday’s. Those are another means of comparing what his team really is, stacked against the nation’s best.
“Here and there, you see the potential of what we can do and what we can be, but we have to make sure that we learn the small things,” Kohler said Thursday.
The same could be said about Kentucky, a team full of talent on paper that has had its ups and downs to start the season. Through four games, Mark Pope’s Wildcats have won a 77-51 controlled burn and a pair of blowouts on lesser opponents. It also lost to rival Louisville, 96-88, in a game it trailed big in the first half.
If Michigan State has been inconsistent thus far, then so has Kentucky. Whichever team can play closest to its peak form may be the one that leaves Madison Square Garden with a big win.
Breaking down the Wildcats
Kentucky may be, pound for pound, one of the best teams in college basketball this season. In his second year in Lexington, Pope constructed a strong contender to follow up last year’s 24–12 Sweet 16 team. Four players are averaging double-digit scoring, led by Denzel Aberdeen’s 15.3 points per game.
Kentucky’s best lineups lean on three-guard, small-ball looks — if you can even call it that when the smallest guy is 6-foot-5 and 195 pounds. It’s a quick, athletic group, one that excels in the tenets that Izzo’s own program values — defending, rebounding and running. Among Division I teams, Kentucky ranks seventh in rebounding margin (17.8 rebounds) and 14th in opponent field-goal percentage (34.4%). Its fastbreak is a lot stronger than 18 points per game (58th).
Last game’s starters
▶ Aberdeen, guard: Jaland Lowe is this team’s truest traditional point guard, but Pope has started Aberdeen (6-5, 195) there the past three games with Lowe dealing with a pair of shoulder injuries. The senior Aberdeen played three seasons at Florida and helped the Gators to the national title last season. The Orlando native left home to join Kentucky.
▶ Otega Oweh, guard: One of the best shooting guards in the country, Oweh (6-4, 220) led Kentucky with 16.2 points and 1.6 steals per game a year ago. He took his name out of the NBA Draft pool in May to play his senior year. He’ll play close to home Tuesday — he grew up in Newark, on the other side of the Hudson River.
▶ Collin Chandler, guard: Chandler is shooting 56.5% from 3 so far this young season, and his 14 assists ranks second on the team. Whether he can keep his hot start going remains to be seen, but the 6-foot-5, 205-pound sophomore from Utah is making up for a lot of poor shooting by his teammates, who average 28.6% from 3 without him.
▶ Mouhamed Dioubate, forward: Dioubate (6-7, 220) played for Alabama teams that made the Final Four and Elite Eight the past two seasons, but he left for Kentucky to play more minutes, making his first four career starts this season. He averages 12.0 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
▶ Brandon Garrison, forward: Garrison came off the bench last season after coming in as a freshman starter at Oklahoma State, about an hour north of his hometown Oklahoma City. At 6-foot-10, 245 pounds, Garrison starts at center for the Wildcats where he averages 7.3 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. Kentucky’s true center, 7-footer Malachi Moreno, splits time with Garrison and is leading the team with 7.5 rebounds plus 10.5 points off the bench.
The Mecca of basketball
Michigan State returns to Madison Square Garden for the 23rd time in program history Tuesday, a little less than 10 months since it beat Rutgers there, 81-74, on Jan. 25. Michigan State is 5-17 all-time at MSG, nicknamed the Mecca of Basketball, and 5-13 under Izzo.
The returners from last year’s team say they can draw on that experience when going into what’s likely to be a raucous environment.
“Nothing like it,” point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. said. “Just being able to play this year with this group (against) Kentucky, a different type of environment, which is something we look forward to and we’re ready to get started.”
The Champions Classic always brings out the spectacle as four teams — Kentucky, Duke, Kansas and Michigan State — who usually feature heavily in March Madness show off their early season form.
The last time Michigan State and Kentucky met was at 2022’s Champions Classic in Indianapolis, where Michigan State beat Kentucky, 86-77, in double overtime. John Calipari coached those Wildcats, two years before departing for Arkansas, who made a stop at Breslin Center last Saturday. Izzo says he doesn’t know Mark Pope quite as well. Give it time.
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