Michigan State Triumphs Over Kentucky in Champions Classic

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00:00All right, another season of Tom Izzo basketball in Michigan State off to a good start, 83-66.

00:05They end up beating Kentucky, who was ranked higher than them, going into this game.

00:10Jeremy Fears, 8 points, 13 assists, 6 rebounds, his plus-minus, plus-19.

00:17Does Tom Izzo have another team this season, Mike?

00:20I mean, it seems like at least ranked better than they were at the start of last year.

00:23I know that team had to kind of scrounge to get into the tournament.

00:26Yeah, you see the value of having a point guard like Jeremy Fears, 13 assists.

00:32And I think he's had no fewer than eight assists in any game so far this season.

00:37And that's with a team that began the year struggling to make shots.

00:41Last night at the Garden, Kentucky found out that what was on the scouting report wasn't on the floor

00:46because all these guys that hadn't made any shots at all started draining threes,

00:51Kurt Ang being the most obvious of that group, but they had a lot of different guys come out and make threes.

00:58And some of that was Kentucky being too compliant on defense, but some of it was the confidence that built up

01:04with Michigan State through the course of that game.

01:06And also, as I mentioned, Fears getting the ball to guys when they were open and in great position to shoot

01:12and putting it in the shooting pocket so that they could get off the shot before the defense was able to close.

01:18Fears is a tremendous player.

01:20They've got great power up front.

01:22Cone Carr is the most dynamic player in all of college basketball.

01:27And I'm not even sure it's close.

01:29He's a future.

01:30If they ever have the slam dunk contest again, Craig, and I'm not sure whether they will.

01:35If they do, he's a future slam dunk champion.

01:38The guy's above the rim the whole game.

01:40But what Tom has done is built, is continued to address the culture of his program.

01:47This is how Michigan State's going to be.

01:49Will he dabble in the transfer portal?

01:51Yes.

01:52But he's not going to turn over his whole roster from year to year.

01:55He wants guys who want to be Spartans.

01:57And so far, it's looking pretty good.

01:58He's looking pretty good.