Michigan State has collected two wins over Top 25 opponents in the first month of the season.
The 17th-ranked Spartans will now look to remain undefeated while participating in the Fort Myers (Fla.) Tip-Off tournament this week.
They’ll have a Tuesday afternoon matchup with unranked East Carolina before a Thanksgiving Day showdown with another traditional powerhouse, No. 18 North Carolina.
Michigan State (5-0) has recorded quality victories over Arkansas and Kentucky. The Spartans followed up their 83-66 thumping of the Wildcats last Tuesday with an 84-56 victory over Detroit Mercy on Friday.
However, coach Tom Izzo wasn’t particularly pleased with his team’s latest outing.
“We had a great practice (Thursday) and I thought that’s one of the things they’re learning is how to do — good practices that lead to good games. It’s like studying for the test, then you got to take the test,” Izzo said. “We studied pretty good for the test. I didn’t think we did a very good job, and that doesn’t take anything away from what they’d done.
“We just missed, I mean, we airballed some wide-open shots. If you ask me, the guy that should be upset should be (Jeremy) Fears, not me. He would have had 15, 16 assists (Friday) if they just hit regular shots.”
Fears still finished with a strong stat line. He had 18 points and 11 assists in 28 minutes with only one turnover.
Fears is averaging a double-double at 11.8 points and 10.4 assists.
“I’m going to always want more out of Jeremy because that’s me,” Izzo said. “But those numbers are about as good as any guard I’ve had here in a while. And his total numbers, they weren’t against all creampuffs. They were against good teams.”
Jaxon Kohler leads the Spartans in scoring (15.2 points per game) and rebounding (9.8).
East Carolina (2-3) has lost its last two games, most recently a 77-65 decision to Charleston Southern on Friday.
Giovanni Emejuru had a double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds as the Pirates scored 44 points in the paint. However, the Buccaneers made 15 3-pointers, while the Pirates sank just two of 11 attempts from beyond the arc.
“We wanted to play in the paint and we accomplished that, but it just wasn’t enough,” coach Michael Schwartz said. “The 3-point line was obviously a big difference.”
East Carolina also has lost to Richmond and UNC Wilmington. It faces not only the Spartans but unbeaten St. Bonaventure in Fort Myers.
“Just got to keep your head up right now,” Schwartz said. “We’ve got to get better than this. You don’t have time to hang your shoulders and sulk. We’re all extremely disappointed. The team is upset, they’re fighting it. This is a high care factor group of guys.”
The Pirates were projected to finish 10th in the 13-team American Athletic Conference but they have much higher expectations.
“This team will figure it out, we’re working diligently every single day,” Schwartz said. “There’s not a player or coach that doesn’t have an extreme high passion and care factor to get this right.”
