Indiana basketball needs a Quad 1 win. It whiffed against Louisville, Kentucky and most recently, Nebraska. But thankfully, as much as the Big Ten can take, the Big Ten gives just as much.
Awaiting Indiana next is newly ranked No. 12 Michigan State and legendary head coach Tom Izzo. Izzo and the Spartans returned to national prominence a year ago, winning the Big Ten for the first time since 2020 and are looking to repeat, with a very good chance to do so.
Indiana has been dreadful on the road so far in 2025 with its only away win being against a wounded Maryland with little to no home crowd behind it, and otherwise holding a 0-2 record in true road environments. Michigan State under the Breslin Center roof is a different animal.
Spartan personnel
If one thing is for certain, Izzo teams will always do three things tremendously well, have above average guard play, convert mid range shots and play at a fast pace.
One of the main Spartans who fits all of that is All-Big Ten caliber redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears, one of the best assisters and mid-range shooters in the Big Ten. Fears is the closest thing Michigan State has had to legendary assister Cassius Winston since his departure in 2020. Fears will not overwhelm you with his scoring, but that is what he wants to create for his teammates.
Teammates such as bigs Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper have similar characteristics offensively but also are very different. Kohler has transcended into a stretch five who has added a 3-point shot to his game, mostly off pick and pops from either Fears or backup point guard Divine Ugochukwu, a transfer from Miami who has missed some recent games but played 22 minutes against Northwestern. Cooper is a traditional big and is a great offensive (and defensive) rebounder, and frankly so are the Spartans as a whole, the team ranks second in the conference in total rebounding.
It’s not great but it hasn’t been as bad as recent years as MSU’s 3-point efficiency ranks sixth in the Big Ten at 36%. Kur Teng has been Michigan State’s main culprit from 3-point range, shooting 3s at 35%.
Coen Carr will get his own paragraph as the Georgia native junior has taken the world by storm with his dunking ability. However, the rest of the conference is letting Carr take any shot outside of the paint that he desires due to a disappointing output on jumpers. Nebraska and Northwestern let him take a ton of shots. In those two games combined Carr was 4-of-11 from the field at 0-for-4 on 3s.
Michigan State also features some new faces who are decent scorers given their minutes averages. Cam Ward and Jordan Scott are two true freshmen who will be great Izzo products in a couple years, averaging 5.7 and 3.9 points per game and double digit minutes. Plus, Trey Fort who transferred in from Samford.
How can Indiana win this game?
Indiana is going to have to make shots, much like every Big Ten team does on the road. It is possible as Nebraska hit shots at Illinois, Wisconsin hit shots at Michigan and Illinois hit shots at Iowa.
For a team like IU who has All-Conference level shooters with Lamar Wilkerson, Tucker DeVries, Nick Dorn and even Tayton Conerway, who has shown he can knock down the long ball in recent games, Indiana will have a fighter’s chance on this front.
Indiana will have a massive disadvantage in the front court as Cooper and Kohler have bigger size on Reed Bailey, Sam Alexis and Trent Sisley.
Hoosier fans have seen Indiana win at Breslin in the not too distant past. Heck, it has seen worse Hoosier teams win at Breslin in the not too distant past, of course last season and 2019 (neither of those Hoosier squads made the NCAA tournament.)
An interesting note from last season's game, Indiana was 3-of-13 from distance and MSU was 4-of-23. Indiana won by four, 71-67.
Indiana can beat Michigan State but a lot has to go right. The game will tip off in East Lansing at 8 p.m. on Peacock Tuesday night.
