Tom Izzo is on to his 17th Sweet 16. The milestone moves him ahead of longtime Louisville coach Denny Crum, appropriate then that it was the Cardinals we defeated to make it to the next weekend. Later on Saturday, John Calipari equaled that mark with the Arkansas win over High Point, though he has done it with multiple schools. If you are wondering if the record is in site, Coach K did it 26 times. But Izzo is now in the top 4.
In Michigan State’s two wins over the opening weekend of the 2026 NCAA Tournament, a 92-67 win over North Dakota State and a 77-69 win over Louisville, we saw some positives and negatives from our Spartans. Both games never felt in doubt, though the Cardinals proved to be a pesky opponent that would not stay down. In this article, I am going to break down some of the trends I noticed in these two games to try identifying where MSU fans should remain hopeful that more wins are on the way, as well as the areas that this team still needs to fix as the competition, presumably, becomes tougher.
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3 Things I Liked:
1. Jeremy “Magic” Fears Jr. Let’s start with the easiest and most obvious topic. On Saturday against Louisville, Jeremy Fears Jr. recorded 16 assists. That ties him for the third most assists in a single NCAA Tournament game ever. The others who had 16 dimes were Ja Morant, Earl Watson, and Sam Crawford. Mark Wade had 18 in a game back in 1987 for UNLV. Painfully, the record was set against us just a few years ago when Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell had 19 in the 2023 Sweet 16 game.
Through two games, Fears has dished out 27 assists, and while I can’t find any information on records through the first two games of an NCAA Tournament, I think it is safe to say that Fears is at or near the top of that list, too. Something else that feels safe to say is that Fears will continue to create at a historic pace. He has had at least 8 dimes in all but one of his past 12 games, and double digits in 7 of those games. The game has slowed down for him, his ability to see the whole court is elite, and his ability to perceive where his teammates are going to move in any given play is supernatural. So long as the other four Spartans on the floor are moving, Fears will get them the ball for an easy score.
2. Coen Carr becoming the X-Factor. Pardon me if I am trying to recreate the Grid Game here. If Fears is the superstar, which he is, then Flight 55 is the x-factor. In the two tourney games thus far, he has scored 17 and 21 points. His career high was 22 which he scored against Oakland earlier this season, admittedly a lower-level opponent. The 38 he has put up in these two games is the second best two-game output he has had for MSU; he followed up his 22-point game with 19 against Cornell. Doing this in the tournament, however, makes this stretch his most impressive. It has not just been his scoring. Against Louisville, he also led the team in rebounds with 10, and against NDSU, he had a stat line of 4 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.
Carr has elevated (see what I did there) his energy and intensity. He is fighting for, and securing, rebounds against taller opponents. He is helping the offensive flow by becoming a more willing dribbler, taking the ball into the interior of opposing defenses looking for his own shot or to dish it to an open teammate when he draws a double-team. He is also helping stretch those defenses as he is suddenly a legitimate threat from deep, going 3-6 on his threes in these two games.
In our tournament predictions article, one of the questions is who needs to step up in the opening weekend. Mike was the only one to give Carr a mention. If Coen can continue to score in bunches, as well as stuff the stat sheet’s other categories, it will only make it that much easier for Fears to make things happen for the other three on the floor.
3. The emergence of the bench scorers. Against the Bison, Cam Ward scored 13, Trey Fort added 7, Denham Wojcik had 4, and Kur Teng had 3. I’ll even mention that Jesse McCulloch hit a 3 when Tom Izzo cleared the bench. Against Louisville, Fort poured in 12, Teng contributed 7, and Ward had one bucket. The bench has been very hit-or-miss for MSU this season. Having back-to-back games where the reserves have given us at least 20 points is a massive development that cannot be overlooked. This needs to continue so Izzo and staff feel confident giving the starters short rests throughout the games.
Bonus Like: Carson Cooper for 3! Coop has now hit 2 in a row from deep, the other being the gem he hit in our beatdown of Maryland in January. Here’s hoping for one more of those in this tournament for Cooper.
3 Things I Disliked:
1. Non-Fears assists regression. In game one against North Dakota State, MSU had 26 assists, 15 of those coming from players other than Jeremy Fears. Several guys had two and Cooper had three. Against Louisville, the team totaled 22 assists, but Fears had 16 of them; no one else had more than one. Maybe it was a case of the team wanting to pad Fears’ assists tally with everyone just looking to score once they got it from their point guard. But there was a noticeable decline in ball movement from the first game and the offense did not look quite as synchronized. Hopefully a few extra days to prepare for the next round will bring some of that back.
2. Giving up the open 3. MSU was actually very good in this category in the opener against NDSU. The Bison finished going 6-25 from deep, or 24%. However, two days later, we allowed Louisville to launch 37 shots from behind the arc. While the Cardinals only hit 13 of those, an acceptable 35%, way too many of those attempts were unguarded. This was the big concern we had going into the tournament, and it was what allowed Louisville to prevent MSU from truly pulling away yesterday. In the second half alone, Louisville attempted 19 3PTs, basically one per minute. They converted 9 of them. Michigan State’s defense needs to do a better job sticking to their assignment and not allow our next opponent to rely on the deep ball to put up a ton of points from the perimeter.
3. Turnovers. Against North Dakota State, Michigan State coughed the ball up a dozen times, the same amount as the Bison. However, our turnovers led to 15 points off turnovers for NDSU, while we only turned their pastries into 12 points. This is usually a category we dominate in, in large part due to our speed and ability to get on the run in a hurry when we do force a turnover. It was worse against Louisville, and it was the second issue that allowed the final score to be as close as it was. On Saturday, MSU’s 15 turnovers led to 20 points for the Cardinals. On the flip side, Louisville only lost the ball 11 times, which the Spartans only managed to turn into 7 points. Not acceptable. I’ll state the obvious. As the opponents get tougher, we can’t continue to be handing them as many easy scores.
What do you think, TOC Nation? What are your pros and cons through MSU’s first two games?