There are certain games that remind you just how dangerous a Tom Izzo-coached Michigan State team can be. Tuesday night's 79-73 victory over Duke was one of them.
On a national stage against the No. 2 team in the country, the fifth-ranked Spartans looked every bit like a team capable of competing for a national championship. They controlled the game from the opening tip, imposed their physicality defensively, dominated stretches of play and received contributions from throughout their rotation.
It was the kind of performance Michigan State fans have hoped for from Izzo's best teams, but that hasn’t always materialized in recent years.
The most encouraging part? Izzo believes this team still has considerable room to grow.
"We played in our best basketball of the year," Izzo said afterward. "But we're three games into the year, so big deal."
That response says plenty about the expectations inside the Michigan State program. The Spartans just knocked off one of the country's premier teams, yet their head coach is already thinking about how much better they can become.
And that's an exciting proposition for a team that appears to have all of the ingredients necessary to make a championship run.
The foundation that Izzo has built starts with the defense.
Izzo has built his program around a familiar philosophy: defend, rebound and run. It's a formula that has carried Michigan State to national prominence for decades, and Tuesday night offered a glimpse of what it can look like when this group executes it.
The Spartans held Duke to 33.3% shooting from the field and just 25 first-half points. They disrupted passing lanes, protected the rim and made life difficult for a Blue Devils team loaded with talent.
This wasn’t just a Duke team filled with elite young talent, but perhaps the most experienced Blue Devils squad in years — returning numerous starters and adding some of the top transfers in the country.
Jordan Scott was at the center of that defensive effort for MSU.
The sophomore wing finished with just five points, but had nine rebounds, two steals and six blocks, delivering one of the most impactful defensive performances in recent Michigan State memory.
