CHICAGO – As Jordan Scott elevated for his sixth and most important block of the night, Dame Sarr turned and watch the ball he shot flying into the expensive seats next to Duke‘s bench.
Scott came down from the stratosphere of United Center and landed with a guttural yell. Jasiah Jervis gave him a chest-bump, and the rest of his Michigan State teammates hustled over to dap him up, as well.
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“I might’ve jumped higher than Coen [Carr] over there,” Scott said later with a grin and a laugh.
Duke Blue Devils center Patrick Ngongba II (21) forward Dame Sarr (7) and Michigan State Spartans forward Jordan Scott (6) go for the ball during the second half in the Champions Classic in Chicago at the United Center on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026.
In one swooping moment, and throughout a thorough 79-73 victory over No. 2 Duke in the Champions Classic, the fifth-ranked Spartans delivered a sweeping statement to the Blue Devils and the rest of the college basketball world.
And their defense and toughness were their calling cards.
“We knew that they were a tough team, they were a physical team,” said point guard Jeremy Fears Jr., who had 18 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds, a steal and a block. “And at the same time, we knew that we had a chance with the game in our hands. Our goal is to always play physical, play tough. … So we just wanted to play our best brand of basketball, and hopefully that led to something good.”
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MSU (3-0) had eight blocked shots as a team and seven steals among 13 forced turnovers, scoring 16 points off of those takeaways. The Spartans never trailed and held Duke (2-1) to just 33.3% shooting overall and 7-for-29 from 3-point range.
It was the type of blue-collar a performance against a blueblood that makes Tom Izzo a happy coach – “I did think we played with a little more toughness” – even though he admitted it still is only three games into the season and merely an in-the-moment measuring stick.
But also a proud program moment for Izzo, who is now 4-15 all-time against the Blue Devils and 2-4 against them in the Champions Classic.
“Now, they deserve what they’ve gotten against us, but we haven’t taken a backseat to anybody, either,” Izzo said. “And I don’t plan on taking a backseat in the near future or in the far future, to be honest with you.”
The Spartans asserted their dominance early, staggering Duke off the tip with an 11-2 run over the first 2:33. They forced the Blue Devils into five turnovers in the first 3:36.
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“That’s our main thing. We definitely have been talking on that with the exhibition games and these past couple of weeks,” said Carr, who had two steals in that starting surge. “We just try to bear down. And coming against one of the best Duke teams that they’ve probably had on paper, we just have to play defense, and that’s it.”
At the epicenter of it was Scott, a long-armed, 6-foot-8, 203-pound wing who had a steal early and was an active and disruptive force getting deflections defensively.
WINDSOR: Jordan Scott is a menace, and exactly what Michigan State needs
Scott then proceeded to swat his five first-half shots in an 8-minute, 27-second stretch that followed as the Spartans built their lead to as many as 10 points and carried a 34-25 cushion into the break.
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Forward Cam Ward, who has played basketball with and against Scott since they were kids growing up in the metro DC area, called his sophomore classmate “the X-factor on defense – he does it all.”
“It was crazy, just knowing that he’s active like that,” said Ward, who had 11 of his 14 points and five of his six rebounds off the bench in the first half. “I think it goes unnoticed that he’s probably our best defender. Well, not probably, he is. And he might be our best shot blocker after tonight. … It just shows he’s a competitor, he’s a winner.
“He’s just everything that we need him to be. There’s never a moment where we’re questioning if Jordan is playing hard, there’s never a moment that we question if Jordan is locked in.”
Fears gave MSU its biggest lead at 14 points with 13:37 to play when he grabbed a defensive rebound, raced the length of the floor and scored through a foul on Duke’s Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje. As he celebrated, Fears found his way to another former MSU point guard sitting on the sideline, Steve Smith, and slapped hands with the TV analyst.
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“Michigan State, they did a lot of that to us. We did not, the whole night, just play through any resistance,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “They’re physical. They have great experience. I thought that showed tonight.”
Michigan State Spartans guard Jeremy Fears Jr. (1) goes to the basket as Duke Blue Devils center Patrick Ngongba II (21) defends him during the second half in the Champions Classic in Chicago at the United Center on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026.
The Blue Devils kept counterpunching, though, pulling back within five points with 2:03 to play on Caleb Foster’s two free throws. Then it was time for Scott, who in some ways is a new-era version of Smith, to ensure it didn’t slip away.
Scott got the ball on the left wing, then blew by the Duke defense for a layup with 1:51 to play. At the other end, he ripped down a defensive board to prevent another Blue Devils possession and set up Fears for two free throws.
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Then with 32.4 seconds left, Scott high-pointed the shot by Sarr and spiked any hope Duke had of rallying.
Despite scoring just five points on 2-for-7 shooting, Scott also had a career high with nine rebounds. His six blocked shots tied him for fifth most in MSU single-game history with Szymon Zapala, Marcus Bingham Jr. (twice), Xavier Tillman, Deyonta Davis, Matt Costello and Draymond Green. The school record is eight (Kenny Goins, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Ken Johnson), while Bingham also had seven in a game.
“That was about as good as game as you can have for a guy that went 2 for 7, 1 for 4 from the 3. Not impressive,” Izzo said. “And yet he probably changed the whole game himself with his defense, with his rebounding, with his effort-related stats.
“That’s what we talked to our team about. You can put up with mistakes early in the year not effort-related.”
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The Spartans return to more reasonable nonconference action when they host Northern Iowa on Friday. Tipoff is 7 p.m. at Breslin Center (FS1). The Panthers (2-1) beat Green Bay at home on Tuesday night, 89-76.
But on the other side of that looms another highly anticipated and visible showdown, when MSU travels to face No. 9 Tennessee in Knoxville next Tuesday, Nov. 17.
“Getting an early, big win like this,” Scott said, “I think it’s gonna help propel us through the whole season.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State’s ferocious defense is its ‘best brand of basketball’
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
