Well, that didn’t last long. One late night game into the season and Michigan State will already relinquish their #1 ranking to Kentucky after they fell to the Wildcats 69-62 in the Champions Classic. We have your full game recap to a frustrating, but not discouraging game for the Spartans.
Fouls and Turnovers
The seven-point loss by Michigan State can really be summed up in those two words above: Fouls and Turnovers. Michigan State may have only ended the game with two more fouls than Kentucky, but foul trouble kept Cassius Winston off the floor in some key moments where Kentucky really padded leads against the Spartans. Turnovers were an even worse issue, with the Spartans finishing with 16 turnovers to Kentucky’s 11. You put 5 turnovers and 2 fouls together and that just about accounts for the seven points that divided Kentucky and Michigan State tonight.
Those were Two Really Good Defenses
The amount of defensive talent on the floor tonight was pretty astounding. Both teams are loaded with mobile, agile defenders who fight on defense and fly around the court. For Kentucky, it was hard not to be impressed with the play of Hagans on Cassius. He made Winston fight for every single inch. For MSU, I was extremely impressed with Aaron Henry, and of course, Xavier Tillman was as strong as ever. I also thought that Bingham did look sturdier this year and held his own when he had to.
Point Guard Battle
This game ultimately came down to an absolute duel between Cassius Winston and Tyrese Maxey. Winston ended with 21 points while Maxey led the game with 26. Winston was constantly swarmed by Kentucky’s insanely good defensive guards and that, along with some spacing issues caused by a couple of new additions to the lineup, forced Winston into a tough shooting day, going 1-for-7 from three.
He was still able to use his savvy to shoot 11 free throws, which is where he did the bulk of his damage. Maxey on the other hand, wasn’t even the starter tonight but Calipari will probably have to change that after Maxey looked like an absolute star, sealing the game with a DEEP three over Aaron Henry.
Michigan State will face Binghamton on Sunday at 7pm ET at the Breslin Center.
