EAST LANSING - Michigan State got a reminder Tuesday night that the early-season puzzle isn’t really about Jeremy Fears Jr.
The point guard looked every bit like a centerpiece in the Spartans’ 78-70 exhibition loss to No. 5 Connecticut, pouring in 23 points and handing out eight assists. He shook off an early scare after falling in the second half, then came back and did most of his damage late, scoring 18 points and dealing six assists after halftime.
But the conversation after the game kept drifting back to the front line, where Michigan State is still sorting through Anton Bonke, Jesse McCulloch and Ethan Taylor.
That was the area Dan Hurley singled out after the Huskies handled Izzo’s No. 6 team. The Connecticut coach, who has won the last two national championships and knows a contender when he sees one, praised Michigan State’s roster while pointing directly to the issue.
“We root for Michigan State when they’re playing,” Hurley said after the game. “I mean, we've got the ultimate respect.”
Then he added: “I just think that they have everything you need to be a national championship contender. It’s just right now, they've got to figure out that center spot.”
Izzo agreed that the position is still unsettled.
“Yeah, we're a work in-progress at the center position,” he said. “But I think we've got to do some different things coaching-wise for it, too. And a few things different offensively that would help them.”
Bonke, a 7-foot-2 senior transfer, started for the second straight exhibition but never settled in. He logged only six first-half minutes, scored on a put-back, grabbed three rebounds and turned the ball over once. He did not play after halftime and left the locker room without speaking to reporters.
Izzo said the performance was part of a bigger evaluation that is still in motion.
“Some of the reasons were he just didn't seem as ready to play on a couple of things, but it wasn't all his fault, too,” Izzo said of Bonke. “There's no clarity yet because we're one game and a half in. The clarity will come probably five games, seven games from now.”
McCulloch, meanwhile, followed up his 20-point outing against Incarnate Word on Oct. 2 with another productive night off the bench. The 6-11 third-year sophomore scored eight points on 4-for-5 shooting and added four rebounds in 16 minutes.
“We've just got to be the consistent group on the team,” McCulloch said. “I feel like last year, the center and power forward were consistent.
And we've got to be that rock of this team. That’s what the center position really is.
So we've just got to find that and get into a rhythm and just be consistent in doing everything the coaching staff wants from us.”
Taylor may have been the most encouraging piece of the group. The freshman, a five-star recruit, used his 7-2, 252-pound frame to hold up against UConn’s physical front line, scoring five points on a pair of low-post baskets. He played eight of his 11 minutes after halftime and finished with two rebounds.
“It’s just getting everybody reps at the 5-spot,” Taylor said. “Me, Anton and Jesse, I feel like all of us can be good weapons, so that’s why they’re rotating us all.
Some of are gonna have good nights sometimes, and some of us are gonna have bad nights. So that’s why we have three good guys we can turn to.”
Michigan State also mixed in 6-9 forward Cam Ward at center after he missed the Incarnate Word game while recovering from a September ankle injury. Ward started at power forward next to Bonke and posted four points and six rebounds in 24 minutes.
“We didn’t respond well to them just punching at us first,” Ward said. “The physicality was definitely theirs all game. I just felt like they kind of out-physicaled us on a lot of the key things that we’re always great at.”
Hurley, though, came away impressed by what he saw from the Spartans’ big men.
“I think for them, if their team can figure out the center thing - they’ve got three viable guys there, and they all bring different things,” he said. “I think once they get the center thing together, I think they’ve got one of the best teams in the country.”
Taylor called that praise “certainly a motivating thing” as Michigan State finishes exhibition play at Marquette on Sunday and then opens the regular season next Tuesday against Quinnipiac.
“It gives us something to live up to and gives us something to strive toward,” he said. “We just have a lot more to show, because we’re all very capable.”
In Other News...
Tom Izzo Sent A Clear Message To MSU Fans In Loss
Tom Izzo spent part of Michigan States exhibition loss doing something that rarely comes with a scoreboard: trying to calm the building down. During UConns visit to the Breslin Center on Oct. 20, the crowd turned hostile toward Huskies coach Dan Hurley, and Izzo made it clear he wanted the chants to stop while the two sides played a game that carried real early-season buzz despite being an exhibition. No. 5 UConn left East Lansing with a 78-70 win over No. 6 Michigan State, but the night also carried the kind of edge that comes with two highly ranked programs meeting in front of a fired-up crowd.
Afterward, both coaches kept the focus on respect. Izzo and Hurley each praised the others team and coaching, which fit the tone of a matchup that had plenty of intensity without crossing the line into a full-blown showdown. For Michigan State, the result mattered less than the reminder that the Spartans are already in the kind of high-profile games where the environment can tilt fast, and Izzo seemed intent on making sure the message from the home side was about basketball, not the crowd. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Heads To UCLA With A Sudden QB Problem
Michigan State is heading into its trip to UCLA with its quarterback picture suddenly in flux, and that is not the kind of issue a team wants to be sorting out on the road. Starter Alessio Milivojevic is listed as questionable because of an unspecified injury, while backup Cam Fancher is already out, leaving the Spartans to consider other options behind center as the week moves on.
If Milivojevic cannot go, Michigan State may have to turn to true freshman Kayd Coffman or second-year quarterback Leo Hannan. Coffman arrives with only limited game experience but came in as a highly rated recruit in the 2026 class, which at least gives the Spartans some long-term upside even as they try to piece together the short-term answer for a crucial Big Ten matchup. [Read more 🡒]
Jeremy Fears Jr Just Gave Michigan State Fans Real Reason To Dream
The Associated Press preseason All-America team gave Michigan State another jolt of national attention, and it came with Jeremy Fears Jr. at the center of it. The Spartans guard was named preseason Player of the Year for 2026-27 and came close to being a unanimous All-American, a sign of how quickly his stock has risen entering the new season. It is the kind of recognition that carries beyond Lansing, especially for a program that always measures itself against the national picture.
The AP list was built around five returning players from last season, with Thomas Haugh, Tyler Tanner, David Mirkovic and Motiejus Krivas joining Fears on the team. For Michigan State, the bigger takeaway is what Fears placement says about the ceiling of this roster and the attention that comes with it. Preseason honors do not decide anything, but they do sharpen expectations, and this one gives Spartan fans plenty of reason to believe the conversation around their team could be bigger than usual. [Read more 🡒]