No. 6 Michigan State opened the season the way a top team should, brushing aside Quinnipiac in a XX-XX win Monday night at the Breslin Center.
The Spartans are 1-0 now, and the next stop comes Thursday against Toledo at 8 p.m. ET on Peacock before a trip to Chicago to face No.
2 Duke.
For Tom Izzo, the bigger story was not just the result but the first real look at this group. And there was plenty to like in the debut.
Carlos Medlock Jr. gave Michigan State the kind of burst off the bench it badly needed a year ago. In his first official college shift, he came in and immediately changed the pace, scoring nine points and adding two assists in the first half.
That kind of backup point guard production was missing last season, when it often felt like the Spartans couldn’t afford to take Jeremy Fears Jr. off the floor against better teams. It also mattered because Medlock had been uneven in the exhibitions, so Monday looked like a welcome confidence boost for him as much as anything else.
The freshman class may already be solving a couple of MSU’s problem spots. Medlock looks like the score-first reserve point guard the Spartans were searching for, while Jasiah Jervis has the look of the crafty two-guard they lacked. Jervis didn’t shoot it especially well Monday, but he kept working to get good looks off the ball and came close on several of them.
Medlock’s one rough edge was at the foul line. He missed all four of his free throws, including three on one trip. That may not linger as a concern, especially since he didn’t get to the line at all during the three exhibition games and could have been dealing with first-game nerves.
Anton Bonke also delivered a performance that stood out. He started at center, though that may have been because Jesse McCulloch was out with a “minor concussion,” according to Izzo before the game. Either way, Bonke made the most of the opportunity and posted a double-double in his first game wearing green and white, finishing with 11 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks.
His night didn’t begin cleanly. He lost the ball off his foot on the opening possession and later got pulled after taking an ill-advised three. But he settled in after that and played to his strengths, using his 7-foot-2 frame to clog the lane, clean the glass and finish around the basket on second-chance chances.
It was Quinnipiac, sure, but Bonke looked more comfortable doing what he does best than he had in the limited exhibition minutes. He doesn’t need to be a replacement for Jaxon Kohler or Carson Cooper with the way this roster is built, and maybe he’s beginning to understand that. If the exhibitions had been closed to the public like they used to be, the conversation around him might look a lot different.
Kaleb Glenn was another pleasant surprise. He had struggled in the exhibitions, and there had to be some curiosity about how much of that was tied to the mental side of coming back from the knee injury that cost him the entire 2025-26 season.
Against Quinnipiac, he looked much more like the player Michigan State expected. Glenn scored 11 points on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting night, knocking down a three and showing enough slashing ability to give the Spartans another weapon on the wing.
He was supposed to be Michigan State’s top portal addition last year. On Monday, he finally looked the part.
In Other News...
Michigan State's Opener Revealed A New Look That Could Matter Fast
Tom Izzo wasted little time tinkering with Michigan States opening-night look, and the changes were hard to miss against Quinnipiac. Coen Carr slid into the power forward spot, Jasiah Jervis got the start at shooting guard, and transfer Anton Bonke was in the first five as well, giving the Spartans a different blend than they showed in the exhibition games. It was the kind of early-season adjustment Izzo often makes when he thinks a lineup can be sharpened quickly, and this one had immediate consequences on both ends of the floor.
Carr responded with a lively all-around effort, finishing with 12 points, eight rebounds, a block and a steal in 25 minutes, while Bonke made his presence felt inside with 13 rebounds and 11 points in 19 minutes. For Michigan State, the bigger question now is whether this was simply an opener experiment or the start of a more permanent reshuffling, because the Spartans already have evidence that the new alignment can change the teams balance in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan States Opener Raised An Early Rotation Debate Fans Will Notice
Michigan State opened its season with a look that immediately gave fans something to track beyond the final score. Jesse McCulloch was unavailable because of a head injury, but he was still on the bench, and Tom Izzo answered by rolling out a small-ball starting group of Jeremy Fears, Jasiah Jervis, Jordan Scott, Coen Carr and Anton Bonke. It was a lineup built for speed and versatility, and it signaled that the Spartans are willing to mix things up early as they sort through the frontcourt.
The first half offered a glimpse of why the approach was worth watching, with Fears and Medlock providing key scoring support while Bonke made his presence felt on the glass. Even without McCulloch on the floor, Michigan State found enough balance to take a halftime lead, which only sharpens the conversation about how Izzo wants to use his pieces once the roster is whole again. For a team with real depth questions to answer, the opener already hinted at a rotation debate that could linger. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Just Showed Why Izzo Has A New Early Decision
Michigan State opened the regular season in the kind of lopsided fashion that usually tells you a lot about a team before the schedule gets any harder, rolling past Quinnipiac 96-59 at the Breslin Center. The Spartans looked deep from the start, with Jeremy Fears Jr., Coen Carr and freshman Carlos Medlock all turning in strong showings as Tom Izzos group controlled the game in transition, on the glass and around the basket.
The broader takeaway was less about the final margin than the way Michigan State piled up advantages in the areas that tend to travel once Big Ten play arrives. Fastbreak points, rebounding and post scoring all tilted heavily in the Spartans favor, giving Izzo an early look at a roster that already appears to have multiple ways to beat teams. For a program trying to establish its identity right away, this was the kind of opener that can shape the conversation quickly. [Read more 🡒]