Spartans wary of Jayhawks’ inside game, depth

In a week dominated by MI State’s matchup with Ohio State on the football field, the MI State basketball team is set to take part in one of its bigger non-conference matchups of the season. In the big picture, it didn’t matter much. The Spartans still led by double digits, and Self headed back to talk to his team.

Valentine’s understudy in the comeback was freshman guard Matt McQuaid, who scored six of his nine points on two 3s in the final 3:54 and then he came up with a huge blocked shot of Mason in the final minute. Cleaves was screaming, ripping into his teammates over the blown play – “Mounting everybody on their team”, as Self puts it – and all these seasons later, the image is still vivid. “And I don’t think I did, so I’m good”.

No. 2 Kentucky beat No. 5 Duke 74-63 in the first game of the double-header.

MI State returns three starters and 10 letterwinners from last season’s team.

Those numbers are impressive enough, but it’s how Izzo has achieved them which makes up the foundation of his reputation.

MI State won the only meeting between the teams in the Champions Classic, beating Kansas, 67-64, in Atlanta in 2012, while the Jayhawks won the last meeting, beating the Spartans in the championship of the Orlando Classic last season, 61-56.

Tonight, the stakes will be considerably lower than an NCAA Tournament game. But the competitive juices still flow. He shot just 6-28 (8-10 FT) for 22 points during the final and that middling efficiency is more in line with what we’ve seen from him in his first two years where he’s had 98.0 and 104.9 ORtg’s with no more than a 20% usage rating. “I mean, do you want me to lie?”

MI State played without junior C Gavin Schilling (turf toe) and sophomore F Marvin Clark (foot), while Kansas was still without freshman F Cheick Diallo, who hasn’t been cleared by the NCAA. As their replacements at the 1 and 4 are nowhere near the shot-takers they are, I would expect better efficiency from MSU as a whole.

NOTES: MI State improved to 3-2 in the Champions Class with two wins over Kansas and one over Kentucky.

From there, Ellis scored to tie the game, Valentine hit a jumper, Wayne Selden Jr. answered with a three and Valentine again scored on a runner in the lane. “Just like our guys will be champing at the bit to play”.

Even with the burst before the buzzer, MI State’s biggest concern was foul trouble. Physicality. Defense. Through the years, Self says, a mutual respect has built up, hardening more after every clash. I don’t think he realized we still had a minute left to play. “He recruits to it, he stays true to it, and they’re very solid defensively”.

It’s been more than a decade since Self and Izzo met annually in the Big Ten – Izzo, in fact, was one of the first coaches to call when Self got the IL job – but the schedule has kept bringing the coaches together.

MI State and Kansas will be playing in a title-like environment during tonight’s Champions Classic at the United Center in Chicago. For Kansas, though, Tuesday’s stage offered a chance to leave the Champions Classic with a signature early-season victory, to bury the memory of “72-40” and move forward, once and for good.

“You have to get those stops and we didn’t”, Ellis said before talking about the game’s star, Valentine.

“He’s just tougher than nails”, Izzo said. “If they’d have won, I would said, ‘Good win, but you’ll like watching that tape, too'”.

MI State: Valentine’s 12 assists matched Kansas’ total for the game….