Jeremy Fears Jr. (1) of the Michigan State Spartans goes to the basket as Jasper Johnson (2) of the Kentucky Wildcats defends. Ishika Samant/Getty ImagesNew York —
One team walked into Madison Square Garden in its team-issued sweatsuits. The other approached the Champions Classic much like an NBA squad arriving for work, fashioned in their outfits of the day. Otega Oweh sported a designer jacket from Amiri that runs about $1,200.
Which maybe makes sense. Kentucky’s roster checks in at a reported $22 million. Might as well dress the part.
But as college athletics continues its reckoning with big money and bigger problems, it is perhaps worth remembering the wise words of the Beatles, penned some 60 years ago. Can’t buy me love.
Or, in Kentucky’s case, it can’t buy defense, offense, wins, continuity, effort and at least for the time being, success.
The Wildcats got pantsed by Michigan State, 83-66. They trailed by as many as 24, and never led past the 14-minute mark of the first half.
Michigan State Spartans Trey Fort (9) guards Kentucky Wildcats Collin Chandler during the second half at Madison Square Garden. Vincent Carchietta/Imagn
The Spartans came into the game shooting 21.7 percent from beyond the arc, and had hit a grand total of 13 treys in their first three games. Upon meeting the matadors from Kentucky, they drained 11 of 21 from long range.
On the flip side, the Wildcats hit just six from deep, and missed 22. Kentucky also got manhandled on the boards (42 to 28) and dished 13 assists, which is the exact same number that Michigan State guard Jeremy Fears, Jr. handed out on his own.
Built on promise and promissory notes, the Wildcats are now 3-2, the three wins coming against teams ranked between 258 and 317 in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings.
After spending 45 minutes in the locker room with his team, Mark Pope emerged for his post-game press conference looking despondent. He waffled between just below-the-surface seething and out-and-out baffled, taking the heat while simultaneously questioning his team’s identity, promising he’d fix whatever ails his squad but also admitting what needed to be fixed would require a ‘long answer.’
Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope reacts during the second half against the Michigan State Spartans. Vincent Carchietta/Imagn
At one point, he used the words disappointed, discouraged and discombobulated in one sentence to describe his team. Fabulously alliterative, but not terribly encouraging, if you’re part of the Big Blue Nation.
That this disastrous showing comes exactly one-week after Kentucky got beat up by rival Louisville does not help.
After that equally disappointing, discouraging and discombobulated showing Pope alluded to a mysterious pre-game locker room issue. The way he said it – “I’m not ready to tell the story yet, but at some point, we’ll talk in detail about our pregame experience at Louisville, and it was out of character for us, and that’s young and new,’’ – it did not sound like this was some rival hijinks.
By not specifically identifying the issue – joking later he wanted to plant some Taylor Swift Easter eggs – he opened the door to frantic speculation among a fan base that does not need to be led into the deep end of paranoia where its basketball team is concerned. It happily gets there on its own.
At least now the issue seems clearer. Bad good news, if you will. It would be insulting to say the Wildcats don’t care. Athletes care. But perhaps this crew is currently misguided in what exactly it ought to care about.
Flanked by Oweh and Malachi Moreno, who both looked like someone stole their lunch money (or maybe their NIL money?), Pope was asked how player injuries (point guard Jaland Lowe didn’t play) might be affecting his team’s performance. A Mormon who doesn’t really curse, Pope started, “I’m going to temper my words.’’
He then took a deep long breath. “If you build an organization, your identity isn’t about an individual person; it’s about a collective group.”
It is perhaps unfair to take one team’s misery a handful of weeks into a season and extrapolate it into some sort of moratorium on what does and does not work in college basketball.
But it’s almost impossible to consider what just happened on the Madison Square Garden court and not think big picture. The chasm on the scoreboard was only slightly wider than the way the two programs operate.
Tom Izzo did not spend $22 million on his roster. He didn’t even spend $10 million.
He has a team with players that in this era might be considered endangered species – four-year guys (Carson Cooper and Jaxon Kohler), three-year guys (Coen Carr and Fears), a redshirt (Jesse McCullough) and a four-star top 60 player who averaged 3.1 minutes per game last year and came back anyway (Kur Teng).
Michigan State Spartans head coach Tom Izzo leads his team to a comfortable win against the Kentucky Wildcats in New York. Vincent Carchietta/Imagn
Playing for Izzo is no picnic. Teng isn’t the only one who could have bolted, and who no doubt was enticed with promises of cash and playing time.
Instead they stayed, biding their time and finding their minutes along with their purposes. Teng scored 15, Kohler 20. Cooper and Carr both yanked six rebounds and Fears did his assist thing.
More telling, at one point on Tuesday night, during a Division I college basketball game in the year 2025, the entire bench – players, managers, staff – stood up and started clapping and chanting, ‘De-fense, de-fense,’ as if this they were playing in a church-league game.
Comparatively Kentucky’s Collin Chandler hit a three while his team trailed by 19 with two minutes left in the game and did the inject ice into my veins move as he came down the court.
It is only November. Nothing is decided. Kentucky could very well find its groove and Michigan State could once again forget how to shoot. Both coaches know that.
Yet as the two teams exited the building, one left in an existential crisis.
“I feel like the identity that we felt like we carried may have been stripped away, and that’s some reality we’re facing,’’ Pope said.
“That’s an incredibly, incredibly painful process. It’s a terrifying process. If you treat it right, it can be a galvanizing process. And that comes down to the character of your organization. I think the character of our organization is terrific and tested in a big way right. But that’s the beautiful thing about sports. You either get it done or you don’t.”
And then there was Izzo, college basketball’s perpetual Eeyore, basking in something nearing joy and satisfaction. Izzo has not hidden his disdain for either the transfer portal or the transactional nature of college athletics.
And so when he was asked if there’s something about having guys that stick around and stick it out, he too had to temper his remarks. He took a long beat before answering, promising to be careful with his words.
“How about 100 frickin’ percent?” he said. “They’re homegrown and they play for the name on the front of their jersey because they know the name on the front of the jersey.’’
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