No. 17 Michigan State will aim to stay undefeated at home when it hosts San Jose State on Thursday in East Lansing, Mich.
The Big Ten Spartans (2-0) are coming off of a come-from-behind 69-66 home victory against No. 14 Arkansas on Saturday. Cam Ward had 18 points and 10 rebounds and fellow forward Coen Carr had 15 points and seven rebounds.
Michigan State hit three foul shots and held the Razorbacks scoreless over the final 1:40 to break a 66-66 tie.
In the matchup between Hall of Fame coaches John Calipari and Tom Izzo, Michigan State finished 1-for-14 from three-point range but scored 46 points in the paint.
“When you shoot 7% [from 3-point range] … my 99-year-old mother is going to call me and ask me who the shooting coach is,” the Spartans’ Izzo said. “But you know what? We played hard.”
Carr leads the team with 13.5 points per game.
“I’ve kind of been having this bigger role,” Carr said. “I have the ball in my hands more. So I just feel like me being kind of the, when I drive, it’s a gravity, and it pulls people towards me on the defensive end. I feel like it’s a great time to kick off for guys and just find an open man. So that’s really all I try to do.”
Jeremy Fears Jr., whose free throws helped push the Spartans past the Razorbacks, is leading the team with 9.5 assists and 3.0 steals. Fears ranks second in the Big Ten in assists per game, and he will face a San Jose State team that is giving up 84.5 points per game — 11th in the 12-team Mountain West.
Also called the Spartans, San Jose State (0-2) has started its season on the road and is still looking for its first notch in the win column following a 85-74 loss to UC Santa Barbara on Saturday and an 84-75 defeat against Utah on Nov. 3.
“Just a catastrophic first half,” head coach Tim Miles said of the Santa Barbara game. “We were in a good spot, and then the last eight minutes of the half I think we made every mistake we could. … We battled back in the second half and cut [the score] all the way down to a couple of possessions. But when you dig yourself that big of a hole in the first half — and Santa Barbara is an excellent team, they shoot the lights out …”
Guard Colby Garland posted a career-high 30 points on 11-for-13 shooting from the field and 8-for-9 shooting from the free-throw line against the Gauchos. San Jose State has lost five of its past six road games going back to the 2024-25 season.
Michigan State went 9-2 against nonconference teams in the 2024-25 regular season. San Jose State was 0-1 against Power Four teams, losing 82-68 to Southern California last Nov. 20.
The two teams last faced each other in East Lansing in 2007, with Michigan State notching a decisive 85-45 victory.
