By EAST LANSING – As Tom Izzo glowed about his next incoming class with Michigan State basketball, he also gushed with appreciation for his past two groups of recruits.
About how sophomores Jordan Scott and Cam Ward delivered big play after big play in the No. 5 Spartans' impressive win over No. 2 Duke on Tuesday, Nov 10. And how freshmen Jasiah Jervis, Carlos “C.J.” Medlock and Ethan Taylor all provided strong contributions under the national spotlight during the Spartans’ 79-73 victory in Chicago over the Blue Devils in the Champions Classic.
“I like the fact that they responded. Just every one of them did, and they responded well,” Izzo said Thursday. “Hopefully that’s a positive. We’ll see if that continues.
“The big thing now is consistency. Can we get consistent? Can we stack days? Can we keep getting better each day?”
The Spartans (3-0) will look to maintain their momentum when they host Northern Iowa (2-1) on Friday (7 p.m., FS1). And Izzo will look to get even more out of his young nucleus, as MSU showed both its current strengths and future promise.
The improvements both Scott and Ward made since last season was on full display Tuesday.
Scott was a defensive dynamo in his 31 minutes, setting career highs with nine rebounds and six blocks while also getting 11 deflections to disrupt Duke’s offense. He scored only five points on 2-for-7 shooting, but one make was a key first-half 3-pointer and the other was a driving layup in the closing minutes to preserve the wire-to-wire win.
Ward, meanwhile, came off the bench to score 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting with six rebounds and a block in 21 minutes. He had 11 points and was a perfect 4-for-4 in the first half, for a much-needed confidence boost.
“Especially just because I haven't been playing well,” Ward said Tuesday. “So just to finally find some type of rhythm feels good.”
The three freshmen playing in their first Champions Classic also delivered big moments and key plays.
Jervis started at shooting guard and scored 10 points in 30 minutes on 4-for-7 shooting with three rebounds and an assist. It included a pair of 3-pointers, one of which came off a behind-the-back dribble and stepback move.
“I told y’all before, I’m a very confident kid,” Jervis said Tuesday. “So I was ready to play when the whistle blew. Y’all seen it, I came out with fire and energy. And everybody came out with fire and energy.”
Medlock buried a pair of off-the-dribble second-half 3-pointers as Duke whittled away MSU’s 14-point advantage in the final 13-plus minutes but the Spartans found answer after answer to keep it a multi-score cushion.
“Everybody gets their confidence up now,” said Medlock, who played 10 minutes backing up Jeremy Fears Jr. and teamed with him on a couple occasions as a small, quick backcourt combo. “We played a big-time school, a big-time team – No. 2 in the country – so I feel like everybody that had a big part showed a lot of confidence and a lot of growth.”
And while the 7-2 Taylor showed he still has a lot of learning ahead, he flashed his immense ceiling with five points and two offensive rebounds in eight physical minutes against the big-bodied Blue Devils.
Taylor converted a three-point play that sent MSU into halftime with a 34-25 lead after Duke had cut it to a three-point game with 2:14 left in the opening period. Then after Medlock missed a driving layup midway into the second half, Taylor cleaned it up for a putback in a game in which the Spartans struggled to keep the Blue Devils off the offensive glass (18-9).
“It’s great fuel,” Taylor said. “We’re gonna build off of this win. We’re not gonna be complacent. It’s just gonna teach things that we need to work on, because we didn’t play a perfect game.”
After a flight delay getting out of Chicago, Izzo and his staff returned early Wednesday morning to the completed paperwork for his two-player 2027 class. MSU landed dynamic 6-1 combo guard Antonio Pemberton from Massachusetts (No. 24 according to 247 Sports' composite rankings) and lengthy 6-10 center Jaydn Jenkins from near Pennsylvania (No. 60). Izzo described the two four-star recruits as “OKGs – they were both our kind of guys.”
“We're happy to have both of them here,” he added. “And I think both of them are gonna be really good Spartans and fit into what our needs are, and that's kind of the way we've tried to recruit lately.”
But he also recognized that he has a few more OKGs already in the mix, doing the little things and the dirty deeds to slay Duke.
“How can you impact a game?” Izzo said. “Too many people – the stat people, the analytics people – they don’t go on those kind of plays. And those kind of plays win for you. Can you maintain that? It’s really more about your energy, your desire, your willing-to-do-it.
“It’s a will thing, not a skill thing.”
Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
Subscribe to the "Spartan Speak" podcast for new episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotifyor anywhere you listen to podcasts.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball's young stars shining, with more on way
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/michigan-state-basketballs-young-stars-100746145.html
