EAST LANSING – Coen Carr did Coen Carr things, throwing down dunk after dunk. But he also elevated for an elite-level block and smothered Minnesota’s perimeter players defensively.
Xavier Booker delivered on the billing of Xavier Booker top-5 high school prospect, catching passes on the wing and draining 3-pointers and using his long wingspan to swat shots down low.
Jeremy Fears Jr. is beginning to resemble the Jeremy Fears Jr. of a year ago at this time, pushing the pace in transition and setting up his teammates.
Right before Tom Izzo’s eyes, and the rest of the college basketball world, Michigan State basketball’s 2023 recruiting class is starting to turn talent and potential into production.
“That whole sophomore class is playing better,” Izzo said after practice Thursday, less than 24 hours after the 25th-ranked Spartans surgically dissected Minnesota on the road in the Big Ten opener, 90-72.
That trio, with Fears actually a redshirt freshman after he was shot last December and missed all but 12 games of his debut season, played pivotal roles in one of the most well-balanced performances in years from MSU (7-2, 1-0). Each reached double figures in combining for 33 points and seven rebounds against the Gophers, and all three provided sparks at different points of the win.
It is a trend the Spartans need more of Saturday, when they close the two-game early portion of conference play hosting Nebraska (6-1, 0-0). Tipoff is noon Saturday (BTN) at Breslin Center.
Against Minnesota, Fears got things started against the Gophers by attacking off the dribble in transition and converting a double-pump layup through a foul. His three-point play, part of his 10 points for the game, gave the Spartans a 9-2 lead not even three minutes in and established MSU’s determination to penetrate deep into the paint all night. Fears finished with five of his team’s season-high 25 assists on 29 made baskets to go with his 10 points.
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After the Gophers rallied to take their only lead, Carr and Fears flipped momentum with a 17-0 knockout run.
Carr’s baseline cut on a Jaden Akins drive and flip pass to the 6-foot-5 forward, who elevated off two feet through traffic for a two-handed dunk. Then after a pair of Fears free throws following another deep drive, Carr delivered his best all-around sequence as a Spartan.
Defending on the right wing, Carr spied Minnesota’s Trey Edmonds cutting to the basket on a pick-and-roll and sagged into the paint to help. Carr soared and swatted the ball off the backboard for a block, then raced out in transition and elevated above Edmonds at the other end to catch a lob from Fears for a dunk.
Quickly back the other way, Carr again got into defending position and poked the ball free from the Gophers’ Mike Mitchell Jr. for a one-man breakaway. Instead of a highlight jam, though, Carr showed his strength in powering through Mitchell’s arms for a layup and the foul.
“I feel like I got my teammates going, I got the coaches going, I got everybody going,” Carr said outside MSU’s locker room after the game.” All the coaches know that I can be a great defender, so it’s just going out there, proving it.”
Perhaps the most impressed person in Williams Arena was Izzo.
“That three possession deal he had, especially the block and then the dunk on the other end,” Izzo said, adding a brief pause for emphasis, “that’s reminiscent of … nobody. Because I’ve never seen anybody do that.”
After career highs with 14 points and seven rebounds in Maui against No. 22 North Carolina, Carr had 12 points and three rebounds against the Gophers.
“Coen has been really good to coach, too. I mean, he really, really wants to hone in on things,” Izzo said. “His free throw shooting is getting a lot better, and his shooting is getting better. So he’s probably made as much progress in the last month and a half as anybody.”
The same goes for Booker, who was coming off a career-high 12-point, seven-rebound performance in the overtime win over North Carolina in Maui that renewed his confidence. Though he put together a forgettable first half defensively against the Gophers, the 6-11 former five-star recruit responded in the second half by blocking both of his shots and hitting all three of his shots, including two of his three 3-pointers to finish with 11 points.
“We got after Book a little bit at halftime, because you saw the difference in him,” Izzo said. “So he’s starting to put together games. But he’s gotta keep focusing in on every time he’s out there and staying focused in on the task at hand.
“Because what we’re realizing is there’s things we didn’t know if he could do, guarding certain people, this and that – he can do that, he’s just got to put his mind to it and make a decision that that’s going to be the most important thing. And some of the players told him that at halftime. And to his credit, he came out and I thought really played well in the second half.”
Izzo’s other 2023 recruit, redshirt freshman Gehrig Normand, also got into the game late and made his first official buckets as a Spartan with a 3-pointer and a layup in the final two-plus minutes. Fears also had one of the team’s season-high 11 3-pointers, another sign of growth after a brutal outside shooting start to the season for MSU.
“We’re making some steps. I don’t want to make them more than they are right now,” Izzo said. “But I know one thing, we’re climbing up the steps and we’re not climbing down them. And that’s a good thing.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball: Coen Carr/Xavier Booker/Jeremy Fears surge
