Michigan State’s bench neutralizes Rutgers painting red Madison Square Garden
PHOTO: Michigan State’s Jase Richardson set a career high with 20 points.
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More from Michigan State playing at the Garden, January 23, Carr soaring to develop overall game
More from the Garden: January 27, Carr shines under New York’s bright lights
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By TOM SHANAHAN
NEW YORK – Rutgers did its best moving the Michigan State game from its New Jersey campus to Madison Square Garden. They wanted to present a showcase event aired by CBS.
The fans turned out, painting red the mecca of college basketball. The enthusiasm, bolstered by Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper representing two of the top freshmen recruits in the country, prevented Michigan State’s vast alumni base from taking over a larger share of the arena.
“That was a hell of a crowd for a college basketball game,” said Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. “Everybody deserves credit for that – the people who put it on. When I looked up there, I thought I’d see a lot of green. That thing was red in a lot of areas.”
But what Rutgers didn’t count on was finding a way to neutralize Michigan State’s balanced lineup. The Spartans’ interchangeable parts continue to find ways to take charge in the second half and then hold off one last desperate comeback attempt.
The Spartans won their 12th straight game, beating Rutgers 81-74. Eighth-ranked Michigan State is 12-2 and atop the Big Ten standings at 8-0.
“That’s what we are – we’re strength in numbers,” Izzo said. “I think we do wear people down some people. The guys have bought in. They like each other. They get along with each other. Believe it or not they go hard enough that they’re tired with the minutes they play.”
As an example of the depth, Michigan State’s bench outscored Rutgers’ 50-34, even though Rutgers’ total is a skewed number. With Harper battling an ankle sprain, Rutgers’ Jordan Derkack scored 26 of the 34. He hit four of seven from three-point range and added a three-point play.
Michigan State freshman guard Jase Richardson and sophomore swingman Coen Carr came off the bench to combine for 34 of the 50 bench points. They were 11 of 14 from the field, 9 of 10 from the free throw line and grabbed 12 rebounds.
Richardson’s total was a career high 20 points with 6-of-9 from the field, 3-of-3 from three-point range, 5-of-5 from the free-throw line and four rebounds.
Carr scored 14 points and tied his career high with eight rebounds. He was 4-of-5 from the free-throw line.
Jaden Akins also was in double figures with 12 points point despite struggling with 3-of-15 shooting.
For Rutgers, Bailey finished with 18 points and nine rebounds. Harper was limited to 13 minutes and six points.
A Michigan State game isn’t complete without a Carr dunk, and he put down a monster off an alley-oop pass that drew “ahhs” from the Rutgers crowd. But with Rutgers in charge of highlights, there was no replay on the big screen that would have shaken Breslin Center’s rafters a second time.
More importantly for the Spartans, Carr’s dunk stemmed Rutgers’ momentum just before halftime. The Knights outscored the Spartans 15-2 to tie the game at 28-28 on a three-point play by Derkack, a graduate student.
But the Spartans got the ball up court quickly, Rutgers lost track of Carr, and he soared left to right to grab the alley-oop pass from Jeremy Fears and slam it down. The Spartans were clinging to a 35-32 lead at halftime.
In the second half, the Spartans’ depth took over the game just as it did a week ago when Michigan State beat Illinois, 80-78.
Michigan State gradually pushed the lead to 47-39 and took a 10-point lead, 54-44, with 10:51 to play on a Tre Holliman layup. The lead was as large as 61-48 with 7:57 remaining and 71-58 with 1:49 to go.
But Rutgers put on a press and hit more three-pointers to cut Michigan State’s lead in half at 77-71. But in the final minutes, Holliman, Fears, Carr and Akens were each two-of-two on free throws.
“I’m happy we won, you have to win games like this,” Izzo said. “But I was disappointed. I felt for the first time we looked entitled. We’re reading our press clippings. We didn’t move the ball smoothly. We looked a little selfish. Learning how to deal with failure is hard but learning how to with success is sometimes harder.”
The win was an extreme contrast from the last time the Spartans played Rutgers at Madison Square Garden in 2023. That game was scheduled by the Big Ten Conference as a “Big Ten Super Saturday” event. Rutgers wasn’t happy about giving up a home date on its Piscataway, N.J. campus. Until, that is, the Knights upset the Spartans, 61-55.
Michigan State again fell at the Garden in the 2023 NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen in a loss to Kansas State. Izzo is now 5-12 at the Garden.
The Spartans have won 13 of 16 meetings against Rutgers since the school joined the Big Ten. Izzo is now 5-12 at the Garden.
Strength in Numbers, a phrase the team wears on its warmup shirts, wasn’t part of the Spartans’ game in 2023.
“We talk about it all the time,” Izzo said of substitutions. “It has been steady. As the season goes along, you’ll see the numbers change. Guys playing 22 or 23 minutes might be playing 26 or 27. To use the term Golden State used with my boy Draymond (Green), there is strength in numbers.”
Michigan State’s depth also wore down Rutgers’ fans. A couple of times during the game the Michigan State fans attempted to mount a “Go Green! Go White!” chant, but they shouted down by Rutgers’ fans. By the end of the game — with Rutgers students leaving early — a “Go Green!” chanted started and the “Go White” response was heard loud and clear.
By the end of the night, another New York iconic building was green. The Empire State Building lights up different colors and on Saturday it was Michigan State green.
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Tom Shanahan is an award-winning sportswriter and frequent contributor to Spartanamag.com. His new book on Michigan State leading college football integration is, “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” His first book was “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans.”
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My books tell the true story of college football integration in the 1960s and address the myths and fiction that allowed a false narrative surrounding the 1970 USC-Alabama game to usurp the credit from the true pioneers. As I said when I spoke at the National Sports Media Association book festival, no two books provide an accurate portrayal more than RAYE OF LIGHT and THE RIGHT THING TO DO.
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Click here to purchase The Right Thing To Do
THE RIGHT THING TO DO
The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s
Foreword by Ruffin McNeill
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Click here to purchase Raye of Light.
RAYE OF LIGHT
Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the 1ntegration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans
Foreword by Tony Dungy
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