CHICAGO — The loudest roar from the United Center crowd all Tuesday night came on a possession that barely even produced a shot attempt.

Michigan State’s green jerseys swarmed around the floor, arms and legs flying, disrupting Duke’s every move in the final seconds of the first half. The majority of the Blue Devils’ lineup might one day be NBA players, but in that moment they looked helpless, lacking direction in every sense.

Eventually, the orange leather grenade landed in a reluctant Patrick Ngongba II’s hands, Duke’s center. Ngongba’s half-hearted heave to beat the shot-clock buzzer didn’t catch the rim, prompting a shot-clock violation. The Spartans faithful roared; Duke looked shell-shocked. 

It was a play emblematic of a vintage Michigan State performance, sucking the life out of the Blue Devils and never trailing in a 79–73 statement win. From an efficiency standpoint, it was Duke’s worst offensive performance in 22 months, dating back to a gritty win at Wake Forest in January 2025. Duke coach Jon Scheyer said his team wasn’t connected enough offensively, an environment Michigan State fostered from the opening tip. Every forced turnover, blocked shot and deflection slowly broke the Blue Devils.

“You can see heads dropping, a lot of bad body language,” Michigan State freshman Carlos Medlock Jr. says. “It lights us up.” 

Michigan State point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. was the statistical star of the game and posted a quintessential Fears stat line: 18 points, 17 free throw attempts, 11 assists, seven rebounds and full control of the flow of the game from the opening tip. But the real story of the night was the emergence of everyone around him, particularly as catalysts for the Spartans’ electric defensive effort. Leading that charge was sophomore Jordan Scott, who Michigan State’s Tom Izzo has spent much of the summer and fall raving about and put together a breakthrough performance Tuesday.

“That was about as good a game as you could have for a guy that went 2–7 [shooting],” Izzo said. “He probably changed the whole game himself with his defense, his rebounding and his effort.” 

Scott had six blocked shots, many of them loud ones that shaped the tenor of the game. His sixth, a soaring swat of a Dame Sarr three in the final minute, was the cherry on top and essentially sealed the game. He also tacked on two steals and a handful of other deflections and was a huge part of Duke’s two starting wings shooting a combined just 7 of 21 from the floor. His ferocious defense paired with Michigan State’s point guard play? Watch out.

“Jordan is the x-factor for us,” Fears said.

“He made the freshman to sophomore jump for sure,” Cam Ward (who was terrific in his own right) added.

Scott has basketball in his blood: His mother Christy Winters-Scott starred at Maryland from 1987–90, his father Jerome Scott was a 1,000-point scorer at Miami. He blossomed into a useful rotation piece for the Spartans in the back half of his freshman season a year ago and was a starter by NCAA tournament time, but Izzo clearly had visions of more. His veteran head coach said after their win over Toledo last week that he’d have to “go back to a way, way, way, way, way long time ago to get a guy who plays harder consistently.” 

The difference this year, Scott says, is that his “identity” as a player has grown. He says he has “solidified” who he wants to be on the floor, and watching him hawk John Blackwell and Sarr it was obvious what that identity is. He’s Michigan State’s stopper, and the Spartans are a whole lot more dangerous because of it. 

Fears also raved about the impact of two freshmen guards: Jasiah Jervis and Carlos Medlock, who each made major impacts. Jervis was fearless early and made a key stepback three with just over five minutes to go to stem the Duke rally, while Medlock made a couple of big shots off the dribble to keep the offense flowing in the second half. Shotmaking talent has been in short supply in recent years at Michigan State; those two have the potential to change that. That’s the reason Fears was so bullish on finding a way to get the two to commit to Michigan State. 

“I’m glad [Jervis] is on our squad,” Fears said with a grin. 

Much of college basketball in November is about identity … and a lot of teams think they have it before taking their first haymaker. Duke’s October and November has largely been smooth sailing, blitzing Belmont and Tennessee in early exhibitions, stretching a lead at Kansas in their final tune-up and wins by 34 and 61 points in their first two regular-season games. But the bar for toughness in a game like this one and against a program like Michigan State is in a different stratosphere. It’s fair to say Duke failed the first test.

But the Blue Devils are likely to be far from the final team to experience the suffocating feeling that playing against Michigan State will have this year. And as the likes of Scott and Jervis continue to come into their own, don’t be surprised if the Spartans are playing in Detroit come early April. 

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