2 weeks Ago By Kansas City Star
Kansas, which leads Michigan State 8-7 in the all-time series between the basketball powerhouse schools, has won three straight games — and four of the last five against the Spartans — heading into Tuesday’s Champions Classic game at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Tipoff is 5:30 p.m.
Central Time, with a live telecast on ESPN. Hall of Fame coaches Bill Self of KU and Tom Izzo of MSU have been involved in nine head-to-head matchups with the Jayhawks holding a 5-4 advantage over MSU in that stretch. Michigan State’s last win over KU came in the 2015 Champions Classic in Chicago.
Overall, the Jayhawks, who have split four meetings with Michigan State in the Champions Classic, are 8-5 overall in the one-day early season twin-bill featuring KU, Michigan State, Duke and Kentucky. Duke, which takes on UK approximately 8 p.m.
Tuesday, also is 8-5 while Kentucky and Michigan State are 5-8. Here’s a summary of all nine matchups between Self’s Jayhawks and Izzo’s Spartans: : Ochai Agbaji scored 29 points and the Jayhawks, ranked No. 3 in the country, defeated unranked MSU in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Remy Martin added 15 points and David McCormack 10 for the Jayhawks, who were missing forward Jalen Wilson, who was serving a three-game suspension to start the season. KU led 39-32 at halftime before Michigan State cut the gap to 48-45. After a timeout, Agbaji dunked then stole the ball on the other end and dunked again to restore the seven-point margin.
A.J. Hoggard scored 17 points and Julius Marble 13 for the Spartans.
Izzo, by the way, was hit with a technical foul during the second half. : The Jayhawks, the preseason No. 1-ranked team in the country, tripped No.
10 Michigan State thanks to 21 points from Quentin Grimes and 20 from Dedric Lawson. Both were making their debuts at KU in the Champions Classic contest. Lawson, a transfer from Memphis, came close to a triple-double, finishing with 14 rebounds and six assists.
The Jayhawks led by as many as 17 points in the first half and never trailed in the second half. The Spartans cut a 10-point deficit to 90-87 when Kyle Ahrens cashed a 3-pointer with 34 seconds left. Devon Dotson hit one of two free throws to make it 91-87 at :15.
Cassius Winston missed a layup, Kansas grabbed the rebound and Grimes made one of two free throws to assure victory. Michigan State was led by Joshua Langford, who scored 18 points and Kenny Goins, who had 17 points and 11 rebounds. Winston had 13 points and 11 assists and Matt McQuaid 12 points.
Udoka Azubuike scored 17 points and Dotson 16 for KU. After the game, Self said of Grimes, who transferred to Houston after the season: “People in his camp have told me he’s a gamer and likes when the lights are on him. He was definitely a gamer tonight.
” Izzo said: “I’m a little disappointed in our bigs. We’ll take more positives from this than negatives. This was good for us.
” : KU’s Josh Jackson, who was matched against childhood friend Miles Bridges, scored 14 of his 23 points in the second half of the second-round NCAA Tournament game. Frank Mason contributed 20 points for the Jayhawks. Bridges scored 22 points, while Nick Ward and Langford finished with 13 and 10 points, respectively.
“Josh Jackson is a heck of a player,” Izzo said of the Detroit native after the game. “We wanted to beat his brains in today. I’m sure the feeling was mutual.
But there’s respect, and respect means there will be a friendship when it’s over.” : Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine scored 29 points with 12 rebounds and 12 assists for the second triple-double ever recorded against KU. MSU Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, who scored 12 points, dished 11 assists and pulled down 10 rebounds in a victory over the Jayhawks in 1979 in East Lansing, Mich.
, was the other player to record a triple-double versus the Jayhawks. Valentine scored 21 points in the second half as Michigan State erased a six-point halftime deficit in the Champions Classic showdown at the United Center in Chicago. “It’s a disappointing loss.
We had the game,” Self said. “I am leaving here pretty (ticked) off because I don’t think our guys, me, everybody involved in our program did as good a job as we could. If we did I think we could have pulled this one off.
” Perry Ellis had 21 points to lead the Jayhawks. .: Ellis scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds to pace KU in the title game of the Orlando Classic.
Cliff Alexander, who started the second half, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked four shots while scoring six points. Svi Mykhailiuk hit 3 of 6 threes and scored 11 points. The Jayhawks outrebounded MSU, 44-36, and held the Spartans to 32.
2% shooting — 24.2% the final half. Mason secured 10 rebounds to go with his 10 points and five assists.
KU won despite an 0-for-10 shooting performance from Wayne Selden. Valentine and Travis Trice had 14 points apiece for the Spartans. “The number of layups we missed was incredible.
I’m not sure Kansas played great. I’m not sure Michigan State played great. Maybe we should be crediting both defenses.
They found a way to win. Give them credit. We found a way to lose.
Give us blame,” said Izzo. “I’ll be honest, I thought we guarded them pretty well,” Self said. “I thought they guarded us pretty well.
When you play Michigan State, they make you play up over the top the majority of the time. You are not going to get a lot of easy baskets (KU was 3-of-14 from three). If somebody shoots 45% against one of Tom’s teams, they’ve really shot the ball well.
We missed some open looks. They missed some open looks. The game really starts when you play them when the ball is in the air a lot of times.
I thought we did a good job on the glass.” : Keith Appling hit a driving layup with 13.8 seconds left to up a one-point lead to three.
KU’s Travis Releford missed a three-pointer at the buzzer as MSU prevailed in the Champions Classic at the Georgia Dome. Elijah Johnson and Ben McLemore scored 16 and 14 points respectively for KU. The Jayhawks led by seven points with 12 minutes left and, 59-54, with five minutes to play.
Michigan State, which was led by Appling’s 19 points, closed on a 13-5 run. Freshman Gary Harris scored 18 points for MSU. “We didn’t run offense down the stretch.
Our spacing stunk the last seven, eight minutes,” Self said after the game. : Goran Suton scored 20 points and Kalin Lucas 18 for MSU in the NCAA Midwest Regional Sweet 16 game. Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich had 20 and 17 points respectively for KU.
Lucas scored seven points and was 5-of-5 from the line in the final 49 seconds. The Jayhawks, who won the national title the year before, led by 13 points in the first half and five points with three minutes left. Draymond Green scored seven points off the bench for Michigan State.
“I don’t think it’s a disappointment,” KU’s Collins said. “We still exceeded what most people thought about us, but we had our own expectations in this locker room. I’d rather have gotten blown out than lose a close game.
” : Lucas scored 22 points for the winners in the regular season nonconference clash. KU’s Collins and Aldrich responded with 25 and 14 points for the Jayhawks, who trailed 37-18 at halftime but outscored MSU 44-38 the final half. Aldrich, a junior, hit 4 of 9 shots and had 11 rebounds in 35 minutes.
Six different Spartan players guarded him. “They threw everybody at me,” Aldrich said of Spartans’ defenders. : Wayne Simien scored 28 points in 38 minutes and grabbed eight rebounds in a physical regular-season nonconference game during Self’s first season in Lawrence.
Simien scored 18 points in the first half. Aaron Miles contributed eight of his 17 points and J.R.
Giddens six points as the Jayhawks, who were playing without the foul-plagued Keith Langford, led 38-31 at the break. Langford responded with 13 points the final half, as the Jayhawks, who saw a 17-point lead (58-41) dip to four (76-72 at 2:27), were able to hang on. “That’s probably as much fun as I’ve had coaching during a game,” Self said at the time.
“It’s the best atmosphere I’ve been a part of.” Maurice Ager had 17 points and Alan Anderson 16 for the Spartans, whose only lead was 4-2. The Spartans committed 24 turnovers to KU’s 18.
“Turnovers. It is almost criminal,” Izzo said. “You have to give Kansas credit for a few of them, but not 24.
” In games played between the teams prior to the Self era, MSU beat KU, 66-54, in a Great Eight game on Dec. 7, 1999 in Chicago; KU won, 96-86, in overtime in a Midwest Regional Sweet 16 game on March 2, 1986 in Kansas City; KU won, 74-56, on Dec. 5, 1981, at Allen Fieldhouse; MSU won, 85-61, on Feb.
4, 1979, in East Lansing; MSU won, 81-62, on Dec. 8, 1962 in East Lansing and KU won, 93-69, on Dec. 16, 1960 in Manhattan, Kansas.
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