• What: Michigan State vs. East Carolina, Fort Myers Tip-off
• When: 1 p.m. Tuesday
• Where: Suncoast Credit Union Arena, Fort Myers, Florida
• TV/Radio: FS2 and Big Ten Network/Spartan Sports Network radio, including WJIM 1240-AM and WMMQ 94.9-FM; SiriusXM Ch. 195
• Records/Rankings: MSU is 5-0 and enters the week ranked No. 17 in the Associated Press and No. 18 in the USA TODAY Coaches poll. East Carolina is 2-3 and unranked.
• Betting line: MSU -23.5
• Coaches: Michigan State — Tom Izzo is 741-302 in his 31st season as a head coach, all with the Spartans. East Carolina — Michael Schwartz is 52-52 in his fourth season as a head coach, all with the Pirates.
• Series: The programs have never met before.
Projected lineups
MSU
C (15) Carson Cooper (6-11) 10.0
F (0) Jaxon Kohler (6-9) 15.2
F (55) Coen Carr (6-5) 10.8
G (2) Trey Fort (6-4) 6.8
PG (1) Jeremy Fears Jr. (6-2) 11.8
East Carolina
C (7) Giovanni Emejuru (6-10) 17.0
PF (33) Eli DeLaurier (6-10) 2.4
G (12) Jordan Riley (6-5) 18.5
G (4) Tybo Bailey (6-2) 10.6
G (5) Corey Caulker (6-0) 8.2
• MSU update: The Spartans play East Carolina on Tuesday in the first of their two games at the Fort Myers Tip-off, before a Thanksgiving Day clash with North Carolina at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. MSU, now 5-0, is coming off an 84-56 win over Detroit Mercy on Friday night. The strength the Spartans is showing on the defensive end and on the glass. They’re in the top 10 nationally in defensive efficiency, per Kenpom.com, and 12th and 11th, respectively, in defensive and offensively rebounding percentage, hauling in a whopping 42.8 percent of missed shots on the offensive end. MSU also leads the nation in assists to made field goals, meaning the Spartans are scoring off a pass or an offensive rebound — and sometimes both — on most of their possessions. Point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. leads all of Division I in assists at 10.4 per game.
MORE: Couch: In bullying Kentucky, Michigan State’s basketball team flexed its identity and raised the possibilities for this season
• East Carolina update: The Pirates are off to a concerning start, even though some struggles weren’t entirely unexpected. East Carolina finished above .500 in the American Athletic Conference last season for the first time in 12 years and only the second time since the late 1990s. But the Pirates lost a lot of their offensive punch from a year ago, meaning they’d have to win this season with improved defense. Problem is, they haven’t been very good on either end of the court, barely beating Georgia Southern and Division-II Elizabeth City State for their two wins, while falling by double digits to Richmond, UNC-Wilmington and Charleston Southern. East Carolina has been among the worst teams in college basketball thus far in effective field goal percentage offense and defense, in part because the Pirates are just about as bad as it gets both shooting and defending the 3-point shot, making 22.4% of their long-range tries, while allowing opponents to make nearly 44% of their shots from beyond the arc.
• Matchup analysis: East Carolina plays in a better league than Detroit and is coming off a decent season in the AAC, with several key players returning. But I don’t know that the Pirates are any better than the Titans right now, given their early season performances. East Carolina, as it’s playing, is a notch below Colgate, San Jose State and Bowling Green (MSU’s first exhibition opponent). So it’s hard to imagine this being a competitive game. That said, senior Jordan Riley is a good player, a physical, slashing, cutting wing, who would contribute to any team in the Big Ten.
What makes East Carolina intriguing, despite its poor outside shooting and 3-point defense, is its size on the interior. The Pirates are starting two 6-10 centers, both of whom have some ability, especially George Mason transfer and Englishman Giovanni Emejuru, who’s averaging about 10 rebounds to go with 17 points a game, almost all of it scored around the rim. Carson Cooper and Jaxon Kohler will be a defensive test in the paint and on the glass unlike anything ECU’s big men have seen.
• Prediction: If MSU brings the mindset it’s brought to the start of every game it’s played thus far in the regular season, the Spartans will be just fine Tuesday afternoon. Suncoast Credit Union Arena on the campus of SouthWestern State College only seats about 3,500 fans, so this should be kind of a fun, intimate atmosphere, and likely mostly MSU fans, since the North Carolina-St. Bonaventure game doesn’t start for several hours after this one ends.
• Make it: MSU 83, East Carolina 64
MORE: Couch: Predicting Michigan State’s basketball season – Arkansas through Duke, the Big Ten and March Madness
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State basketball vs. East Carolina, Fort Myers Classic tipoff: Matchup analysis and a prediction
Reporting by Graham Couch, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
