Charlie Riedel/Associated Press
The Kansas Jayhawks and Michigan State Spartans will play the first significant game of the men’s college basketball season Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
The legendary programs tip off the Champions Classic doubleheader. The Duke Blue Devils and Kentucky Wildcats will follow them in New York City.
Kansas enters the 2021-22 season with a No. 3 preseason ranking, and on paper, it should defeat the Spartans. Michigan State is the only unranked team involved in the Champions Classic.
Michigan State owns a 2-1 record over Kansas in the marquee tipoff event. Kansas picked up its only Champions Classic win over Tom Izzo’s team in their previous meeting back in 2018 in Indianapolis. Kansas was the preseason No. 1 that year.
Kansas vs. Mjchigan State Info
Date: Tuesday, November 9
Start Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: ESPN.com or ESPN app
Odds
Spread: Kansas -4.5
Moneyline: Kansas -220 (bet $220 to win $100); Michigan State +180 (bet $100 to win $180)
Preview
Kansas enters the season with a bit more stability when it comes to its roster.
Ochai Agbaji, Christian Braun and David McCormack are pillars of the starting lineup who will help the freshmen and transfers assimilate to Bill Self’s style of play.
Agbaji and McCormack were Kansas’ leading scorers last season. Agbaji averaged 14.1 points per game, while his teammate in the paint averaged 13.4 points per contest. Kansas’ third-best scorer from last season, Jalen Wilson, is on the roster, but he is not available for the first four games because of a suspension stemming from a recent arrest for suspicion of DUI.
Arizona State transfer Remy Martin is a candidate to enter the starting lineup, but without Wilson, the Jayhawks face a bit of a size problem. Self recently acknowledged that he will have to get creative with how he configures his lineups, per KUSports.com’s Matt Tait:
“We’re working on some different things. The first game, we don’t know everything that they’re going to do. So they’ll have some clever ways to try to play through that, and we’ve got to have some clever ways how to negate that. But that is certainly something that is on our radar, that we’re talking about and working on.“
Even without Wilson, Kansas sits in a better spot than Michigan State. The Spartans have a whole new roster after four key contributors transferred out of the program.
Izzo used the transfer portal to his advantage to gain one key piece: former Northeastern player Tyson Walker, who is expected to control the point.
The Spartans also lost leading scorer Aaron Henry to the professional level, and Joshua Langford opted not to come back for a sixth season. Joey Hauser and Gabe Brown are Michigan State’s top returning scorers. Both players averaged under 10 points per game last year.
Despite the roster reconfiguration, the team feels good about where it stands because of how the new roster pieces fit together defensively, as Marcus Bingham told Chris Solari of the Detroit Free Press:
“It’s real different. I wouldn’t say last year that we didn’t have defenders. I feel like Rocket and A.J. did a good job defending the ball. But it’s just talking and them knowing what to do when (the big men) step up and stuff like that. And then A.J. being quicker and Tyson being as quick as he is, they can get back in front right away. We got a good deal going.“
Even if Michigan State loses Tuesday, it can come away with some positives if it finds consistency. Last season, the Spartans had to scrape together some upset wins in Big Ten just to make the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Kansas is the rightful favorite for Tuesday’s opener, and its top scorers could take over, but there is also a possibility that everything clicks on defense for the Spartans and this becomes a low-scoring game.
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