Michigan State blows out Iowa in Big Ten opener, 71-52

Connor Earegood, The Detroit News on Dec 2, 2025

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EAST LANSING, Mich. — On a banner day for Michigan State, its men’s basketball team brought its A game.

On the same day the university announced a $1 billion fundraising goal and introduced new football coach Pat Fitzgerald, Michigan State started its Big Ten title defense in men’s hoops with a win, 71-52 over Iowa.

Forward Coen Carr led Michigan State with 15 points, while point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. had 14 points and six assists. Michigan State outscored Iowa in both halves and found 21 second-chance points off 13 offensive rebounds. Michigan State picked up 22 points at the foul line, missing just three free throws all game.

Michigan State (8-0, 1-0 Big Ten) built on its 14-point halftime lead when the second half began. Its defense forced a string of three misses, including an airball 3 from Iowa star Bennett Stirtz, while a drop-step dunk from Carson Cooper and a pair of aerial acrobatics from Coen Carr expanded the Spartans’ control.

Stirtz led Iowa’s offense with 14 points, including a 3 to cut the deficit to 48-35 Michigan State six minutes into the half. But the slow burn of Iowa’s offense found itself stalled time and time again, with stout defense and its own missed shots creating issues.

Michigan State’s bigs feasted, with a 37-18 advantage on the glass. The Spartans also scored 34 points in the paint, where forward Jaxon Kohler put together his fourth double-double of the season. With one against North Carolina last week, this is the first time he has had back-to-back double-doubles all year.

A 60-40 lead put Michigan State firmly in control with 7:21 to play. That lead stretched as Iowa (7-1, 0-1) missed seven straight shots over the course of five minutes. Six different shooters factored into the drought, snapped by Iowa forward Cooper Koch with a corner 3 at 5:58.

That drought prevented any sort of meaningful comeback for Iowa, which dropped its first game of the season after a 7-0 start.

Michigan State began its Big Ten season against the very team it clinched a share of the title last season, in Iowa City, where it sent off Tom Izzo’s friend Fran McCaffery after 15 seasons leading the Hawkeyes. His replacement, Ben McCollum, took over the Iowa program after one year at Drake, where a 31-win season ended in the NCAA Tournament’s second round.

McCollum came with a roster of six transfers from that Drake team, including preseason All-American point guard Bennett Stirtz, who could play his slow-tempo style.

Stirtz drew the opening bucket on a 3 over the outstretched hand of MSU shooting guard Kur Teng, who made his return to the starting five after six games as a backup. Teng scored MSU’s first points to snap a string of four empty possessions that put Iowa out front.

Fears tied the game at 7 on free throws with 15:12 to play, and the score stayed there for the next two and a half minutes until backup center Jesse McCulloch gave the Spartans a lead with a layup.

Neither team reached double-digit scoring until halfway through the first half, when Fears made another pair of free throws.

When Michigan State got its offense in groove, it took over the game with a 13-0 run that included a nice pair of buckets — a put-back layup and a 3 — from freshman wing Jordan Scott. That run, which came with a fired-up timeout address from new football coach Pat Fitzgerald, put the Spartans up 25-10 before Iowa mustered a response from Stirtz, who split free throws.

At halftime, Michigan State led 35-21, with 10 points from Fears leading the way. Coen Carr drew three straight makes for the Spartans over a two-and-a-half-minute span late in a half that saw 23 fouls called. Michigan State made as many free throws (11) as shots in the opening frame.