EAST LANSING — Sure, it was an exhibition opener. Even if it didn’t look or feel like it from the energy level.
That’s the difference in facing another Division I program.
Still, neither Michigan State basketball nor Bowling Green looked like polished products Thursday, Oct. 23. And the Spartans’ 75-66 win over the Falcons gave coach Tom Izzo plenty to work on over the weekend.
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“We’ll have some fun the next couple of days,” Izzo said. “I feel like for the first time, I can bring those (football) pads back. Maybe Michigan Week would be a good time to bring ‘em out. But I’m gonna guarantee you we straighten that out.”
Coen Carr delivered 17 points, five rebounds, four assists and five blocked shots, while Jaxon Kohler had 15 points and 10 rebounds for MSU, which hits the road to face Dan Hurley and Connecticut on Tuesday in Hartford, Connecticut (7:30 p.m., no TV) for the final exhibition before the Nov. 3 season opener at home against Colgate.
Michigan State’s Jaxon Kohler scores against Bowling Green during the second half on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
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The Spartans, who finished 30-7 last season and won Izzo’s 11th Big Ten regular-season title en route to his 11th Elite Eight, led by as many as 11 points early. Izzo tinkered with his lineup in true exhibition fashion, with the Falcons tying it midway through the second half before MSU pulled away again with a 17-4 run helmed by Carr and Carson Cooper. Jeremy Fears Jr. added 12 points and nine assists.
Here are some observations from the opener.
Veterans’ night
Kohler looked strong and assertive in the paint, attacking the glass and gobbling up excellent entry passes form his teammates. The 6-fot-9 senior had 12 points, including a 3-pointer as part of his 4-for-6 shooting, and two boards in the first half.
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Carr, meantime, didn’t have as much luck with his shot, worked on in the offseason. His one first-half attempt from 3-point range looked ugly and missed badly. He also struggled early at the free throw line, missing three of his first four. But the 6-6 wing didn’t miss at the rim on either end, throwing down four dunks and swatting Falcons furiously as part of MSU’s 14 blocked shots. He was 7-for-11 at the floor but just 3-for-8 on free throws.
“Once he gets in the air, it’s foul or hope he misses,” said Bowling Green coach Todd Simon, a Fowler native. “He puts so much pressure on you. And then those weak-side blocks, he’s just a non-traditional player covers so much ground. And then he’s effective on the glass now with his physicality.
“The player development they’ve done with him is off the charts. It just flies off the screen to see how he’s developed since high school. … He’s gonna be a problem for more than just Bowling Green this year.”
Fears showed an improved outside shot, hitting a pair of 3-poitners, but also had the passing game humming. MSU had assists on 24 of 27 made baskets, including 17 of 18 in the first half. The third-year sophomore also helped the Spartans get running in transition, where they finished with a 24-9 scoring advantage on the break and turned 11 BG turnovers into 13 points. Fears had two of MSU’s eight turnovers.
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Cooper remains a defensive post stalwart, though he struggled with his interior shot and didn’t take any 3-pointers. He had his two baskets in the late run to put the Falcons away and grabbed four rebounds.
“No disrespect, but we weren’t playing a (Division II or Division III) team. That’s Bowling Green, that’s a good team,” Carr said. “We were in a dogfight with them last year. I feel like this was a good game for the newer guys to kinda get the monkey off their back and see how it is, see how it is with the crowd and everything.”
Michigan State’s Coen Carr shoots against Bowling Green during the first half on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
Kur Teng starts
With four captains – Fears at point guard, Carr on the wing, and Kohler and Cooper on the block – virtually assured of starting spots, it left shooting guard, one of Izzo’s main concerns as the season approaches, up in the air.
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First crack went to Kur Teng, whom Izzo has said might be his team’s most pure shooter. However, the 6-foot-5, 200-pound sophomore missed his first four shots before hitting a late first-half 3-pointer, then started hitting from inside the arc after a brick to start the second half.
One thing Teng showed, though, was an ability to disrupt defensively and hustle in loose-ball situations. He finished with seven points on just 3-for-10 shooting but had four rebounds.
“In all fairness, Kur looked like a kid who hadn’t played much the first year,” Izzo said. “And then he played a little better.”
Off the bench, senior transfer Trey Fort had nine points on 3-for-7 shooting but went 3-of-5 from deep. Freshman Jordan Scott was scoreless in his six minutes.
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Triple trouble
Izzo wants better shooting from outside this season, but it remains a work in progress a few weeks out from the games getting real.
So does his team’s rebounding and defense.
Last winter, MSU hit just 31.1% of its 3-point attempts and then lost nearly 82% of those makes and nearly 83% of its attempts from behind the arc. Against Bowling Green, MSU went just 8-for-25 from deep and just 2-for-11 in the second half.
Defensively, the Spartans had stretches in which they struggled along the perimeter – Bowling Green finished 7-for-22 on 3-pointers – and in the paint, particularly with Cooper on the bench. MSU finished with just a 34-30 scoring edge in the paint.
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The Spartans were also outrebounded in the first half, 22-18 overall and 7-5 on the offensive glass, with the Falcons getting an 11-2 edge in second-chance points. But after half, MSU finished with a 23-20 rebounding edge to finish with a 42-41 deficit on the boards. Freshman Cam Ward grabbed six rebounds but scored just two points on 1-for-4 shooting.
“I feel like we got out and ran, but I didn’t think we guarded anybody,” Izzo said. “The second half, we were a little better. But that was very disappointing, the defense that we played. We didn’t rebound the ball very well. But when you don’t play good defense and you let teams penetrate on you, you never rebound the ball as well.”
All that said, Izzo juggled his lineup throughout the game to work different combinations and get a gauge which players work best with each other in a competitive environment, which will be needed next week against UConn.
“Sometimes, it takes a game to get back into everything and get back to exactly where you were,” Kohler said.
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Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball rough in exhibition win over Bowling Green
