The Michigan State basketball team came into this season with sky-high expectations, but they have gotten off to a shaky start in the first week of the season. The Spartans brought back a lot of talent from last year's Sweet 16 team, but they have not met expectations so far. Michigan State was ranked #4 in the preseason poll and they started the season at home as big favorites against James Madison. Nobody expected them to have any trouble in this one, but the Dukes shocked the country and pulled off the upset in overtime. It was an atrocious loss, but the Spartans had a chance to redeem themselves on Tuesday night against #9 Duke basketball.

Duke basketball and Michigan State basketball always participate in the Champions Classic with Kansas and Kentucky, and this season, the Spartans and Blue Devils went head to head. It was a fairly close game throughout, but Duke created a bit of separation for most of the second half and ended up winning the game 74-65. The Spartans were ranked #4 one week ago, and they are now 1-2 to begin the season.

One issue that Michigan State has had this season is three point shooting. In the loss to James Madison, the Spartans shot 1-2o from downtown. In a win against Southern Indiana, they shot 1-11. Things were better against Duke as Michigan State was 6-19, but Tom Izzo knows that his team has to be better in that area.

“Eventually when you have wide open wide open wide open 3s, they gotta go in,” Tom Izzo said after the Duke loss, according to a tweet from Chris Solari. “And they didn’t.”

There's no question that this Michigan State team has a lot of talent, but they have a lot of work to do. The Spartans are back in action on Friday at home against Butler.