Three takeaways from MSU basketball's dominant season-opening win vs. Quinnipiac

Robert Bondy, Spartans WireTue, November 3, 2026 at 2:22 AM UTC

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Michigan State basketball rolled in its season-opener against Quinnipiac, and, of course, there were some takeaways out of this impressive performance.

Michigan State led for nearly the entire game en route to a 96-59 victory over Quinnipiac in Monday night's season-opener. The Spartans led by as many as 40 points, with their lead never dipping below 20 points in the second half.

Six different Spartans reached double-digits in scoring in the victory, led by Jeremy Fears Jr.'s 13 points. He also had 11 assists for a season-opening double-double.

With the victory, Michigan State improved to 1-0 on the year and looked the part of a preseason national championship contender. Certainly, there will be harder games coming up, but for now, here are three takeaways out of this dominant win and a quick look ahead to the Spartans' next game coming up later this week...

Spartans' good is REALLY good

When Michigan State is playing like they did on Monday night, they're simply going to dominate teams. That is exactly what happened against Quinnipiac in the season-opener.

There was some concern out of the exhibition season where Michigan State dropped a pair of games against Big East foes, but it also was clear in both of those games that Michigan State was not playing its best ball. We finally got to see some of its best game on Monday and that's simply going to overmatch most of the teams on their schedule this year.

This, of course, should be taken with a grain of salt given the competition. But Quinnipiac is a solid mid-major program (winning record in each of the last four seasons) so this is still a performance that fans should be happy about in the opener.

Need to improve at free throw line

Shooting free throws is becoming a growing concern for me. That was evident again on Monday.

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The Spartans finished the night shooting 57.7% from the charity stripe, hitting 15-of-26 attempts. That simply won't cut it for a team that has championship aspirations.

This isn't something to get too worked up about early on in the season. But definitely something to monitor, especially after poor free throw shooting in the exhibition slate as well.

Solid performances from Bonke, Ward

It wasn't a great exhibition slate both Anton Bonke and Cam Ward, but both looked like the guys Michigan State will need to achieve their goals in this opener.

Bonke finished the night with a double-double, scoring 11 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the victory. Ward had nine points and five rebounds, which isn't anything that is wildly impressive but he looked like a guy that was getting back to full strength after suffering a preseason injury.

Michigan State is loaded in overall depth on the roster, but they're going to need guys like Bonke and Ward to play well to be great. This was a pleasant sight after what we saw in exhibition slate.

Next Up...

Michigan State will be back on the court in a few days against Toledo of the Mid-American Conference. That matchup between the Spartans and Rockets will be on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET. It'll be streamed on Peacock.

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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Three takeaways from MSU basketball's dominant season-opening win vs. Quinnipiac

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