Michigan State vs. Kansas Preview; How to Watch, Prediction, Best Bet

The 2024 College Basketball Champions Classic begins on Tuesday with the Michigan State Spartans taking on the Kansas Jayhawks from State Farm Arena in Atlanta, GA.

Kansas comes in fresh off of a No. 1 ranking in the AP Poll after a 2-0 start to the campaign, while Michigan State enters this contest uncharacteristically unranked despite an undefeated start to the year as well.

Still, Tom Izzo’s squad comes into this neutral site game as just 6-point underdogs, with the over/under set at 150.5. With both team’s having track records of success in the champions classic, as well as National Championship pedigree, this one should stay close throughout.

Read below for a guide on everything you need to know heading into this huge matchup.

How to watch

The entire Champions Classic is exclusively on ESPN and the ESPN App. Michigan State vs. Kansas tips off at 6:30 PM Eastern time. Dan Schulman and Jay Bilas have the play-by-play duties, while Jess Sims provides reports from the sideline.

Kansas Jayhawks Team Preview

Bill Self re-tooled his Jayhawks team heavily this season after a disappointing first weekend finish in the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Seniors Hunter Dickinson (18 points per game) and Dajuan Harris (4 assists per game) are still the undisputed leaders of the No. 1 ranked team in the country, but newcomers like 2023-2024 Summit League Player of the Year Zeke Mayo and 2023-2024 All Big 10 guard A.J Storr have given Kansas depth it desperately missed over the last few seasons.

Mayo in particular has been a bright spot early. After averaging nearly 19 points per contest last season at South Dakota State, Mayo has averaged 20 points per game to open up this season, including a 21 point outburst in the Jayhawks victory over No. 9 ranked North Carolina last Friday. The senior’s uncanny ability to light up the scoreboard is the perfect compliment to Dajuan Harris and A.J. Storr’s playmaking mentality in the backcourt.

Kansas’s electric trio of guards combine with front court studs Hunter Dickinson, Flory Bidunga, and KJ Adams Jr. to give the Jayhawks possibly the best six man rotation in the nation. Bidunga has been particularly impressive as a freshman, collecting 16 rebounds to go along with 21 points and 3 blocks through just 28 minutes of action this season.

While the Jayhawks don’t receive much scoring beyond their first six options, nine players on Bill Self’s team has received double digit minutes per game to start the season. Self has shown an unwillingness to play large rotations in the past, but with more talent this year than he’s had in a long time, the future Hall of Fame coach may finally have the ability to run a deep rotation throughout the grind of a Big 12 season.

Michigan State Spartans team preview

Tom Izzo’s team has started the season 2-0 after a horrific opening night loss to James Madison a season ago. Unfortunately for the Spartans, the two teams they have beaten are Niagara (No. 331 in KenPom) and Monmouth (No. 263 in KenPom). There is still something to be said for beating the teams in front of you, but Michigan State simply isn’t talented enough for either win to look like a ‘resume building’ thumping.

The Spartans are led by senior guard Jaden Akins, who will likely assume the “Tyson Walker” role from a season ago. Akins leads the team in minutes played (27) through two contests, and is far and away the leading scorer (16.5 points per game). Behind Akins, junior guard Jaxon Kohler has been a bright spot. The American Fork, UT native leads the Spartans in rebounding with 12.5 boards per contest, while he scored a career-high 20 points in his team’s most recent victory over Niagara.

Michigan State’s veteran depth falls off behind those two however, as the next two biggest contributors so far, and likely for the remainder of the season, are freshman Jase Richardson and Jeremy Fears Jr. While both players have shined in certain stretches so far in 2024, we won’t know how effective they will be against good competition for another few weeks.

Best bet.

This one is kind of hard to handicap. On one hand, Kansas is clearly the better, deeper, more talented, and battle tested team. On the other hand, Tom Izzo has won with inferior teams in this tournament before. Because of that, I’m staying away from picking a side in this game for a best bet.

I will pick on Kansas superstar center Hunter Dickinson though. While the senior is a maestro on the offensive end, Dickinson was a bit of a liability against North Carolina in a game Kansas almost choked away last weekend. Tom Izzo is the type of coach to recognize something like that and game plan around it. Bill Self won’t bench his best offensive player, at least early, and that is why my favorite bet of the night is going to be Michigan State first half total OVER 34.5 points.

Prediction

Like I said above, this one is tough to predict. I’m going with a high-scoring, back-and-forth contest with the No. 1 team in the country outlasting Michigan State in the end.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk, 86-79.