James Madison saves opening night of men's college hoops at Tom Izzo's expense

Deep into another lackluster opening night for men’s college basketball, an unheralded program from the Sun Belt Conference rose up and delivered some much-needed excitement.

James Madison, which has made one NCAA tournament since 1994 and last defeated a Top 25 opponent more than three decades ago, gave "Monday Night Football" viewers an excuse to stop watching Zach Wilson and flip over to basketball.

The most remarkable part about James Madison’s 79-76 overtime victory over fourth-ranked Michigan State was that the outcome felt less surprising with every passing minute. The Dukes stormed to a 25-12 first-half lead and withstood every counterpunch that followed. They gained confidence with every dagger 3-pointer, every physical offensive rebound and every key defensive stop.

That swagger was on display late in overtime with James Madison clinging to a one-point lead and playing without two starters, both of whom had fouled out. The Dukes needed one more big play to seal a win that would thrust them into the national spotlight and validate Sun Belt voters who anointed them the preseason conference favorites.

When point guard Michael Green III couldn’t get past his man off the dribble, he kicked out to reserve Raekwon Horton spotted up on the right wing. Sensing that the shot clock was nearly at zero and his defender had given him too much space, Horton went for the knockout blow, burying a catch-and-shoot 3 to increase the Dukes’ lead to four with 8.6 seconds to play.

Until that moment, opening day in men’s college basketball had mostly been a dud. There were few marquee matchups, but nothing to grab the attention of a mainstream audience or to siphon viewers away from the NBA or NFL.

Aside from Michigan State, the 20 other preseason AP Top 25 teams who opened play on Monday overwhelmed lesser foes like Samford, NJIT and Stanislaus State. Their average margin of victory was a staggering 36 points.

Only No. 19 North Carolina and No. 21 USC won by fewer than 20 points. Only the Trojans tested themselves against a power-conference foe. North Carolina pulled away from Radford to win 86-70. USC rode the backcourt of Boogie Ellis and Isaiah Collier to a convincing 82-69 neutral-court victory over Kansas State.

The lack of close games and quality opening-night matchups is a byproduct of coaches doing their own scheduling. They're always going to act in their own self interest rather than the good of the sport.

Most coaches want to open with a warmup game against a lesser-talented opponent, especially given all the roster turnover every offseason across college basketball. They don’t want to risk challenging someone good the first time their team is all together and starting 0-1.

That mindset doesn’t appear likely to change without TV networks exerting pressure or without some as-of-yet nonexistent authority figure making it clear that this is bad for the sport. College basketball desperately needs some sort of opening-day showcase event, whether that’s the return of ESPN’s tip-off marathon or a tournament involving the previous year’s Elite Eight teams or something else altogether.

There was nothing like that to inject some juice into opening night this year. Nothing, that is, until James Madison did it at Michigan State’s expense.

This was supposed to be 68-year-old Tom Izzo’s best chance to capture an elusive second national title. Michigan State returned its top players besides sharpshooter Joey Hauser from last season’s 21-win Sweet 16 team. The Spartans appeared to be talented, experienced and, above all else, deep.

Michigan State may still live up to preseason expectations and reestablish itself as a national title hopeful, but for now the James Madison loss feels more ominous than fluky. The lack of floor spacers is a major concern even if the Spartans won’t always shoot 1-for-20 from behind the arc or miss 14 free throws.

Right now, opponents can comfortably sag off shooters and choke off the driving lanes against Michigan State without fear of the Spartans making them pay. That’s exactly what James Madison did to Tyson Walker at the end of regulation when he missed a contested pull-up jumper at the buzzer.

While Walker piled up 35 points on 12-for-26 shooting, the other four Michigan State starters all struggled. A.J. Hoggard, Malik Hall, Mady Sissoko and Jaden Akins shot 8-for-36 overall, prompting Izzo to give his freshmen more minutes in an effort to find an effective lineup combination.

Izzo doesn’t have long to figure it out. Matchups with Duke, Butler and Arizona loom later this month.

By then, there will be no shortage of must-see men’s college basketball. On the first night of college basketball since April, James Madison's stunning upset victory was as good as it got.