"You might wonder what I got out of that, I did get a lot out of it," Izzo said after the game. "I thought Cassius played a lot better than he did Saturday. And the things I needed him to do. And Nick was as solid as he was Saturday against maybe better competition. But today, Nick played within himself."  

Junior guard Cassius Winston took it up the lane to sink the first basket for MSU just after the one minute mark, and helped get the Spartans off to a 14-7 run through the first seven minutes of the game. Winston would pace the Spartan offense, recording nine points, including one from beyond the arc, and an assist through ten minutes as MSU increased its lead to 25-7 in the early going.

The Spartans pulled further away as the half went on, stopping the Northern Michigan offense from scoring for nearly nine minutes, and extending their lead to 25 points with 7:40 remaining on the clock in the first half. MSU pulled down 18 total rebounds and recorded three blocked shots at that point.

Freshman guard Foster Loyer made his debut late in the first half and dazzled fans with a highlight-reel alley-oop to junior forward Nick Ward, extending MSU's lead to 29 with just over two minutes left in the half. 

The Spartans would head into the break up 43-13, recording 29 rebounds, three blocks and eight assists while shooting 48 percent from the floor in the first half.

Junior guard Joshua Langford kicked off the scoring in the second half, taking the bull into the paint for the layup and drawing a foul for the extra point. The Spartans continued their dominant play, going on a 12-4 run through five minutes in the second half.

At the 11 minute mark in the second half, Langford was brought to the stripe after being fouled behind the three-point line and sank all three of his foul shots to make the score, 69-27, in favor of MSU.

The Spartans finished the final nine minutes of regulation on a 24-20 run, with 12 of their points coming from freshman forward Marcus Bingham Jr., to seal their 93-47 victory.

Ward and Winston put up big numbers in the game. Ward led the team in scoring with 24 points while also pulling down nine rebounds. Winston followed right behind in scoring, putting up 13 points (11 in the first half) and seven assists. 

"I think it was actually pretty good," Winston said on his team's performance. "We got the ball out on the break a lot, we got almost any shot we wanted. Now, the next thing is just knocking those down." 

Most notably, the Spartans' defense shined, allowing just one opposing player (guard Naba Echols with 23 points) to reach double digits in scoring, along with out-rebounding the Wildcats 57-32.

“But we have a long ways to go," Izzo said. "It’s just going to be interesting facing a team like Kansas right off the bat.” 

MSU will now turn its attention to the regular season and head to Indianapolis to take on No. 1 Kansas in the first game of this year’s Champions Classic. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.