Five takeaways from Michigan State basketball's dominant win over Iowa

Make no mistake about it, Michigan State basketball dominated Iowa on Tuesday night to cap off an exciting few days for MSU athletics. In front of new football head coach Pat Fitzgerald, the Spartans took down the undefeated Iowa Hawkeyes 71-52.

This was a bit of a surprising result. Even with as good as MSU has been this year, Iowa is a hot program, with a highly regarded new head coach, a star player, and a solid team that hasn't lost a game yet, even Tom Izzo said in his pregame radio show that he expected it to be close. Instead, the Spartans dominated this one from about 10 minutes into the game through to the end.

Below, you can find five of our takeaways from an exciting night in the Breslin Center:

1. Jeremy Fears is ascending into a superstar

Right now, Jeremy Fears Jr. isn't just looking like a Big Ten Player of the Year contender; he's actually starting to sneak into outright Naismith Player of the Year territory with his strong play to start the season. Fears just plays in a way now where it feels like he has the whole game under his control on both ends of the court. In a highly physical, defensive game where the Spartans needed easy points, Fears was able to draw a foul seemingly at will on Iowa and get himself to the free-throw line, where he went 10-10 on the night on his way to 14 points, six assists, and a steal.

2. MSU's physical team defense is suffocating

Michigan State held Iowa to what I will assume will be their lowest point total of the season at 52. You can bookmark this post and see how that take holds up, but I feel good about that. MSU completely frazzled a tough Iowa team with their tough, physical defense, hard hedging screens, and suffocating the Hawkeyes. It was impressive.

3. The rebounding is beyond elite

I mean, it's hard to do these posts after every game and not just continue to gush about MSU's rebounding. It's always been a staple for Tom Izzo, but this year it's gone to another level. The Spartans won the rebounding battle by an astonishing 37 to 18 in this one. It kind of nullifies MSU's biggest weakness, which is shooting, when they can just rebound the balls they miss and try again.

4. Jordan Scott continues to look like he belongs

Look, I could talk about Jaxon Kohler, or Coen Carr here, who were awesome, but I continue to be impressed by the play of Jordan Scott. More than likely, if Kaleb Glenn didn't get hurt this summer, Scott would have taken a redshirt this year as Jesse McCulloch did a season ago. Instead, he's playing real, important minutes, and he doesn't look phased at all. In fact, he's been darn good. Scott had six points, five tough rebounds, and two steals. He played excellent defense and even hit a big three. He belongs, right here, right now.

5. Free-throw shooting is vastly improved

An early concern for this team was around free-throw shooting. Tom Izzo vowed that he would get it corrected, and his team has definitely responded in that department. Not only are the Spartans going to the line more often, but they are also hitting them, too. MSU went 22-25 from the charity stripe on Tuesday night, which was a major difference in this game.

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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Five takeaways from Michigan State basketball's dominant win over Iowa