CHICAGO (AP) — Jeremy Fears Jr. had 18 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds as No. 5 Michigan State shut down No. 2 Duke for a rugged 79-73 win Tuesday night.
Playing coach Tom Izzo's usual swarming, physical defense, Michigan State held Duke to 33.3% (20 for 60) shooting from the field and forced 13 turnovers. Jordan Scott had six of the Spartans' eight blocked shots and two of the team's seven steals.
Cam Ward added 14 points as Michigan State (3-0) earned its first win against Duke since a 75-69 victory on Dec. 1, 2020. The Spartans also improved to 7-9 in the Champions Classic, an annual doubleheader that also includes Kansas and Kentucky in various combinations and different cities early in the season.
John Blackwell scored 17 points for Duke (2-1), and Patrick Ngongba II finished with 11. The shooting trouble for the Blue Devils extended to the free-throw line, where they went 26 for 37.
Duke opened the regular season with a pair of runaway victories against Army and Coastal Carolina, averaging 98.5 points while shooting a combined 55% from the field. But the Blue Devils looked uncomfortable for most of the night at United Center, home of the NBA's Chicago Bulls.
Jesse McCulloch made two free throws and Fears converted a three-point play to help Michigan State open a 50-36 lead with 13:37 remaining.
Duke closed to 73-68 on Caleb Foster's two foul shots with 2:03 to go. But then Scott responded with a driving layup for Michigan State, and Fears made two free throws with 39 seconds left.
Fears drove inside to set up Ethan Taylor’s three-point play late in the first half, lifting Michigan State to a 34-25 lead at the break. Fears had eight assists at halftime, and the Blue Devils shot 25.9% (7 for 27) from the field in the early going.
Duke hosts SIU Edwardsville on Friday night.
Michigan State hosts Northern Iowa on Friday night.
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Michigan State forward Cam Ward, top, shoots against Duke during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in State Farm Champions Classic in Chicago, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Michigan State guard Jasiah Jervis, right, drives as Duke guard John Blackwell guards during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in State Farm Champions Classic in Chicago, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
When setting a date for hip replacement surgery, Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy made sure it would be after the World Series.
What he didn't consider was when the NL Manager of the Year winner would be announced.
That's why Murphy was in a hospital bed Tuesday night recovering from his operation when he became the first skipper from either league to win the award three years in a row.
“I've got nothing to do. I’m just sitting here,” Murphy quipped at the end of a call with reporters.
The award came less than two weeks after the Brewers won their first World Series title, and a day after the manager's surgery in Milwaukee.
“The doctor gave me some dates and I just picked a date one day, and I had no idea that it was going to coincide. I wasn't thinking in those terms," said Murphy, who turns 68 on Nov. 28. “I was just thinking about what we had, task at hand. I mean, I probably picked it a month ago and obviously I picked it after the World Series was done, but I didn’t know we were going to be in the World Series at that time. But I thought it was a safe date to do it.”
Will Venable is the American League Manager of the Year after the Chicago White Sox became the first team in MLB history to reach the playoffs after consecutive 100-loss seasons. Only the third of those came under Venable after he took over in 2025. Chicago went 84-78 this year.
Balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America was conducted before the postseason and announced Tuesday night.
Milwaukee has won the NL Central in all three seasons with Murphy as its manager after he spent eight seasons on Craig Counsell’s coaching staff. The Brewers led the majors this year with a franchise-record 103 wins during the regular season, then in the playoffs swept the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series and beat Tampa Bay in a five-game World Series.
Murphy survived a heart attack in August 2020 that happened on the day of a Milwaukee workout.
The Brewers play in Major League Baseball’s smallest market and have a payroll in the bottom half of the sport, but have had the best record in the big leagues each of the past two seasons.
After sweeping the NLCS for their first World Series berth since their only other one in 1982, Murphy celebrated by saying the Dodgers had Hall of Famers but his team had gamers.
“I think it’s just a reflection of what our team has done,” Murphy said Tuesday night. “First and foremost is players, hungry players that are willing to live up to certain standards and have a focus and awareness about winning.”
Only three other managers have won the award three times in the same organization. Bobby Cox, one of three four-time winners along with Buck Showalter and Tony La Russa, earned three with the Atlanta Braves (1991, 2004 and 2005). Cox is also the only other back-to-back NL winner.
Terry Francona was a three-time winner with Cleveland (2013, 2016 and 2022), while Dusty Baker won three times with the San Francisco Giants (1993, 1997 and 2000).
Venable, a former big league outfielder, got his first managerial job when the White Sox were coming off 121 losses in 2024, a record for the most since 1900, after 101 losses the previous season. They went 60-102 in Venable’s debut and followed that this season when 19 rookies played and they made the playoffs for the first time since 2021.
“I’m really proud about the playoff appearance because it’s what the players believed from day one, you know, at a time when nobody, certainly nobody outside of our walls, believed that we were a playoff team,” Venable said. “There was real belief internally with our player group that they were a playoff team and beyond that, they were also willing to do the things necessary to turn that into a reality.”
After sweeping Houston in two road games in their AL Wild Card Series, the White Sox had a 2-0 series lead before losing a five-game AL Division Series to Cleveland.
Before he was hired by Chicago, Venable was on manager Bruce Bochy’s staff in Texas and was part of the Rangers’ only World Series title in 2023.
Venable is first White Sox manager to win the award since Ozzie Guillen in 2005.
Murphy got 20 of 30 first-place votes and finished with 124 points. Atlanta's Walt Weiss came in second with seven first-place votes and 86 points, while Philadelphia's Don Mattingly was the other NL finalist and came in third. Mattingly got one first-place vote, and San Diego's Craig Stammen got the remaining two.
Venable received 15 of 30 first-place votes and 111 points in the BBWAA balloting. The other AL finalists were two-time winner Kevin Cash of the AL champion Tampa Bay Rays, and Chad Tracy, who took over the Boston Red Sox in April and led them to the playoffs.
Cash was runner-up with 12 first-place votes and 98 points. Tracy got three first-place votes and 47 points.
The AL and NL Cy Young Award winners and Relievers of the Year will be announced Wednesday. MVP winners will be revealed Thursday.
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
FILE - Chicago White Sox's Will Venable waves before Game 3 of baseball's American League Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Melissa Tamez, File)
