Tuesday night marked the first time in 954 days — dating all the way back to the 2023-24 team's Elite Eight loss to NC State — that Duke basketball wasn't at least within one possession of taking the lead in the final minute of a game. In fact, the No. 2-ranked Blue Devils (2-1, 0-0 ACC) never led from start to finish in their 79-73 loss to the No. 5 Michigan State Spartans (3-0, 0-0 Big Ten) at the Champions Classic in Chicago's United Center.

And while there were several areas of weakness that led to Duke's defeat at the hand of Tom Izzo's savvy, phsyical, and seasoned Michigan State team, fifth-year Blue Devil head coach Jon Scheyer seemed to sum up his sentiments with one line toward the end of his opening statement to his postgame press conference: "Our fans deserve better."

"Congrats to Michigan State," Scheyer said. "They 100 percent deserved to win. I thought they outcompeted us. They played more together...For me, it was a little bit of an out-of-body experience. Our team, I thought we weren't connected — just the bottom line. We weren't connected, and we're going to fix it; I can promise you that much...

"That was not a good performance tonight. You've got to give a lot of credit to Michigan State, though. They were ready to play...For us, it's no excuses on our end. We'll get back to work. We'll address this very quickly."

Upcoming Duke Basketball Schedule Presents Big Challenges

After shooting only 33.3 percent from the field, 24.1 percent from three, and 70.3 percent at the line against the Spartans, the Blue Devils will now prepare to host the unranked SIU Edwardsville Cougars in Cameron Indoor Stadium at 8 p.m. ET Friday (The CW). Then, over the following two weeks, their slate includes matchups against the rest of the top five, excluding themselves, of course, and the Spartans, as they'll play the No. 1 Florida Gators, No. 3 Illinois Fighting Illini, and No. 4 UConn Huskies.

"Our schedule doesn't get any easier," Scheyer added in his opening statement. "So, one on hand, that's tough. And on the other hand, there's great opportunity. And this is Game 3 of hopefully a long season ahead of us."

Tom Izzo's Thoughts on Jon Scheyer's Duke Basketball Squad

Only two Blue Devils reached double-digit points on Tuesday night: senior guard John Blackwell with 17 and junior center Patrick Ngongba II with 11. But even they shot only a combined 8-for-23 from the field, 4-for-14 from downtown, and 8-for-15 at the line.

"I'm a little surprised," Izzo noted to The Field of 68's Jeff Goodman afterward about the Blue Devils' overall performance against his Spartans. "I think they're a really, really good [Duke] team...I'm not betting against them to do some damage this year."

Maybe so. However, as Scheyer pointed out in his presser about his talented bunch, who won their first two games at home against the Army Black Knights and Coastal Carolina Chanticleers by an average of 47.5 points, there's no doubt much to improve upon moving forward and plenty of reasons for fans to expect more.