February 16, 2025: Michigan State just beat the Illini in Champaign and now they return home with a challenging game against fellow Big Ten leader, Purdue. The Boilers are tied in the standings with the Spartans one game back from UM. This will be the only meeting between the two. After looking awful against the Hoosiers, the Spartans pulled a 180 …

February 15, 2025: Michigan State pulled off an improbable road win over Illinois where they started down 16 and won by 14. Perhaps more strangely, they closed the game on a 15-negative 2 run (a goal tending call got reversed). The win came in large part behind Illinois choosing to spend too much time behind the 3 point line where they shot only 21…

February 13, 2025: Michigan State heads back on the road for a rematch against Illinois. The matchup earlier at the Breslin turned out well for the green and white as they got star player, Kasparas Jakucionas, in foul trouble and squeaked out a 2 point victory. Champaign has not been a kind road environment for the Spartans in the recent past and a…

February 12, 2025: Michigan State lost a very disappointing game late on Tuesday night to Indiana and its sloppy zone 71-67. Despite a great start to the game with MSU up 20-8, the Hoosiers switched to a lazy 2-3 zone and gummed up the Spartans’ offense the remainder of the game. By playing slow they took MSU completely out of its game and played a…

February 9, 2025: Michigan State took care of business against Oregon with a second half performance for the ages. We’re sure Tom Izzo hopes his team won’t need any heroics to knock off the Hoosiers in East Lansing to record his 354th Big Ten win. The Hoosiers are a team in disarray as head coach Mike Woodson announced last week that he would be re…

February 8, 2025: Michigan State returned home to East Lansing and played two strange halves of basketball. In the first half, Oregon torched the Spartans for 50 points and led by 14 at the half. But roles reversed in the second where MSU scored 50 and held the Ducks to 24 allowing for a 12 point win, 84-72. On offense, the Spartans were led by Fre…

February 5, 2025: Michigan State returns from Los Angeles with a two game losing streak after having won 13 straight. So MSU will look to right the ship with another former Pac-12 team, the Oregon Ducks. Oregon has had a strange year in that they started 11-0 with a lot of Quad 1 wins but have only gone 5-7 since beginning Big Ten play with 3 of th…

February 4, 2025: Michigan State took on UCLA to finish their first Big Ten west coast trip. Unlike the game at USC, the Spartans came out of the gate with their hair on fire and competed hard charging to an early lead. Unfortunately, MSU started turning it over and UCLA built a 7 point lead at halftime, 35-28. Despite the Spartans trying to fight …

February 2, 2025: MSU heads to the storied Pauley Pavilion on Tuesday night to take on the red hot UCLA Bruins. The Bruins have won 5 straight after losing 4 in a row in the Big Ten. One thing to note about the current win streak for the Bruins is that it has all occurred in the pacific West. It should be a good challenge for the Spartans as they t…

February 1, 2025: Well, it was bound to happen even though we never like to see it, MSU falls to USC 70-64 on the road for their first loss in the Big Ten season. It was a game that USC led wire to wire by capitalizing on early Michigan State miscues and getting some timely offensive rebounds to drive the lead up to 15 early. Star Desmond Claude le…

January 30, 2025: Head West young man. Michigan State is leaving the Midwest for the not-so-friendly confines of Los Angeles for their doubleheader with USC and UCLA. Three time zones and over 2000 miles away they will find themselves first at the Galen Center taking on first year coach Eric Musselman and his entirely new roster of transfers. USC s…

January 28, 2025: The Spartan train just keeps on rolling as MSU blasts the Gophers 73-51 to sweep the season series between the teams and move to 18-2 overall and 9-0 in the Big Ten. This game MSU did it largely on the boards crushing Minnesota 40-22 and finishing with a 42% offensive rebounding rate and only giving up 16% to the Gophers. Offensiv…

January 26, 2025: Michigan State will look to continue its winning streak as it hosts Minnesota on Tuesday night. MSU took care of business in Minneapolis in December but this the Gophers are on a bit of a hot streak. They’ve won 3 straight including home wins over UM and Oregon and a road win in Iowa City. Minnesota’s success is primarily due to t…

January 25, 2025: Michigan State came into Madison Square Garden which has been something of a house of horror for the Spartans - and defeated the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 81-74. The win keeps MSU alone atop the Big Ten at 8-0 and extends their winning streak to 12 games. It also makes the 37th straight year with a winning season - longest in the Bi…

January 24, 2025: For now, there are only 2 new players scheduled to join the green and white next year, Cam Ward and Jordan Scott. Like Ward, Scott is also from the DMV - not typical recruiting territory for Tom Izzo and the two will be the first Spartans to hail from there since Carlton Valentine in the 80s. Scott brings a diverse game where he p…

January 22, 2025: MSU now holds onto first place all by themselves at 7-0 after their exciting win over Illinois. They head to Madison Square Gardens for a semi-away game against Rutgers. MSG has not been kind to the Spartans in the past as they are 0-4 in Champions Classic games and lost two years ago to Rutgers in a similar matchup. The Green & W…

January 19, 2025: Michigan State hosted Illinois in their first real matchup of conference heavyweights and managed to hang on for an 80-78 win. As Rod predicted in the pregame, it came down to a one possession game with two teams taking away the others’ strengths. The teams were even on the boards, transition points, FG%, turnovers, free throw att…

January 17, 2025: In what is probably the most anticipated matchups of the year to date, Michigan State will host Illinois on Sunday afternoon. The game pits two of the top 15 teams in the country and maybe the top in the Big Ten. To date, MSU is riding a 10 game winning streak and is 6-0 in the league but has yet to play any team with a winning re…

January 15, 2025: Well, MSU returned home from Evanston and had only a few days to prep for a pesky Penn State team and was pushed but ultimately won 90-85. It was a less than stellar defensive performance from the Spartans as they largely had no answer for the Nittany Lions’ ball screens.Fortunately, the Spartans were good on the offensive boards …

January 13, 2025: Michigan State returns home for a matchup against reeling Penn State on Wednesday evening. The Spartans are riding a nine game win streak and are unbeaten in league play at 5-0. One challenge for the green and white is that they have to maintain their focus in what could be a trap game with Illinois coming to town on Sunday. Penn …

January 12, 2025: Michigan State took care of business in Evanston on Sunday afternoon with a relatively stress free 78-68 win over a tricky Northwestern team. MSU led by as much as 23 in the first half and took a 19 point lead into halftime. They built the lead largely on the backs of turning over the Wildcats and forcing bad shots on defense in c…

January 11, 2025: Michigan State is looking to continue its winning ways as it heads back onto the road to Evanston with a matchup against the Northwestern Wildcats. Of late, the ‘Cats have sort of had the Spartans’ number winning two of the last three at home and generally giving MSU fits every time they play. But this year’s Spartans feel differe…

January 9, 2025: Michigan State returned home to the Breslin along with the Izzone Alumni to put on a show obliterating the Washington Huskies 88-54. The Spartans only allowed the Huskies 13 points in the first half and dominated Washington in just about every aspect of the game. MSU held Washington’s best player, Great Osobor, to just 6 points on …

January 6, 2025: Michigan State returns to the Breslin Center after a victory in Columbus and a 3-0 league record. They welcome in the Washington Huskies formerly of the Pac-12 for their first visit to East Lansing. This is certainly a game that MSU is projected to win but Washington will present some interesting challenges. Most notably is Great O…

January 3, 2025: Michigan State resumed Big Ten play on the road against Ohio State in much the same way they ended play in early December - with a win. This time they won 69-62 in a hard fought game against a good opponent. It was a game in which MSU led most of the game outside of a brief moment in the second half after a huge Buckeye run that cu…

January 2, 2025: Happy New Year to you and your families as we talk about MSU’s upcoming resumption of Big Ten play against the Ohio State Buckeyes. We are probably 4-5 weeks away from having a real good feel for the quality of any of the Big Ten teams. Ohio State is a good example of that. The Buckeyes opened the season with a big win over Texas b…

December 30, 2024: Michigan State welcomed back former assistant coach Dwayne Stephens with his Western Michigan Bronco team and handed them an 80-62 loss. Despite the 18 point deficit, it was a game in which Western Michigan kept within 5-10 points for the majority of the game. However, it was some late opportune shooting and defense which pushed …

December 30, 2024: New MSU commit, Cam Ward is a 6’7” 210# forward from Upper Marlboro, MD. He will join the Spartans next year and comes with a diverse game scoring, shooting, rebounding, and defending. Ward won the Gatorade POY for Maryland last year and is looking to defend his high school’s state title as well. All of this he does under the coa…

December 27, 2024: The Spartans will welcome back former long time assistant coach Dwayne Stephens and his Western Michigan Broncos on Monday at the Breslin Center. It’s been tough sledding for Stephens at Western as he has had trouble assembling a competitive team even in the diminished mid-american conference. This year’s team isn’t off to a grea…

December 21, 2024: Michigan State returned back to the Breslin Center for a home game against the Florida Atlantic Owls and cruised to an 86-69 victory. It was a close game throughout the first 13-14 minutes of the game until MSU started to tighten the screws on defense and finished with a 42-29 lead at half time. The Spartans continued to do just …

December 19, 2024: Michigan State returns back to the Breslin Center for a home game against former Final Four team - the Florida Atlantic Owls. The Owls are under a new coach this year as Dusty May moved on to Ann Arbor. But the Owls seem to be a pretty good team with an 8-5 record and a lot of size. FAU is a top 100 team on Ken Pom with a rating …

December 17, 2024: Michigan State was challenged by Oakland once again struggling to manage a 32-31 lead at half time at Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit. But the second half was a different animal as the Spartans blasted the Golden Grizzlies by 18 to win comfortably 77-58. It was a game where both teams coming in were struggling from 3 but each sh…

December 15, 2024: Michigan State heads back to the hard court after ten days off since their two Big Ten matchups. The Spartans continue their long annual series with the Oakland Golden Grizzlies for its 23rd year. So far, MSU is 22-0 in the series but Oakland usually poses some interesting challenges for the Green and White. Oakland is coming off…

December 7, 2024: Michigan State came out on Saturday and destroyed the Nebraska Cornhuskers 89-52 to open the Spartans’ home Big Ten play. The 37 point margin was tied for the second biggest Big Ten winning margin for MSU in their history. The game looked exactly as you would expect for a blowout win at home against a very good Big Ten opponent. N…

December 5, 2024: On Saturday, Michigan State will welcome in Fred Hoiberg and his Nebraska Cornhuskers as the Spartans’ Big Ten home opener. It will be Nebraska’s first Big Ten game and one in which they carry a 6-1 non conference record highlighted with an 11 point win on the road at Creighton. The ‘Huskers play fast, defend well, and shoot prett…

December 4, 2024: Michigan State’s conference season opener was a good one on the road as they come away from Williams Arena in Minneapolis with a 90-72 victory over the Golden Gophers of Minnesota. It was a win in which MSU did just about everything we suspected they would need to do to get a win. Run, rebound, and shoot well. It was the first gam…

December 2, 2024: Michigan State hits the road for the first time this year as they take on Minnesota in Minneapolis to tip off conference play. Minnesota has taken a huge step back this season after being decimated by the portal and one of their best players leaving for the NBA. So MSU will take on the Gophers in a game against a team that struggl…

November 28, 2024: Michigan State played North Carolina down to the wire in the third place game at the Maui Invitational and managed to down the Tar Heels in overtime, 94-91. It was a game that MSU led with a fairly comfortable margin throughout the latter parts of the first half just about to the end of the game when they had a bit of a meltdown …

November 26, 2024: Michigan State played Memphis in the second round of the Maui Invitational after a relatively easy win in the first round against Colorado. Today despite hitting finally their threes, MSU were worse offensively with 2pt FGs and FT leading to an 8 point loss 71-63. Michigan State will now move onto the consolation game against the…

November 25, 2024: Michigan State played in the first round of the Maui Invitational tonight and cruised past Colorado despite only shooting 9.5% from behind the arc. Deep shooting is clearly a huge concern for this team but they are doing everything else so well that it is covering for the shooting to this point. The most remarkable aspect of the …

November 22, 2024: Michigan State is heading to beautiful Maui for Feast Week this year and a loaded Maui Invitational. The tournament features Auburn, Iowa State, North Carolina, Memphis, Dayton, UConn, Colorado, and Michigan State. Lots of potential final four teams in the field. The Spartans will open up against the weakest (on paper anyway) tea…

November 19, 2024: Samford visited the Breslin Center bringing their frenetic full court press and 3 point attack challenging the Spartans in new ways this season. Fortunately for the Green and White, they held off the pesky Bulldogs, 83-75. Once again, Jaden Akins had a fantastic game outside of his foolish technical foul. Finally a few 3s started…

November 18, 2024: Michigan State welcomes Samford to the Breslin on Tuesday night for their last warmup before the Maui Invitational next week. The Bulldogs represent a real challenge as they are again expected to win the Southland Conference and nearly beat Kansas in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament earlier this year. Samford will provide…

November 16, 2024: Bowling Green top assistant coach and former MSU point guard, Tum Tum Nairn almost spoiled his homecoming to East Lansing with an upset by the Falcons. Michigan State needed a 10-0 run to end the first half to tie the game at half time and then an 18-0 run to finish the game to secure a 14 point win, 86-72. Despite the double dig…

November 14, 2024: The Spartans welcome back a familiar face to the Breslin on Saturday night as Tum Tum Nairn makes his assistant coaching debut with the Bowling Green Falcons. It comes after Michigan State fell to top ranked Kansas at the Champions Classic where they shot 3-24 from 3 point range. Michigan State will look to correct those shooting…

November 12, 2024: Michigan State falls to Kansas 77-69 in the Champions Classic in Atlanta tonight. Although there were some very encouraging signs to the offense tonight, for the second straight year they are struggling to hit beyond the arc early again the season. The Spartans went 3-24 from behind the line despite many of them being wide open. …

November 10, 2024: Michigan State will take on Kansas in what might be the rubber match for their meetings in the Champions Classic. The teams currently have a 2-2 record against each other in the early season premiere showdown and this is very likely one of the last years of the Classic. Conference realignments and TV deals are rapidly changing th…

November 8, 2024: Michigan State played their second game of the year where Niagara falls to MSU 96-60 behind the outstanding play of Jaxon Kohler. Kohler finished the game with 20 points, 13 rebounds (6 offensive), and 2 steals in just 17 minutes on the floor. This was the first time that he finished the way we’ve been waiting for. The Spartans we…

November 6, 2024: Michigan State will take on Kansas in the Champions Classic next week but first, they host Niagara on Thursday at the Breslin Center. This expects to be the easiest competition of the season for the Spartans. So in this game we look to see if some early signs continue for the Green & White. Namely, will they continue to hit the of…

November 4, 2024: Unlike last year, Michigan State opened up the season with a win over Monmouth, 81-57. The Spartans looked different in this game in that they had their fast break humming and were dominant on the boards racking up almost 50% offensive rebounding rate. The one similarity to last season’s opener against James Madison was the dreadf…