EAST LANSING— No. 8 Michigan State men’s basketball will host rival No. 17 Michigan for its final game before the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis.
MSU clinched the outright Big Ten regular season title on Thursday against Iowa in a 91-84 comeback win. This marked head coach Tom Izzo’s 11th Big Ten regular season title and MSU’s first since the 2019-20 season.
Five Spartans finished in double figures against the Hawkeyes including freshman guard Jase Richardson (22 points), senior guard Jaden Akins (15), junior forward Jaxon Kohler (15), redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr. (14) and junior guard Tre Holloman (11).
MSU shot 50.8% from the field, 33.3% from behind the arc and 66.7% from the free throw line. The Spartans also recorded 36 rebounds, eight turnovers and six steals.
The Green and White improved to 25-5 on the season and 16-3 in B1G play after Thursday’s win. They are also on a six-game winning streak, with four-straight being ranked wins.
MSU met Michigan in Ann Arbor on Feb. 21 and walked away with a 75-62 victory. The Spartans haven’t dropped a game to the Wolverines in East Lansing since the 2017-18 season.
Scouting Michigan
Michigan is on a two-game losing streak and has gone 2-2 since its last meeting against MSU. The Wolverines are 22-8 overall and 14-5 in conference play.
Most recently, Michigan fell to No. 13 Maryland 71-65 on Wednesday. Graduate center Vladislav Goldin and junior forward/center Danny Wolf led with 20 points each and junior guard Tre Donaldson also put up double digits with 10 points.
The Wolverines shot 43.5% from the field, 35% from behind the arc and 57.1% from the free throw line against the Terrapins. They also recorded 39 rebounds, 16 turnovers and four steals.
Michigan is 4-4 against ranked opponents this season, with wins coming against then-No. 22 Xavier, then-No. 11 Wisconsin, then-No. 14 Oklahoma and then-No. 22 UCLA.
The two foes will face off on Sunday with the tip-off set for 12 p.m. Tune into the live radio broadcast featuring Matt Merrifield and Allie Cohen locally on 88.9 FM or at impact89fm.org/listen-live/.
