EAST LANSING– No. 12 Michigan State men’s basketball hits the road for a two-game road trip, with the first leg against the Washington Huskies, who are off to a 2-4 start in the second season in the Big Ten.

Washington is in the middle of arguably the toughest three game stretch a team can have, facing No. 4 Michigan, No. 12 Michigan State and No. 8 Nebraska in a row.

The Spartans are looking to learn from their poor west coast road trip from last season, where USC and UCLA handed MSU its first two conference losses.

Washington is coming off a home loss to  Michigan on Wednesday night. The Huskies remained in striking distance for the majority of the game but could never close the gap. Wolverines center Aday Mara was 10 for 11 from the field and gave Washington too many problems in the paint.

Expect Spartans forward Jaxon Kohler to have an advantage inside where he can go to work in the post to get great scoring chances.

Washington freshman Hannes Steinbach has been the Huskies’ leading scorer at 17.9 pointers per game. Steinbach is a German native and another NBA Draft prospect for Europe that has decided to play NCAA basketball instead of Euroleague in the NIL era.

Fans of the Green and White should thank Washington’s neighbors, the Seattle Seahawks for hosting their Divisional Round playoff game on Saturday night. This moved the tip-off for this contest to 6 p.m. instead of the alternative time slot, which was 10:30 p.m. if there were no conflicts in the Emerald City.

Spartans head coach Izzo credited the earlier tip-off for being a better option for his squad, as they head west.

“I guess now it’s a three o’clock game, which is good. I was hoping we didn’t have to play that night game, so we can travel a little bit that night and get places,” Izzo said.

MSU recovered from its loss to Nebraska with an unbeaten three-game homestand and looks to add a fourth straight win against Washington on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 6 p.m.