Tom Izzo, Michigan State basketball facing two nemeses: Rutgers and Madison Square Garden

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EAST LANSING — Madison Square Garden has been unkind to Tom Izzo.

Rutgers hasn’t been much more hospitable to No. 8 Michigan State in recent years, either.

The Big Ten-leading Spartans (16-2, 7-0), winners of 11 straight, face Rutgers (10-9, 3-5) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the iconic venue in New York. It will be the Scarlet Knights’ first game televised nationally on CBS since the 1991 NCAA tournament and their first in the regular season since 1983.

“It’s gonna be Fourth of July and Christmas for them,” Izzo said Wednesday. “But it’s gonna be kind of exciting for us. And I just hope that we continue to play with the energy that we’ve had and kind of build on the consistency.”

Michigan State’s head coach Tom Izzo, left, and Rutgers’ head coach Steve Pikiell talk following the Spartans victory over the Scarlet Knights on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023

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MSU is 4-17 all-time at the Garden, considered one of the meccas of basketball in America. Izzo is 4-13, with his last win coming against Wisconsin in the 2018 Big Ten tournament, in its lone New York appearance.

Meantime, the Spartans have lost three of their past five to Rutgers, including a Feb. 4, 2023, regular-season game at MSG. That season, MSU’s season ended there in the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 a little more than a month later, with an overtime loss to Kansas State.

“I’ve never won there before,” said senior Jaden Akins, who is 0-3 at the Garden. “So I’m looking to get a win there and play team basketball and just get it done.”

The challenge for MSU in this meeting is trying to stop the Scarlet Knights’ two NBA draft prospects, freshmen Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, who are the second- and third-leading scorers in the Big Ten.

Bailey, a 6-foot-10, 200-pound swingman, leads Rutgers at 19.9 points a game and ranks eighth in the conference at 7.9 rebounds. He also has 23 blocks and 18 steals total…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/tom-izzo-michigan-state-basketball-110417416.html

Author : Detroit Free Press

Publish date : 2025-01-25 11:04:00

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