No. 6 Michigan State Hosts Purdue on Tuesday Night

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State's men's basketball team returns home on Tuesday, Jan. 8, hosting Purdue in a Big Ten Conference matchup at the Breslin Center. Tipoff is slated for 9 p.m.

On the Air
The game will air live on ESPN2, with Dave Flemming calling the play-by-play, Dan Dakich serving as the color analyst and Molly McGrath on sidelines. The Spartan Sports Network radio call can be heard on one of 38 affiliates and on the web at SpartanSportsNetwork.com, with Will Tieman handling the play-by-play and Matt Steigenga serving as the color analyst. The game can also be heard on Sirius, XM and Internet 84.

Records
Michigan State enters Saturday's game with a 13-2 overall record and a 4-0 mark in the Big Ten. The Spartans, ranked No. 6 in the Associated Press poll and No. 5 in the USA Today Coaches poll, have won eight-straight games and 13 of the last 14 overall. Purdue enters the game with a 9-5 overall record and a 2-1 mark in league play.

Last Time Out
Junior guard Cassius Winston (Detroit, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit) scored 25 points and junior forward Nick Ward (Gahanna, Ohio/Lincoln) had 21 points and eight rebounds as No. 8 Michigan State used a big second half to pull away from No. 14 Ohio State for an 86-77 win on Saturday ... Winston scored 18 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, connecting on 8-of-12 shots from the floor, and handed out five assists ... Ward finished with 21 points and eight rebounds, connecting on 5-of-7 shots from the floor and 11-of-14 from the free throw line ... Matt McQuaid (Duncanville, Texas/Duncanville) added 12 points and six rebounds ... Michigan State outscored Ohio State, 50-34, in the second half and connected on 76.5 percent of its shots during the final 20 minutes (13-of-17), while hitting 84-6 percent of its free throws (22-of-26) in that span.

About the Spartans

Michigan State, 8-0 at the Breslin Center this year, plays just one of three home games this month on Tuesday night … After the matchup with Purdue, MSU is on the road for four of its next five game.
Ward was named the Big Ten Player of the Week on Monday ... This is the second-straight week a Spartan has earned that honor, Winston last week ... Ward averaged 21.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots in wins over Northwestern and at then-No. 14 Ohio State ... He connected on 60.9 percent of his shots (14-of-23) and 70.0 percent from the free throw line (14-of-20) ... This is the first Player of the Week honor this year for Ward and the third of his career.
Ward is second on the team with 16.7 points and third on the team with 6.5 rebounds ... He is tied for 10th in the Big Ten in scoring and ranks fourth in the league, and is No. 14 nationally in field goal percentage, connecting on 66.2 percent of his shots.
Through 15 games, Winston leads the team with 17.7 points per game and 7.6 assists per game ... He is sixth in the Big Ten in scoring and is No. 4 in the country in assists per game
Junior guard Joshua Langford is third on the team in scoring with 15.0 points per game, while adding 3.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists ...
Sophomore forward Xavier Tillman (Grand Rapids, Mich./GR Christian) is fourth on the team in scoring with 8.5 points and second with 7.9 rebounds, while redshirt senior Kenny Goins (Troy, Mich./Warren Mott) is sixth on the team in scoring with 6.6 points and leads the team with 9.3 rebounds per game, which ranks No. 38 nationally.
McQuaid is averaging 8.2 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists ... Redshirt junior Kyle Ahrens (Versailles, Ohio/Versailles), who has started six games, is averaging 6.2 points and 2.7 rebounds.
MSU ranks No. 10 in the country in scoring offense (87.1 ppg), No. 9 in field goal percentage (50.9%) and No. 5 in field goal percentage defense (37.3%).

The Series

Michigan State and Purdue meet for the 123rd time on Tuesday, Jan. 8.
Purdue leads the all-time series with Michigan State, 68-54 ... The Spartans own a 32-26 advantage in games played in East Lansing ...
The Spartans have won 25 of the last 37 games in the series, including nine of the last 12... Tom Izzo is 25-16 in his career against Purdue.

About Purdue

The Boilermakers returned to conference action on Jan. 3 with an 86-70 win at home over Iowa.
Purdue split its first two conference games in December, losing at Michigan (76-57) and beating Maryland (62-60) at home ... The Boilermakers are 4-4 in their last eight games, with losses at Florida State, Michigan and Texas and to Notre Dame.
Junior guard Carsen Edwards leads the Big Ten in scoring with 25.5 points per game, while adding 3.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists ... He leads the team with 53 3-pointers, connecting on a league-best 3.8 per game.
Senior guard Ryan Cline is second on the team with 12.6 points per game and leads the team with 3.6 assists ... Cline is second on the team in 3-pointers, connecting on 42.
Purdue is fourth in the Big Ten in scoring offense (78.9 ppg) and 12th in the league in scoring defense (68.8 ppg).

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Kyle Ahrens

Kenny Goins

Joshua Langford

Matt McQuaid

Xavier Tillman Sr.

Nick Ward

Cassius Winston