No. 20 Michigan State Visits Notre Dame in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State's men's basketball team wraps up a hectic and challenging opening month of the season at Notre Dame on Wednesday night in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge (ESPN, 9:15 p.m.).

The Spartans have played three ranked teams, including two in the top-5 (Gonzaga and Kentucky), and traveled to San Diego, Indianapolis, Oregon and South Bend, racking up more than 10,000 miles of travel during the team's first eight games of the season. Since 2009-10, the Spartans are one of six teams (including the 2016-17 Spartans) to play at least four AP ranked opponents in the month of November. MSU is the ONLY team to play two teams in the top 4, losing to then-No. 2 Gonzaga on Nov. 11, 64-63, and beating then-No. 4 Kentucky in double overtime, 86-77, in the Champions Classic on Nov. 15. The Spartans are coming off a fifth-place finish in the Phil Knight Invitational, losing to No. 18 Alabama (81-70) and then posting wins over Oregon (74-70) and Portland (78-77).

The game will air live on ESPN2, with Brian Custer and Jordan Cornette calling all of the action. The TCF Bank Spartan Media Network radio call can be heard on one of 38 affiliates and on the web at MSUSpartans.com, with Will Tieman handling the play-by-play and Matt Steigenga serving as the color analyst. The game can also be heard on channel 383 on SiriusXM and channel 973 on the SiriusXM app.

About the Spartans

Michigan State enters the game on Wednesday with a 5-2 overall record, closing out a month of November against one of the nation's toughest schedules.
MSU has faced the toughest slate of opposing offenses in the country, the 23rd-toughest slate of opposing defenses and ranks No. 7 overall in strength of schedule per KenPom.com.
Through seven games, senior guard Tyson Walker leads the team in scoring with 15.6 ppg, while adding 3.1 rpg and 4.6 assists per game.
Walker is one of four players scoring in double figures ...Graduate forward Joey Hauser is second on the team in scoring with 13.9 points per game, shooting 47.1 percent from the floor and 47.2 percent from 3-point land.
Senior forward Malik Hall, who has missed the last three games, is third on the team with 12.0 ppg and third with 5.3 rpg.
Junior guard A.J. Hoggard is fourth on the team with 11.0 ppg, fourth with 4.0 rpg and leads the team (and is third in the Big Ten) with 6.6 assists per game.
Three other players are averaging at least 6.8 points ... Sophomore Pierre Brooks, who has started the last three games, is averaging 8.4 points and 2.9 rebounds ... Junior forward Mady Sissoko, who scored 16 points and had eight rebounds in the win over Kentucky, is averaging 8.0 points and is second on the team with 5.6 rebounds, while sophomore guard Jaden Akins is adding 6.8 points and 3.8 rebounds.

Five in Double Figures as Michigan State Hangs on to Beat Portland, 78-77

No. 12 Michigan State took a 12-point lead with less than four minutes left before Portland narrowed the gap to one point with a chance to win at the buzzer, but the Spartans survived, hanging on for a 78-77 win over the Pilots in the fifth-place game of the Phil Knight Invitational, held at the Chiles Center.
Senior guard Tyson Walker scored 16 points and had five rebounds to lead five players in double figures. Sophomore guard Pierre Brooks matched his career-high with 15 points, while graduate forward Joey Hauser had 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists, junior guard A.J. Hoggard finished with 12 points and a game-high nine assists and junior forward Mady Sissoko added 11 points, four rebounds and two blocked shots.

About Notre Dame

Notre Dame enters the game on Wednesday night with a 5-1 overall record, including 5-0 record at home (with wins over Radford, Youngstown State, Southern Indiana, Lipscomb and Bowling Green).
The Fighting Irish are coming off a 63-51 loss to St. Bonaventure on Friday.
No other Power-Five program this year can say that they have six players earning their Master's Degree (Goodwin, Carmody, Ryan, Laszewski, Wertz, Hammond).
Graduate forward Nate Laszewski leads the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 18.2 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.
All five starters average in double figures for the Irish and their top six players account for 99 percent of the team's minutes played.
Freshman guard JJ Starling, the lone underclassman starting or in the rotation, averages 12.8 points and 3.3 rebounds.
Notre Dame is attempting 21.7 shots from 3-point land per game and they are averaging 7.7 made 3-pointers per game ... Laszewski, Dane Goodwin and Trey Wertz have hit 11 apiece.

Series History

Wednesday's game is the 98th meeting between Michigan State and Notre Dame.
The Irish lead the head-to-head series, 60-37.
MSU has won four of the last five games and 10 of the last 14 overall ... MSU won the last matchup between the teams, 80-70, at the Breslin Center on Nov. 28, 2020.
Michigan State is 10-36 all-time at Notre Dame, its last win coming in 1975.
Spartans Head Coach Tom Izzo is 2-1 all-time against the Irish.

No. 20 Michigan State Visits Notre Dame in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

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