Thursday, January 9
East Lansing, Mich.
8 PM
Michigan State University
vs
Washington
Photo by: Matthew Mitchell
No. 16 Michigan State Returns Home, Hosts Washington on Thursday Night at the Breslin Center
1/8/2025 5:32:00 PM | Men's Basketball
East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State's men's basketball team hosts Washington in its first home game of the new calendar year on Thursday, Jan. 9 (8 p.m., BTN).
The game will air live on BTN, with Brandon Gaudin and LaPhonso Ellis calling all of the action. The Spartan Media Network radio call can be heard state-wide and on the web at MSUSpartans.com, with Will Tieman handling the play-by-play and Matt Steigenga serving as the color analyst, and Zach Surdenik is the studio host. The game can also be heard on channels 161 and 195 on SiriusXM and on the SiriusXM app.
About the Spartans
The game will air live on BTN, with Brandon Gaudin and LaPhonso Ellis calling all of the action. The Spartan Media Network radio call can be heard state-wide and on the web at MSUSpartans.com, with Will Tieman handling the play-by-play and Matt Steigenga serving as the color analyst, and Zach Surdenik is the studio host. The game can also be heard on channels 161 and 195 on SiriusXM and on the SiriusXM app.
About the Spartans
- Michigan State enters Thursday's game with an 12-2 overall record (3-0 B1G) and are No. 16 in the Associated Press poll and No. 14 in the USA Today Coaches poll.
- The Spartans are ranked No. 19 in the NCAA Net Rankings, No. 20 per KenPom.com and No. 23 in the ESPN BPI.
- Including a summer trip to Spain in August, an exhibition game at Northern Michigan (Head Coach Tom Izzo's alma mater) on Oct. 13 and trips to Atlanta (Champions Classic, Hawaii (Maui Invitational) and Minnesota (Big Ten opener), the Spartans logged more than 11,500 miles of travel between August and December.
- The Spartans, winners of seven-straight and 10 of its last 11 games, have just one player (Jaden Akins) scoring in double figures.
- MSU is coming off a 69-62 win at Ohio State last Saturday and has won 7-straight games.
- Senior center Szymon Zapala led the team with 15 points, becoming the 8th different player to lead the team in scoring this season.
- The Spartans are the only team in the AP Top 25 with just one player scoring in double figures.
- MSU has three averaging at least 9.0 ppg, five with at least 8.0 ppg and 10 scoring at least 4.0 ppg.
- MSU has relied on its depth, with six players averaging at least 20.0 minutes per game and seven averaging at least 18.6 minutes.
- Akins leads the team with 13.7 ppg and is third with 4.1 rpg, while freshman guard Jase Richardson is averaging 9.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists and sophomore forward Coen Carr is third on the team with 9.0 points.
- Junior forward Jaxon Kohler, who has four double-doubles this year, is scoring 8.1 ppg and leads the team with 8.5 rebounds per game, 6th in the Big Ten.
- Redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr. is averaging 7.3 points and a team-leading 6.0 assists per game, which ranks 3rd in the Big Ten, while junior Tre Holloman adds 7.1 points and 3.8 assists (4.3 in conference games).
- MSU is averaging 23.4 FT attempts per game (No. 45 in the country) after going to the line 17.2 times per game in 2023-24 and the Spartans rank No. 5 in the country in free throw percentage (81.3%) and No. 9 in free throws made per game (19.0).
- MSU also ranks No. 7 in the country in rebound margin (+11.0), No. 13 in defensive rebounds per game (29.0/g) and No. 13 in rebounds per game (41.4).
- Washington enters the game on Thursday with a 10-5 overall record and a 1-3 mark in the Big Ten Conference.
- The Huskies have won two of their last three games and four of the last six overall, including a 75-69 win over Maryland at home last weekend.
- UW's last two losses were at home, last Sunday at Illinois (81-77) and on Dec. 23 at home to Seattle U (79-7).
- The Huskies opened conference play with road losses at UCLA (69-58) and to USC (85-61) in early December.
- Senior forward Great Osobor, a Utah State transfer who was the Mountain West Player of the Year last year, leads UW in scoring (14.3 ppg), rebounding (8.7 rpg) and assists (3.5 apg).
- Sophomore guard Tyler Harris, a Portland transfer, is second on the team with12.1 points and 5.3 rebounds and has hit a team-best 19 shots from 3-point land, while freshman guard Zoom Diallo is third with 10.9 ppg.
- Washington is 16th in the league in scoring offense (74.4 ppg) and tied for 10th in scoring defense (69.4 ppg) ... In Big Ten games, the Huskies are 18th in scoring offense (67.8 ppg) and tied for ninth in scoring defense (76.0 ppg).
- Michigan State and Washington meet for the seventh time in program history on Thursday.
- The Spartans lead the head-to-head series, 4-2, and have won the last four games in the series.
- The teams last played on Nov. 24, 2010, a 76-71 MSU win in the Maui Invitational.
- The Spartans played the Huskies only twice under Head Coach Tom Izzo.
- Michigan State beat Washington, 64-50, in the first round of the 1996 NIT at the end of Izzo's first season as a head coach.
- The Huskies won the first two meetings between the teams, a 45-52 decision in East Lansing in 1942 and a 71-69 victory in 1957 in Seattle.
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