Jase Richardson Talks Spartans' Sweet 16 Matchup

The No. 2-seeded Michigan State Spartans (29-6) and freshman guard Jase Richardson are gearing up for their Sweet 16 matchup with the No. 6 -seeded Ole Miss Rebels (24-11) on Friday night in Atlanta, Georgia. Richardson spoke to the media earlier this week, weighing in on multiple points to the matchup.

The Spartans are facing their first SEC team of the season, a conference that had 14 teams make the NCAA Tournament. It is looked at as the No. 1 conference in the country this year and the Big Ten has been a close second. Two of the best in their respective conference will battle it out this Friday.

"When you get to put best conference on best conference, you want to play in games like this," Richardson said when he spoke to reporters on Tuesday. "Especially with the SEC and their pedigree this year, so when you get a time to play an SEC team, it's showtime. We know we got to come here and work hard."

Richardson revealed that after the Spartans defeated the New Mexico Lobos in the Round of 32 in Cleveland, Oh., he informed head coach Tom Izzo that the team would be practicing on Monday afternoon after they returned home. Richardson gave his reasoning for that decision.

"Nobody wants to be done yet, so when we won that game [New Mexico], we all knew we're back at work tomorrow," Richardson said. "So, we all came in Sunday ready to work and everybody was prepared to come to practice.

" ... When you get times like this where you don't know how many practices you're going to have left, you want to have as much fun as possible, most energy as possible, and I think that we did that today."

It is beyond rare for a true freshman player on one of the nation's best teams to tell his head coach that they will be practicing tomorrow. Izzo had to have loved what Richardson was requesting as he wants his guys as hungry as possible to continue to work and improve before facing Ole Miss.

The Spartans are back in Atlanta, where they had previously played this season. Back in November of 2024, the Michigan State lost to the then-No. 1 ranked Kansas Jayhawks, 77-69. It will have redemption at that same venue in a much bigger position.

"What I remember the most from that game is we were abysmal from three," Richardson said. "But I feel like we've improved that a lot since the season started, we're shooting really well right now. I think we're just a different team than what we were six months ago."

Richardson was not wrong as the Spartans shot just 3-24 (12.5%) from 3-point range. They have improved as the season has gone on and will look to knock them a few more inside an NBA arena.

One thing that this Michigan State team must clean up ahead of their matchup with the Rebels is the slow starts. They have notoriously struggled in the first half, getting out to multi-possession deficits to start both tournament games so far. Richardson knows that cannot be the case on Friday.

"I think just the last two games we haven't come out as focused as we're supposed to," Richardson said. "I think from a player standpoint, we just got to come out with more energy.

"I feel like we try to let the energy come to us by shots falling and stuff, but if we come out in the game and we get a huge stop to start the game, if we get a fast break layup or something like that, that will get us going."

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