WATCH: Michigan State's Jaden Akins Reflects on Rutgers, Looks Ahead to Minnesota

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- No. 7 Michigan State comes off its 12th straight win, this time against Rutgers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

The Spartans will face yet another challenge on Tuesday when they host Minnesota, a team they beat before but is coming off three consecutive wins, including two upsets over ranked teams.

Michigan State senior guard Jaden Akins discussed the win on Saturday, as well as the team's upcoming meeting with the Golden Gophers when he addressed the media on Monday.

You can watch his press conference below:

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo spoke to the media before Akins. Below is a transcript from his opening statement:

Izzo: “Well, I guess another great weekend for all of us as far as the athletic department, but it wasn't as good a weekend -- you probably heard about our travel and our little eight-hour delay in beautiful New Jersey. I was going to get home in time and run over to the hockey game and start working on Minnesota, and thinking we’d get home at 7, we get home at about 3:30 in the morning, so that was eventful. But as far as our team goes, we won the game. I thought we played OK. I wasn't as ecstatic about some things. One, the turnovers. I thought we had some ridiculous turnovers, and I was disappointed with that. The other one was, the second half. … They had 54 points with 3 [minutes] and 23 [seconds] left or something, and they scored 20 points in 3 minutes. And wasn't maybe threatening to the wins or losses, but it was threatening to my health and well-being and our stats. They had four 3s in a minute and 20 seconds or something. And that part is only disappointing because I had two guys that I really wanted to get into that game. Parents were there -- Kur [Teng], who's from that area, and Gehrig [Normand] -- and those two guys have been so good on my scout team. Scout team might be the best one I've had in years. And I start putting them in, and then things happen. They still could have played, they’re good enough to play, but that's disappointing. And we addressed our team about it, to be honest with you. If we're supposed to be strength in numbers, everybody's important to us right now. But after we got back and had a late practice yesterday because of the time we got in, the players were pretty good. It was a short practice, and we'll get at it today for real. Yesterday was a little more film and trying to just get them through it. But Minnesota is one of the hottest teams in the league, and they just beat two ranked teams. They’ve won three straight, including good games against Michigan and Oregon. They hadn’t played well in a couple other games, but they're finally healthy. The kid [Mike] Mitchell, who was down against us, played against us at the end, and hit five 3s. And [Dawson] Garcia has gone from really struggling to unbelievable. 26 points, eight rebounds in the last three games. That's what he's averaging. So, that's a big difference. I've always been a big Ben Johnson, fan, as many of you know, I thought his team was good then, I just thought that injuries -- he has no margin for error. He lost a lot of guys that are other places, some of them hardly playing, and I think he's done a phenomenal job. So, Garcia is a great player. He was an all-conference player last year. He struggled early in the year. Bunch of new people, maybe new situation for him, but he's really come on the last maybe six, eight games. In the last three games, he's been unbelievable. So for us, it's just a matter of different guys still not shooting the ball as well as I think we can. I mean, better in the league and 33 percent, but if we can get that thing up to 36 and [3]7, then I’d be ready to say that a good team moves into the next category. Rebounded a little better the second half. Defended, actually, really well until that one stretch, and we still held them under 40 [percent] and under 30, which is phenomenal. So, a lot of things to feel good about, but now, we've got a quick, quick turnaround under a little adversity, a team that's playing good. We’ll see how that goes.”

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