WATCH: Michigan State's Tom Izzo Reflects on Illinois, Looks Ahead to Rutgers

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- No. 8 Michigan State is in the midst of a bit of a break before it returns to the hardwood to take on Rutgers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

While the Scarlet Knights are just 3-5 in conference play, they are certainly not a team to be overlooked.

The Spartans will need to stick with the same aggressiveness and effort that has gotten them to this point if they hope to extend their 11-game win streak and remain undefeated in Big Ten play.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo previewed the matchup when he addressed the media on Wednesday.

You can watch below:

Below is a transcript from Izzo's opening statement:

Izzo: "As I spoke about Sunday, I mean, it was an unbelievable week for all of us around here when you think about what we had all done, but it's a new week, it's time for us to move on. We had a well-earned day off, and I think it was really good for us. Practice yesterday was pretty sharp, and I appreciated that. I loved the way we played against Illinois. We competed the whole time, which I thought was really important. But we found different ways to win, and I think that's kind of the way our team is right now. Getting an opportunity to play at Madison Square Garden is always fun. I think for the players, especially. Those are when you make memories, and I think we’ll have a pretty good turnout of Spartan fans, too. And that will be great for us. Rutgers is a team right now that has kind of been on the upswing. They're playing better. They’ve got different lineups, and their two superstars, [Ace] Bailey and [Dylan] Harper, are legitimate. I mean, I see Bailey make some shots that are unbelievable. And Harper just has an incredible feel. They’re two of the better players I've seen in this league in a while. And they've got some guys now that are bigs by collection, they got two bigs that are playing very physical and well, and two kids from Michigan who are playing, [Dylan] Grant and [Tyson] Acuff, are two guys that are playing a lot more for them, in fact, starting for them now. So, they have depth. They've gotten tremendous contributions from the kid [Lathan] Sommerville, who is a big -- 6-10, 275, they got another backup, 275, they got the Williams kid [Jeremiah Williams], who played last year, and I’d say, all in all, Steve Pikiell, I’ve always thought was one of the better coaches in this league. So, it's going to be Fourth of July and Christmas for them, but it's going to be kind of exciting for us, and I just hope that we continue to play with the energy that we've had and kind of build on the consistency. We did put two decent halves together after a little bit of a sluggish start, but Illinois played well, but we played better down the stretch, and that was one thing we hadn’t been doing in the last couple of games.”

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