Breaking Down, Predicting MSU's Game vs. Kentucky in Champions Classic
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No. 17 Michigan State and No. 12 Kentucky are ready to face off Tuesday night during the annual Champions Classic (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Madison Square Garden in New York. This type of game has been a mainstay on MSU's schedule for 15 years now, pitting the Spartans against other blue bloods, such as the Wildcats, Duke, and Kansas.
On today's edition of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast, let's break down this big-time, nationally-televised matchup that will be both Michigan State's and UK's second game against a ranked opponent this season. A full video of the episode can be viewed below.
Watch the MSU Spartans Insider Podcast here:
Additionally, a partial transcript of head coach Tom Izzo's postgame press conference from last Thursday's victory over San Jose State has been provided.
Tom Izzo
IZZO: They say there’s highs and lows in this job, and there were some highs and lows tonight. I really was looking forward to seeing how my team would respond to a little bit of success.
And let’s get this straight, because I get sick of people acting like we’ve accomplished something because we won a game against a good team. Big deal. Big deal. We didn’t shoot it very well in that game, we played well enough to win the game, that was it.
I wanted to see how we’d start out. I thought we started out — they missed some shots, but I thought we started out phenomenal.
Defense was great, we’re checking, we’re rebounding, we were running. We’re missing some shots, and we’re missing some damn free throws. But I thought the energy, the effort was there all the way through, ‘til halftime.
What happened at halftime? I did a poor job of getting my team ready to play the second half.
And we came out, and I had three key guys and all of them had good games for you [the media], for the fans, for their mommies, for their daddies, for their agents, for everybody else, they didn’t have good games for me.
Jeremy Fears [Jr.] played the best. He did everything I asked him to do. It wasn’t the threes he made at the end, that had zero with how he played. But he played with some passion.
We got fat and sassy at halftime, and for two seniors and a junior to get fat and sassy, that tells me that we’re not where we need to be, which is the good thing. So our fans won’t be fooled, the media won’t be fooled ‘cause we won one damn game.
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Last Episode - Postgame Thoughts on MSU's Seventh Straight Loss
A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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