3 Things to Watch in Michigan State's Clash vs. Ohio State
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EAST LANSING, Mich. — The time for Michigan State basketball to show that it's playing its best basketball is now.
Every team wants to play better than it did in its last game. Every season also has its peaks and its valleys. The 15th-ranked Spartans (21-5 overall, 11-4 Big Ten) just need one of those peaks, or the climb to a peak, to come here in late February and into March.
“It really depends on the leadership and everything of the team,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said after practice Friday evening about the idea of peaking at the right time. “I’ve gotten beat in the Big Ten Tournament, got upset in the first game — I remember those good ol’ days, busted the tape up in front of the team, forgot about that game, and we went on to get to a Final Four. I’ve had really good teams that lost in the first round.”
OK, it’s a little more complex than just entering the NCAA Tournament on a massive win streak, but not many teams that limp into “The Big Dance” do very well. Michigan State needs to gather some more momentum. Its next opportunity is here in its game against Ohio State (17-9, 9-6) on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m. ET, CBS). Let’s break down the three pillars of this game:
Playing a Desperate Team
If you were to look up what an NCAA Tournament bubble team was, the Ohio State fight song might start playing. Not really, but the Buckeyes are pretty much THE (pun intended) bubble team right now. As of Friday night, OSU is included in 55 of the 121 projected brackets on the “Bracket Matrix.” No one seems to know whether to include the Buckeyes or not.
That means MSU is facing a team that is fighting for its life every single game. It was the fight it probably was also anticipating from UCLA (currently included in 101/121 brackets), but it never arrived. Ohio State isn’t flying in from Los Angeles and coming off a game at now-No. 1 Michigan with a two-day prep, though.
You’re also getting a coach who might be coaching for his job. It does not feel super long ago that interim head coach Jake Diebler won at the Breslin Center on a buzzer-beater during his third game running the show.
As Michigan State football fans now know, two years is considered enough time to pull the plug on a coach these days. If Ohio State misses the NCAA tourney, it would be the program’s first four-year drought since the late ‘90s. The Buckeyes, despite being an all-in football school, still boast a basketball program with a national title and 11 Final Fours (one is vacated). Results should be expected there.
Point Guard Battle
This game is going to be between two of the best point guards in the Big Ten. Of course, the Spartans boast Jeremy Fears Jr., who leads the nation in assists (241) and assists per game (9.3) while also being the team’s leading scorer at 15.1 points per contest.
Ohio State has someone capable of dueling Fears on any given night. Bruce Thornton has stuck around in Columbus for four years, already being an all-Big Ten player twice. He’s averaging nearly 20 points per game this year while nearly making 40% of his threes.
Michigan State had a good plan for Thornton last year. He only scored 10 points (3-for-9) in the two teams’ meeting in Columbus last year while also committing a career-high five turnovers. This is a different year and a different game, though.
“Experienced,” Fears said when asked to describe Thornton. “He’s tough. He makes tough shots, mid-range, three, layups. He can score from all areas. He’s going in. I know it’s going to be, for sure, a challenge. He’s going to bring his best ball.”
Continue Watching the Backcourt
Until the season ends, the question always seems to be, “What is MSU going to do when Fears is off the court?”
The answer for Izzo is to still put Denham Wojcik into the game. Jordan Scott ran point guard briefly during Michigan State’s game against UCLA, but Izzo said that was because Wojcik was dealing with a minor issue in his shoulder. Wojcik should be available for Sunday’s game.
Even if Izzo was planning to back Scott the backup point guard in addition to being the starting two-guard — which would be asking a ton from a freshman that also began the year at the three — he probably wouldn’t say that before a game to the media. But Scott running the point doesn’t seem like a serious possibility with how Izzo was talking about it on Friday.
“If everybody gets hurt, I might need Nick [Sanders] to do it [run point guard], too,” Izzo said. “It’s not in my game plan right now. Down the road? You never know, in the years to come, or whatever. We’re playing him [Scott] a lot of minutes now for what he has to do, and I’ve just got to keep that rotation, and I think we’ve got a pretty good one.”
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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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