Previous Rutgers Scare has MSU on Alert for Senior Night
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EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State’s first game against Rutgers was tight. Way too tight. The Spartans were extremely fortunate to win at all in overtime back on Jan. 27.
“You look at their [12-17] record, Rutgers was the one team that played us as good or better than any of the teams we were playing,” MSU’s Tom Izzo said Tuesday. “We earned it at the end out there [in Piscataway], but they probably deserved to beat us.”
The Scarlet Knights have struggled all season. They’re currently the lowest-rated Big Ten team in the NET rankings (158th), sandwiched between mighty Bowling Green and Penn. On that night, though, Rutgers gave the Spartans a real scare.
Michigan State’s chance at victory, according to KenPom, was as low as 15.3% at one point towards the end of regulation. Divine Ugochukwu needed to hit a clutch corner three to force overtime, which is where MSU surged for an 88-79 victory.
Strengths of the Scarlet Knights
Rutgers has the guys who can cause problems on the right night. Tariq Francis dropped 23 points on the Spartans while coming off the bench. Harun Zrno can also hit some difficult threes that any underdog might need to call when facing the No. 8 team in the country. Turnovers were 15-5 in favor of the Knights during the first meeting.
That was one part of what made that first meeting interesting. It didn’t feel like Rutgers was getting lucky, but rather that they were just playing right at Michigan State’s level. MSU didn’t help its case by not playing great that night, either.
“They, too, have had some ups and downs,” Izzo said. “I told my team this morning, this will be the toughest team we’ve played all year. I didn’t say the best team. I didn’t even say the most competitive or skilled team. But as far as street-smart toughness, as far as smash-mouth toughness, I love this team. It reminds me of the [Mateen] Cleaves’ team we had.
“They hit you. They go hard. They work hard. It’s who [Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell] is, and it’s who they’re becoming, and that really impresses me.”
Something Izzo has pointed out is that the Scarlet Knights have played better of late. They’ve won three of their last five games, beating Maryland twice (once home, once away) and also beaten Penn State on the road.
Those aren’t games that are necessarily going to get Rutgers into the NCAA Tournament, but those are results that can help build a team’s confidence back up, leading into a massive opportunity to play spoiler against a team it knows it can hang with.
Michigan State has everything to lose in this game. That’s one of the dangers of playing a team sitting all the way down at 12-17: you don’t really get any added points to your tournament resume for winning, but you can lose a whole lot of them for losing.
This is considered a Quad 3 game for MSU, which are games that top teams should win almost every time. The top 25 teams in the NET rankings only have three Q3 losses between all of them.
Senior Night Stakes
Also worth mentioning is the fact that the Spartans can lock up a top-4 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and that coveted triple-bye in the Big Ten Tournament with a victory in this one.
Starting on a Friday during the BTT, rather than Thursday (or even earlier) is always a positive, because it means Michigan State would need three wins in three days to win the whole thing, rather than four wins in four days. It would also ensure that MSU would impressively at least make the quarterfinal round for the 28th time in the 29 years the conference tournament has existed.
The Spartans are probably more focused on sending off their seniors the right way, though. Michigan State will enter Thursday having won its final home game of the season 13 straight times. Draymond Green’s Senior Night in 2012 is the last time MSU went down during the Breslin Center’s season finale.
There are five senior players that the Spartans will be sending off this year: Jaxon Kohler, Carson Cooper, Denham Wojcik, Trey Fort, and Nick Sanders. Of that group, Kohler, Cooper, and Sanders have spent their whole careers at Michigan State.
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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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