Spartans looking for signature win at Purdue to improve NCAA resume
EAST LANSING – Everyone inside Michigan State’s basketball program knows the stakes.
A challenging road game at No. 16 Purdue is next up Saturday. The Boilermakers present a test with their height. And the Spartans are challenging themselves to keep winning, with NCAA tournament hopes hanging in the balance.
And they know it won’t be easy.
“This is just a real key victory we need – not even just for the Big Ten play, this is bigger-picture than that,” sophomore forward Kenny Goins said. “This is March Madness, this is coming down to the end of the season. We gotta get a couple more of those big wins and build our resume at this point.”
MSU (16-10, 8-5 Big Ten), with a “Blackout” crowd waiting for it at Mackey Arena (4 p.m./ESPN), sits in a fourth-place tie in the conference standings with Northwestern. The Boilermakers (21-5, 10-3) are in a three-way tie atop the league with Maryland and Wisconsin.
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Five regular-season games remain for the Spartans to build their profile and help extend coach Tom Izzo’s 19-year streak of making the NCAA tournament. They are 42nd in RPI this week, having won four of their last five games since the two teams last met on Jan. 24, an 84-73 Purdue win in East Lansing.
“They know what we have to accomplish,” Izzo said Thursday after practice. “We just talked about beating Purdue because they were the only team that’s beat us here in the conference. They’ve got a good team. I think our guys know it’ll be a big night down there.”
MSU struggled with foul trouble in the paint and to rebound against the much-taller Boilermakers in that game. Izzo believes the Spartans’ hope of pulling off a vital road win and getting a signature victory hinge on cleaning up those issues, as well as minimizing the turnovers that have been plaguing them the past few weeks.
The Spartans are just 2-4 in road games this season, as well as a neutral-court Big Ten loss to Penn State in Philadelphia. Their two victories came at Minnesota in December and at Nebraska earlier this month.
“If we beat them, that’ll be really big for us,” said freshman Miles Bridges, who scored 33 points in the first meeting with the Boilermakers. “So we just want to come out with a lot of energy, come out with a lot of focus and do our best to be physical.”
Purdue big man tandem of 6-foot-9 Caleb Swanigan, a national player of the year candidate and former MSU commit, and 7-2 Isaac Haas present perhaps the toughest situation for the undersized Spartans. Swanigan had 25 points and 17 rebounds in the first meeting, while Haas scored 11 points. And they both got MSU’s remaining big men of 6-8 Nick Ward and 6-6 Goins in foul trouble for much of that game – which left Izzo with only 6-5 Matt Van Dyk to play a major role against the much bigger centers.
The Boilermakers also outrebounded the Spartans 36-23 in that first meeting. Izzo wants his players to change that, specifically on the defensive glass to prevent kick-out shots from the perimeter. Izzo said his big men need to “be a little smarter in there.”
“At this point in the season, really, every game is a big game. We’ve been saying that for a couple games now,” Goins said. “We’ve put ourselves in a position where we really gotta focus on every single game. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing.”
Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.
IF YOU GO
Matchup: Michigan State (16-10, 8-5 Big Ten) at No. 6 Purdue (21-5, 10-3).
When: 7 p.m. at Mackey Arena, West Lafayette, Ind.
TV/radio: ESPN; WJR-AM (760).
Line: Purdue by 9.