NCAA tournament tipoff: Michigan State vs. Kansas
•What: 9-seed MSU vs. 1-seed Kansas, NCAA tournament, second round
•When: Approximately 5:15 p.m. (ET) Sunday
•Where: BOK Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
•TV/Radio: CBS / Spartan Sports Network, including WJIM 1240-AM and WMMQ 94.9-FM; Sirius 136, XM 202
•Records/Rankings: MSU is 20-14 overall, finished 10-8 in the Big Ten and is unranked. Kansas is 29-4, finished 16-2 in the Big 12 and is ranked No. 3 in both the AP and Coaches polls.
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•Coaches: MSU — Tom Izzo is 544-219 in his 22nd season, all with the Spartans. Kansas — Bill Self is 621-192 in 24 seasons, including 414-87 in 14 seasons with the Jayhawks.
•Series: MSU leads 7-5 all-time, with MSU winning the most recent meeting behind Denzel Valentine’s triple-double in the Champions Classic at the beginning of last season. This is the third time this season MSU and Kansas have been at the same neutral site and the first time they’ve met. They both were in Honolulu for the Armed Forces Classic in November and then, days later, in New York for the Champions Classic.
MSU
Pos. | Name | PPG |
C (44) | Nick Ward (6-8) | 13.9 |
F (22) | Miles Bridges (6-7) | 16.7 |
G (3) | Alvin Ellis (6-4) | 6.6 |
G (1) | Joshua Langford (6-5) | 6.8 |
G (11) | Tum Tum Nairn (5-10) | 3.6 |
Kansas
Pos. | Name | PPG |
C (33) | Landen Lucas (6-10) | 8.1 |
F (3) | Josh Jackson (6-8) | 16.4 |
G (10) | Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (6-8) | 9.8 |
G (4) | Devonte Graham (6-2) | 13.2 |
G (0) | Frank Mason (5-11) | 20.8 |
•MSU update: The Spartans played their best 30 minutes of basketball this season in closing Friday night’s 78-58 drubbing of Miami, setting up this second-round NCAA tournament matchup. MSU shot 56 percent, out-rebounded the Hurricanes by 13, turned the ball over only five times in the final 31 minutes and got 57 points, 19 rebounds, nine assists and just two turnovers from its four freshmen. The victory gave MSU a 20-win season for the 17th time in the last two decades. The Spartans also avoided losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament in consecutive years for the first time in Tom Izzo’s tenure. Under Izzo, MSU is 13-1 in second-round NCAA tournament games and 20-4 in the second game of the weekend.
•Kansasupdate: The Jayhawks are in the second round after overwhelming UC-Davis, 100-62, Friday evening here in Tulsa. Kansas is making its 28th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance and won its 13th straight Big 12 Conference title this season. For a team ranked and seeded so high, Jayhawks are prone to close games. Of their 16 conference wins, 11 were by seven points or less. Their roster is a mix five-star recruits and unheralded All-Americans. Detroit’s Josh Jackson, for example, was considered the nation’s top recruit — he nearly chose MSU — while point guard Frank Mason originally signed with Towson.
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•About the matchup: Miles Bridges and Josh Jackson are friends, were mega-recruits and nearly teammates at MSU. They’ll guard each other often Sunday. Both are wings playing at power forward. When friends go against each other like this, it can create an emotional dynamic. The jerseys sometimes become irrelevant, the seeds don’t matter. It’ll be fun to watch. But that’s not where this game will be decided. For MSU to have a chance, it comes down to guard play. Most significantly, how the Spartans handle Frank Mason. It’s a rough matchup for MSU freshman Cassius Winston and will test MSU’s help gap defense. Perhaps we’ll see both Winston and Tum Tum Nairn together as we did late in the regular season. MSU’s real advantage, as it often is, is Nick Ward on the low block. Kansas has decent length inside, though not much depth, and its bigs aren’t usually low-post threats offensively.
•Prediction: MSU can win this game if it again plays its best game of the season. Kansas regularly lets teams hang around. But the Jayhawks have the more dynamic and experienced backcourt. MSU’s guards outplayed Miami’s guards Friday. That’s in large part why the Spartans won. Kansas’ guards are at another level. In this tournament, more often than not, guard play determines who moves on.
» Make it: Kansas 81, MSU 72
— Graham Couch