- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 370,631
- Reaction score
- 43
Hello, Cleveland!
Michigan State basketball won’t have far to go for Tom Izzo’s record 27th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. The Big Ten champion Spartans will be the No. 2 seed in the South Region and face No. 15 seed Bryant in the first round Friday at Rocket Arena.
Tip off times and TV networks will be announced later Sunday.
Michigan, after winning the Big Ten tournament, is also in the South region. Auburn is the 1-seed.
MSU (27-6) won the Big Ten regular season title by three games after opening league play 9-0. The Spartans had win streaks of 13 early in the winter, and their eight-game streak came to a close with Saturday’s 77-74 loss to No. 14 Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament semifinals.
Entering Sunday, MSU sat 11th in the NCAA's NET ranking, and its 13 Quad 1 wins are third in Division I, trailing only No. 3 Auburn (16) and No. 2 Houston (14). The Spartans closed the regular season with seven consecutive Quad 1 wins, then picked up an eighth in Friday's Big Ten tournament-opening victory over Oregon.
Buy tickets to Michigan State's March Madness game!
As for the Spartans' opponent, Bryant and coach Phil Martelli Jr. went 23-11 this season.
If the Spartans manage to win in the first round, they'll face the winner of 7-seed Marquette and 10-seed New Mexico in next Sunday's second round. Rocket Arena and its NBA team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, are both owned by MSU alum and booster Dan Gilbert. Gilbert and his wife, Jennifer, donated $15 million in 2016 toward the completion of the Izzo Hall of History and Breslin Center renovations.
It is MSU's 38th all-time NCAA appearance. The Spartans have a 73-36 overall record with two national championships and 10 Final Four berths. Izzo is 56-25 (.691) in his 26 previous NCAA appearances, but he has only advanced past the first weekend of the tournament once since his last Final Four appearance in 2019, a 2023 Sweet 16 overtime loss to Kansas State.
MSU was a No. 9 seed last season and beat Mississippi State in the opener to reach the second round, where the Spartans lost to top seed North Carolina. They finished 20-15.
Izzo, in his 30th season, owns the most consecutive NCAA appearances by a Division I coach with a single school. MSU missed the 1996 and 1997 tournaments in his first two seasons in East Lansing but has made every Big Dance since 1998 (the 2020 event was canceled due to the pandemic).
Only Kansas at 35 straight has a longer active NCAA tournament streak than the Spartans, but their 2018 appearance was vacated, meaning the NCAA recognizes MSU as the current longest streak holder.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
Subscribe to the "Spartan Speak" podcast for new episodes weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State's March Madness opponent is Bryant in NCAAs
Continue reading...
Michigan State basketball won’t have far to go for Tom Izzo’s record 27th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. The Big Ten champion Spartans will be the No. 2 seed in the South Region and face No. 15 seed Bryant in the first round Friday at Rocket Arena.
Tip off times and TV networks will be announced later Sunday.
Michigan, after winning the Big Ten tournament, is also in the South region. Auburn is the 1-seed.
You must be registered for see images attach
MSU (27-6) won the Big Ten regular season title by three games after opening league play 9-0. The Spartans had win streaks of 13 early in the winter, and their eight-game streak came to a close with Saturday’s 77-74 loss to No. 14 Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament semifinals.
Entering Sunday, MSU sat 11th in the NCAA's NET ranking, and its 13 Quad 1 wins are third in Division I, trailing only No. 3 Auburn (16) and No. 2 Houston (14). The Spartans closed the regular season with seven consecutive Quad 1 wins, then picked up an eighth in Friday's Big Ten tournament-opening victory over Oregon.
Buy tickets to Michigan State's March Madness game!
As for the Spartans' opponent, Bryant and coach Phil Martelli Jr. went 23-11 this season.
If the Spartans manage to win in the first round, they'll face the winner of 7-seed Marquette and 10-seed New Mexico in next Sunday's second round. Rocket Arena and its NBA team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, are both owned by MSU alum and booster Dan Gilbert. Gilbert and his wife, Jennifer, donated $15 million in 2016 toward the completion of the Izzo Hall of History and Breslin Center renovations.
It is MSU's 38th all-time NCAA appearance. The Spartans have a 73-36 overall record with two national championships and 10 Final Four berths. Izzo is 56-25 (.691) in his 26 previous NCAA appearances, but he has only advanced past the first weekend of the tournament once since his last Final Four appearance in 2019, a 2023 Sweet 16 overtime loss to Kansas State.
MSU was a No. 9 seed last season and beat Mississippi State in the opener to reach the second round, where the Spartans lost to top seed North Carolina. They finished 20-15.
Izzo, in his 30th season, owns the most consecutive NCAA appearances by a Division I coach with a single school. MSU missed the 1996 and 1997 tournaments in his first two seasons in East Lansing but has made every Big Dance since 1998 (the 2020 event was canceled due to the pandemic).
Only Kansas at 35 straight has a longer active NCAA tournament streak than the Spartans, but their 2018 appearance was vacated, meaning the NCAA recognizes MSU as the current longest streak holder.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
Subscribe to the "Spartan Speak" podcast for new episodes weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State's March Madness opponent is Bryant in NCAAs
Continue reading...
