Junior guard Denzel Valentine watches his teammates o the court with sophomore forward Gavin Schilling during the game against Maryland on Dec. 30, 2014, at Breslin Center. The Spartans were defeated by the Terrapins, 68-66 in double overtime. Danyelle Morrow/The State News
Heading into the final stretch of the regular season, the No. 8 MSU men's basketball team (21-5, 8-5 Big Ten) will look to avenge a Jan. 17 loss to Wisconsin (16-9, 8-4) on Thursday.
Tipoff at Breslin Center is set for 9 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN.
The last time these two met, Bronson Koenig and Nigel Hayes combined for 52 points as Wisconsin came away with a 77-76 victory off a layup from freshman forward Ethan Happ with 12 seconds to play.
Fouls plagued the Spartans all afternoon, as they were whistled 28 times, which led to a 29-of-36 performance from the line for the Badgers.
That victory was the start of a seven-game win streak for Wisconsin, one which they are still riding today. The Badgers are playing much better basketball than they were a month ago, and that's something MSU head basketball coach Tom Izzo has taken note of.
"They might be the hottest team in the nation," Izzo said.
Hayes leads the Badgers with 17.1 points, 5.8 rebounds per game and Koenig adds 13.4 points per game. But it's the recently improved player Happ, who averages 11.6 points and 8 rebounds per game, and junior forward Vitto Brown, averaging 9.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game, who have allowed Wisconsin to improve as much as they have during the last month.
However, while MSU's players recognize the improved play of Wisconsin, they like to think they're a much improved team as well, especially in the category that likely cost them the game last time against Wisconsin — defending without fouling.
"I feel like we're way better defensively," MSU senior guard and Player of the Year candidate Denzel Valentine said. "I feel we grew in that area. I think that was just a lesson learned. You know, one experience to not ever do that again, and we're going to come out and compete without fouling."
While the Spartans are a definite long shot to compete for the regular season Big Ten title, they're still going out and competing every game, as seeding and byes in the Big Ten Tournament are on the line. The top four teams in the final regular season standings receive two byes and would only need to win three games to take the title. As it stands Thursday, MSU is No. 8 in the Big Ten, but has room to move up.
"We want to try and get in that top four to win the Big Ten Tournament, so these last five games are huge," Valentine said. "But not only that, we want to finish out strong, get good momentum, feel good about ourselves before we go into tournament play."
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