The Spartans (15-2, 6-0 in Big Ten) are traveling to Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, where the Cornhuskers (13-4, 3-3) are undefeated through nine games at home. Tipoff for Thursday is scheduled for 8 p.m. 

The State News interviewed Hardesty to preview the game. Here's what he had to say:

Editor's note: This exchange was lightly edited for clarification purposes.

Q: Nebraska is coming off an impressive road win against a ranked Indiana team, what did you see in that game?

Well in that game, Nebraska had some advantages and matchups with both experience …  basically throughout the entire starting roster. From the opening tip, they had more intensity than Indiana and it could have been a close game had Indiana been more prepared. But frankly, they didn’t seem ready to go and Nebraska was and that was how they jumped out to such a big lead at the start. 

It was kind of a huge confidence builder for Nebraska after a rough return to conference play with those two losses at Maryland and Iowa, then a not-so-convincing win over Penn State last week. It feels like they have their, for lack of a better term, swagger back.

Q: James Palmer Jr. and Cassius Winston each do things for their teams beyond scoring, but is there any matchup that sticks out in particular to you?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Nebraska puts Glynn Watson, who’s more close to Winston’s size, on him. But that matchup is really fascinating to me. That’s going to be a fun one to watch because those are two upperclassmen that are really seasoned Big Ten players. … they both had a lot of struggles over their careers, but they’re both putting things together at the right time. 

Palmer has had a couple of off games, by his standards. He’s one of those players that can give a really quiet 30-points through free-throw shooting and easy baskets. But in the last couple games, Penn State and Indiana, he’s had 11 points in each one. So I’m interested to see if he increases his intensity in this one. 

But otherwise, if Michigan State wants to win this, I think they’re going to have to exploit their matchup in the frontcourt with Nick Ward and Kenny Goins. Nebraska is in the bottom half of the conference in terms of rebounding and that’s something that a lot of teams have already have exploited, especially Maryland a few weeks ago. 

Q: It seems like Tim Miles has done a good job at formulating a team that’s playing well in a 1-3-1 scheme. How does the team play in transition, because that’s a big facet of MSU’s offense?

I think that’s actually another very interesting matchup. Because Nebraska probably does have the speed and athleticism to hang with Michigan State in transition, but the Spartans have a lot more depth. Nebraska’s bench, it’s both young and it’s not in the shape that, like, Michigan State’s is — even with (Joshua) Langford out. I think that if Tom Izzo chooses to run with Nebraska it’ll be a very exciting game. Because that’ll keep the crowd into it and it’ll be real back-and-forth if that ends up being the case, but not many teams have beaten Nebraska when they tried to run with them this year.

Q: Score prediction?

Honestly, there’s a lot of hype around this game coming up. So, the fans are more back into it after (the win against IU). I think it’s gonna be a pretty good atmosphere and Nebraska doesn’t lose much at home. But at the end of the day I think Michigan State has too much talent, both inside and on the perimeter. 

Hardesty: MSU 79, Nebraska 74

Harrison: MSU 82, Nebraska 79