Sophomore forward Marcus Bingham Jr. (30) backs down Northwestern’s Jared Jones (left). The Spartans defeated the Wildcats, 79-50, on Jan. 29, 2020 at the Breslin Student Events Center.
Finals week is over at Michigan State and that means it's time for the men's basketball team to get back into the swing of things.
The currently undefeated and No. 4-ranked Spartans (6-0) will open their Big Ten campaign play tonight – Sunday, Dec. 20 – in Illinois against the Northwestern Wildcats (3-1).
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.
A B1G history
This game will be the 132nd meeting between the two programs. MSU leads the all-time series with Northwestern, 93-38 in wins to losses, including a 37-30 advantage in games play at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston.
The Spartans have won the last 12 games in the series, the last six on the road.
Head coach Tom Izzo is 38-4 in his career against Northwestern and the school itself is 16-9 in Big Ten Conference openers under him, 7-8 on the road.
MSU currently stands as Northwestern's highest-ranked opponent since the Wildcats saw No. 2 Michigan in early 2019.
The last time the Wildcats played was against Quincy, a non-conference opponent, where they took a 52 point lead and tallied their third season victory – the Wildcats had scored 100 points against Quincy's 48, making it the second time capping 100 points this season and the first time since the 1989-90 season.
Junior forward Miller Kopp led that game with 23 points on 6-for-10 shooting, while sophomore guard Boo Buie contributed another 15 points and four assists.
Kopp is averaging 16.3 points per game, shooting 52.9% (18-for-34) from the field, 52.6% (10-for-19) from the arc and 82.6% (19-for-23) from the free-throw line. He is the only Power 5 player to do this.
Buie is tied for the conference lead with six assists per game. His 24 assists throughout their four games are the most by a Wildcat to start a season since Bryant McIntosh in the 2017-18 campaign.
The Spartans are holding up a balanced attack strategy only six games into the season.
Redshirt junior forward Joey Hauser leads the pack in scoring and rebounding. He averages 13.3 points and 10 rebounds per game and has reached four double-doubles, one of which included a career-high of 24 points and 10 rebounds against Western Michigan (1-3) on Dec. 6.
Sophomore guard Rocket Watts has also scored in double figures four times this season, including back-to-back in games against No. 21 Duke (3-2) and Detroit Mercy (1-5) with 20+ points. He is on Hauser's heels with 12.8 points and 4.5 assists per game.
Sophomore guard Malik Hall captured his first career double-double also against Duke with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Other dawgs to keep an eye on tonight are junior forwards Aaron Henry and Gabe Brown, as well as graduate guard Joshua Langford.
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