Only a few members on the team have not contracted the coronavirus, Head Coach Tom Izzo said to the media Tuesday afternoon.

After his son, sophomore Steven Izzo, and freshman Mady Sissoko tested positive on Jan. 13. Graduate student Joshua Langford, junior forward Gabe Brown and several assistant coaches soon followed suit.

The Big Ten conference requires that athletes who have tested positive remain on the sidelines for 17 days. The state health department typically requires quarantines for only 10-14 days.

There has been four postponements total this season due to variants of COVID-19 in school programs. Only one contest has been fully rescheduled — MSU will play No. 7 Iowa on Tuesday, Feb. 2 after canceling their original game on Jan. 14. Tipoff time has not been announced yet.

First, they have to answer to Rutgers.

On Thursday, the team will travel to Piscataway, New Jersey to take on the Scarlet Knights for the second time this season. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1.

The last time the teams met was Jan. 5 where MSU stomped RU by 23 points. Even holding them below 50 points for the entirety of the game.

How has Rutgers been doing since?

Over the month of January, the Scarlet Knights' overall record fell to 8-6 and are not ranked in the AP Top 25. They were handed close losses to Ohio State, No. 14 Wisconsin, Penn State and an even closer win over Indiana.

RU will be debuting a brand-new throwback uniform in the game too. It is an homage to the 1982-83 team that was the last RU squad to win an NCAA Tournament game.

Thursday marks the 12th meeting between MSU and RU in the all-time series and the Scarlet Knights have yet to beat the Spartans.

In the last game, Rutgers forced 18 MSU turnovers. This is the most that have been forced in a Big Ten game under Head Coach Steve Pikiell.

This season Rutgers has posted four Quad 1 wins, tied for third-most in the nation. Their four Quad 1 wins are also tied for the most of any Big Ten team including against Illinois, Purdue, Maryland and Indiana.

Rutgers' opponent NET rank is sixth in the nation and their NET strength is ranked as the seventh toughest.

They hold four Big Ten wins for the third time since joining the conference in 2014-15. They've played nine of their first 10 league games against top-50 and six against top-30 opponents.

Their key? Connectivity on both ends of the floor.

They do a good job of sharing the ball. RU boasts an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.45, fourth-best in the league and 20th in the nation. They also rank third in the conference and 23rd nationally in blocks with 4.9 per game.

They also have a dynamic trio in guard Geo Baker and forwards Myles Johnson and Ron Harper Jr.

Harper averages 18.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Baker averages 9.6 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. Johnson averages 8.1 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

MSU will have to work hard against this trio if they want to secure another checkmark in the win column.