“It'll be a big game for us,” Izzo said at his weekly press conference Monday. “Not only because it's Senior Night, but it's a game we need to win.”

It’s a day at the Breslin Center that’s yielded nothing but positive results for the Spartans for over a decade – their last loss on Senior Day came in 2012 when Draymond Green was a senior. This time around, MSU will need to continue to feed off the energy and emotion that comes with celebrating its elder statesmen, especially in a season riddled with inconsistency. 

The Spartans (17-12 overall, 9-9 Big Ten) began the year ranked No. 4 in the country but quickly fell out of the AP Poll after a 4-5 start. They won 13 of their next 17 contests, positioning themselves nicely for an NCAA tournament run before dropping three straight to slide right back into “bubble” conversations. 

MSU closes out its regular season on the road at Indiana, making a win Wednesday night at home even more critical for the Spartans. Should they drop both and fail to win at least one game in the Big Ten Tournament, Izzo’s streak of 25 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances will be in serious jeopardy. 

Izzo and his squad will have to best a Northwestern team that’s beaten them four times in the last five meetings. A significant part will be containing guard Boo Buie, who averages 18.9 points per game and has delivered his fair share of outbursts against MSU in his Wildcat career. 

It’ll be up to MSU’s guards, two of whom are being honored for Senior Night, to win the matchup against Buie. 

MSU regular starters Tyson Walker, A.J. Hoggard, Malik Hall and Mady Sissoko will be honored on Senior Night alongside guard Davis Smith and walk-on guard Steven Izzo. Hoggard, Sissoko and Smith all have an extra year of eligibility should they choose to return to MSU this offseason. Izzo said he’s not currently focused on such possibilities and said decisions won’t be made or announced until after the season. 

As for Izzo, in his 29th year as head coach of MSU, he made his future in the program clear. 

“It’s not my last game (at Breslin),” Izzo said of Wednesday night's game. 

In the team's recent 80-74 loss to Purdue, MSU played with enough intensity and effort to upset the No. 3-ranked Boilermakers but didn’t shoot well enough, a recurring theme as of late. Walker and guard Jaden Akins, MSU’s top two shooters, combined 6-for-20 from the field in a last-second home loss to Ohio State and 9-for-24 against Purdue. 

For MSU to achieve much in the postseason, it needs the best version of Walker, the version averaging over 20 points per game halfway through the season. Since then, he’s averaged about 15 points, only reaching the 20-point mark twice. 

"I have to take responsibility if my team doesn't play as good as they can play ... and I have,” Izzo said. “I don't hide behind that elephant. And that is a big, big white elephant because there's 600,000 small elephants kind of putting it to me and I really wouldn't want it any other way."

The Spartans have proven they can be a force to be reckoned with when firing on all cylinders. That level, however, has shone through at times few and far between. 

“If we play our best basketball, I think we have a lot of games still left to win,” Izzo said. “That has been the disappointing part for me as the leader. And that’s the part I gotta own up to.”

Michigan State and Northwestern will tip off at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6 at the Breslin Center. Big Ten Network will air the game.