Michigan State University Athletics
Photo by: Matthew Mitchell Photography
No. 10 Michigan State Hosts FGCU on Sunday
11/10/2018 9:36:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State's men's basketball team plays its 2018-19 regular season home opener on Sunday, Nov. 11, hosting Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) at 6 p.m.
The game will air live on BTN, with Brandon Gaudin calling the play-by-play and Jon Crispin serving as the color analyst. The Spartan Sports Network radio call can be heard on one of 38 affiliates and on the web at SpartanSportsNetwork.com, with Will Tieman handling the play-by-play and Matt Steigenga serving as the color analyst. The game can also be heard on Sirius 121, XM 195 and Internet 957. For Sunday's MSU Basketball broadcast WDRQ – 93.1FM Detroit, will be airing the Spartans broadcast in its entirety. When WJR has concluded its Detroit Lions broadcast, it will join the MSU broadcast in progress. When that happens both stations will be airing Spartan Basketball.
The Spartans, 0-1 after a season-opening loss to No. 1 Kansas in the Champions Classic on Tuesday, are ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press Preseason poll and in the USA Today Coaches poll.
Michigan State trailed by as many as 17 points and rallied to pull within three points in the final minute of the game, but fell short as the Jayhawks held on for the five-point win. Junior guard Joshua Langford (Huntsville, Ala./Madison Academy) scored 13 of his team-high 18 points in the second half, while redshirt senior Kenny Goins (Troy, Mich./Warren Mott) registered his first career double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Junior guard Cassius Winston (Detroit, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit) had a double-double with 13 points and 11 assists, while senior guard Matt McQuaid (Duncanville, Texas/Duncanville) added 12 points, five rebounds and three assists.
The Jayhawks led 50-36 at the break and extended their lead to 17 points, 53-36, early in the second half, but the Spartans chipped away throughout the final 20 minutes. That led to a 13-5 MSU run, capped by a 3-pointer from Langford, that pulled MSU to within nine points, 58-49. Kansas again pushed the lead back, taking a 75-58 lead on free throws from Dedric Lawson, and held a 12-point lead (89-77) with 3:52 left to play before MSU used a 12-1 run and pulled to within three points, 90-87, on a 3-pointer by redshirt junior Kyle Ahrens (Versailles, Ohio/Versailles) with 34 seconds left to play. After KU went up by four points, 91-87, a Winston layup that would have cut the lead to two points, was off the mark and the Jayhawks hit another free throw with four seconds left to seal the win.
This will be the second all-time meeting between Michigan State and Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) ... The Spartans lead the head-to-head series, 2-0. Both wins against the Eagles were played at the Breslin Center. In 2016, Michigan State led by two points (38-36) at the break and hung on for a 78-77 win over FGCU. The Eagles had a chance to go for the win in the last seconds, but the Spartans held on for the win. Eron Harris scored 31 points, connecting on 10-of-15 shots from the floor and all six of his 3-point attempts, to lead MSU, while then-freshman Miles Bridges scored 13 points.
Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) enters tonight's game with a 1-1 record following a season-opening loss at Illinois State (74-66) and a win over Southeastern (81-54) at home on Thursday night. The Eagles are under the direction of first-year head coach Michael Fly, who was an assistant for seven years and was part of the staff that led the Eagles to the Sweet Sixteen during the 2013 NCAA Tournament. FGCU went 23-12 last year and lost in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament to Oklahoma State. The Eagles return two starters from last year's team – 6-10 senior forward Ricky Doyle (a transfer from Michigan) and junior guard Christian Carlyle – while adding four transfers, including Shadrac Casimir, who was a 1,000-point scorer for Iona in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. In the season opener at Illinois State, Casimir led the team with 18 points off the bench, while redshirt senior guard Dinero Mercurius added 11 points, and redshirt senior guard Haanif Cheatham, a Marquette transfer who was an All-BIG EAST Rookie selection in 2014-15, scored 10 points and five rebounds. Casimir is one of three players scoring in double figures, averaging 17.0 points per game. Cheatham and Mercurio are each averaging 10.0 points per game, while Carlyle leads the team with 5.5 rebounds and is scoring 5.5 points per game.
Michigan State returns three starters from last year's team, which finished with a 30-5 overall record and won the Big Ten Regular Season Championship, posting a 16-2 record in league play.
The Spartans return seven rotation players who have started more than 190 games, led by a trio of juniors –Langford, Winston and forward Nick Ward (Gahanna, Ohio/Lincoln) – who have combined to start 159 games. Ward and Winston were among 10 players selected to the Preseason All-BIG 10 Team at the league's media day earlier this month in Chicago.
Despite losing a pair of NBA lottery picks from the 2017-18 team, MSU returns 59.4 percent of its scoring from last year, 57.2 percent of its rebounding, 57.0 percent of its assists and 60.7 percent of its 3-point field goals made.
The game will air live on BTN, with Brandon Gaudin calling the play-by-play and Jon Crispin serving as the color analyst. The Spartan Sports Network radio call can be heard on one of 38 affiliates and on the web at SpartanSportsNetwork.com, with Will Tieman handling the play-by-play and Matt Steigenga serving as the color analyst. The game can also be heard on Sirius 121, XM 195 and Internet 957. For Sunday's MSU Basketball broadcast WDRQ – 93.1FM Detroit, will be airing the Spartans broadcast in its entirety. When WJR has concluded its Detroit Lions broadcast, it will join the MSU broadcast in progress. When that happens both stations will be airing Spartan Basketball.
The Spartans, 0-1 after a season-opening loss to No. 1 Kansas in the Champions Classic on Tuesday, are ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press Preseason poll and in the USA Today Coaches poll.
Michigan State trailed by as many as 17 points and rallied to pull within three points in the final minute of the game, but fell short as the Jayhawks held on for the five-point win. Junior guard Joshua Langford (Huntsville, Ala./Madison Academy) scored 13 of his team-high 18 points in the second half, while redshirt senior Kenny Goins (Troy, Mich./Warren Mott) registered his first career double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Junior guard Cassius Winston (Detroit, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit) had a double-double with 13 points and 11 assists, while senior guard Matt McQuaid (Duncanville, Texas/Duncanville) added 12 points, five rebounds and three assists.
The Jayhawks led 50-36 at the break and extended their lead to 17 points, 53-36, early in the second half, but the Spartans chipped away throughout the final 20 minutes. That led to a 13-5 MSU run, capped by a 3-pointer from Langford, that pulled MSU to within nine points, 58-49. Kansas again pushed the lead back, taking a 75-58 lead on free throws from Dedric Lawson, and held a 12-point lead (89-77) with 3:52 left to play before MSU used a 12-1 run and pulled to within three points, 90-87, on a 3-pointer by redshirt junior Kyle Ahrens (Versailles, Ohio/Versailles) with 34 seconds left to play. After KU went up by four points, 91-87, a Winston layup that would have cut the lead to two points, was off the mark and the Jayhawks hit another free throw with four seconds left to seal the win.
This will be the second all-time meeting between Michigan State and Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) ... The Spartans lead the head-to-head series, 2-0. Both wins against the Eagles were played at the Breslin Center. In 2016, Michigan State led by two points (38-36) at the break and hung on for a 78-77 win over FGCU. The Eagles had a chance to go for the win in the last seconds, but the Spartans held on for the win. Eron Harris scored 31 points, connecting on 10-of-15 shots from the floor and all six of his 3-point attempts, to lead MSU, while then-freshman Miles Bridges scored 13 points.
Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) enters tonight's game with a 1-1 record following a season-opening loss at Illinois State (74-66) and a win over Southeastern (81-54) at home on Thursday night. The Eagles are under the direction of first-year head coach Michael Fly, who was an assistant for seven years and was part of the staff that led the Eagles to the Sweet Sixteen during the 2013 NCAA Tournament. FGCU went 23-12 last year and lost in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament to Oklahoma State. The Eagles return two starters from last year's team – 6-10 senior forward Ricky Doyle (a transfer from Michigan) and junior guard Christian Carlyle – while adding four transfers, including Shadrac Casimir, who was a 1,000-point scorer for Iona in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. In the season opener at Illinois State, Casimir led the team with 18 points off the bench, while redshirt senior guard Dinero Mercurius added 11 points, and redshirt senior guard Haanif Cheatham, a Marquette transfer who was an All-BIG EAST Rookie selection in 2014-15, scored 10 points and five rebounds. Casimir is one of three players scoring in double figures, averaging 17.0 points per game. Cheatham and Mercurio are each averaging 10.0 points per game, while Carlyle leads the team with 5.5 rebounds and is scoring 5.5 points per game.
Michigan State returns three starters from last year's team, which finished with a 30-5 overall record and won the Big Ten Regular Season Championship, posting a 16-2 record in league play.
The Spartans return seven rotation players who have started more than 190 games, led by a trio of juniors –Langford, Winston and forward Nick Ward (Gahanna, Ohio/Lincoln) – who have combined to start 159 games. Ward and Winston were among 10 players selected to the Preseason All-BIG 10 Team at the league's media day earlier this month in Chicago.
Despite losing a pair of NBA lottery picks from the 2017-18 team, MSU returns 59.4 percent of its scoring from last year, 57.2 percent of its rebounding, 57.0 percent of its assists and 60.7 percent of its 3-point field goals made.
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