No. 13 Michigan State Opens 2020-21 Regular Season on Wednesday

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State men's basketball team opens the 2020-21 regular season on Wednesday, Nov. 25 when it plays Eastern Michigan at the Breslin Center (6 p.m.)

In a late start to the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Spartans will play seven non-conference games, including five at home. Big Ten Conference play is slated to start on Christmas Day, with MSU hosting Wisconsin. The Spartans are ranked No. 13 in the Associated Press Preseason poll and No. 12 in the USA Today Coaches poll.

The game will air live on BTN, with Dave Revsine and Jess Settles calling all of the action. the TCF Bank Spartan Media Network radio call can be heard on one of 38 affiliates and on the web at MSUSpartans.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 98, XM 202 and Internet 965.

Records
The Spartans finished the 2019-20 season with a 22-9 overall record and a 14-6 mark in the Big Ten, sharing the regular season title with Wisconsin and Maryland. Eastern Michigan went 16-16 overall last year and posted a 6-12 mark in the Mid-American Conference.

About the Spartans

For the first time in four years, Michigan State enters a season without two-time consensus All-American Cassius Winston filling his spot at point guard, and without all-everything forward Xavier Tillman Sr. for the first time in three years.
That duo averaged 31.7 points, 12.7 rebounds and 8.7 assists and accounted for more than 40 percent (41.8 percent) of the team's scoring, 31.4 percent of the team's rebounding and 49.2 percent of the team's assists.
Led by junior forward Aaron Henry (Indianpolis, Ind./Ben Davis), a preseason All-Big Ten selection who was third on the team in scoring (10.0 ppg), rebounds (4.6 rpg), assists (2.8 apg) and minutes played (29.0), the Spartans return six other players who started a combined 63 games last year and five who played at least 10 minutes per game.
Among those players are sophomore guard Rocket Watts (Detroit, Mich./SPIRE Academy (Ohio) (16 starts), junior forward Gabe Brown (Ypsilanti, Mich./Belleville) (16 starts), sophomore forward Malik Hall (Aurora, Ill./Sunrise Christian Academy [Kan.]) (9 starts), junior forward Marcus Bingham Jr. (Grand Rapids, Mich./GR Catholic) (16 starts), junior forward Thomas Kithier (Clarkston, Mich./Clarkston) (5) and junior guard Foster Loyer (Clarkston, Mich./Clarkston) (1)
In addition, MSU will welcome back graduate guard Joshua Langford (Huntsville, Ala./Madison Acadmey), who has missed most of the last two seasons with foot injuries, and redshirt junior forward Joey Hauser (Stevens Point, Wis./Stevens Point), a transfer from Marquette who averaged 9.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 29.2 minutes as a freshman ... Langford was averaging 15.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists over the first 13 games of the 2018-19 season.

Series History

The game on Wednesday, Nov. 25 between Michigan State and Eastern Michigan will be the 35th all-time between the schools.
MSU leads the head-to-head series, 31-3, and has won the last nine meetings.
Michigan State posted a 101-48 win over the Eagles on Dec. 21 last year.
The Spartans are 21-1 all-time at home against EMU, including a 6-0 mark at the Breslin Center.

Last Meeting

Cassius Winston scored 21 points and had seven assists to lead five players in double figures as then-No. 15 Michigan State opened up a 21-point halftime lead and cruised to a 101-48 win over Eastern Michigan.
Foster Loyer scored 13 points, Henry scored 12 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had six assists Xavier Tillman Sr. had 11 points and seven rebounds and Marcus Bingham Jr. added 10 points and six rebounds.

About Eastern Michigan

Eastern Michigan enters the 2020-21 season coming off a 16-16 overall finish last year, including a 6-12 mark in the Mid-American Conference.
The Eagles return an experienced lineup, led by redshirt senior guard Ty Groce, who started all 32 games and averaged 11.5 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 31.8 minutes per game … Groce was third in the MAC last year with 1.8 steals per game.
Eastern also returns four other players who started at least 15 games apiece, led by junior guard Yeikson Montero, who started 29 times, scored 9.4 points and grabbed 2.3 rebounds in 23.3 minutes.
Senior forward Thoms Binelli started 15 games and averaged 8.6 points and 3.1 rebounds ... Binelli also connected on a team-best 57 3-pointers while 31.1 percent from beyond the arc.
Senior guard/forward Naoh Morgan started 18 times and averaged 10.0 points per game.