Thursday, January 28
Piscataway, N.J.
7 p.m.
Michigan State University
at
Rutgers
Photo by: Matthew Mitchell Photography
Michigan State Heads to Rutgers for Thursday Night Matchup
1/27/2021 11:27:00 AM | Men's Basketball
East Lansing, Mich. –The Michigan State men's basketball team will play its first game in 20 days, traveling to play at Rutgers on Thursday, Jan. 28 (7 p.m.).
The Spartans had a road contest at Iowa (Jan .14) and home games against Indiana (Jan. 17) and Illinois (Jan. 23) postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the program. The Spartans will play their next three games on the road, at Ohio State on Sunday and then at Iowa on Feb. 2 as a makeup for the original date.
The game will air live on FS1, with Gus Johnson and Jim Jackson 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 XM 380 and Internet 971.
Records
Michigan State enters the game with an 8-4 overall record and a 2-4 mark in the Big Ten, while Rutgers is 8-6 overall and 4-6 in the league.
About the Spartans
The Spartans had a road contest at Iowa (Jan .14) and home games against Indiana (Jan. 17) and Illinois (Jan. 23) postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the program. The Spartans will play their next three games on the road, at Ohio State on Sunday and then at Iowa on Feb. 2 as a makeup for the original date.
The game will air live on FS1, with Gus Johnson and Jim Jackson 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 XM 380 and Internet 971.
Records
Michigan State enters the game with an 8-4 overall record and a 2-4 mark in the Big Ten, while Rutgers is 8-6 overall and 4-6 in the league.
About the Spartans
- The Spartans have featured a balanced attack, with two players scoring in double figures, five players scoring at least 7.5 points, seven with at least 5.0 points and nine players averaging at least 10 minutes per game.
- Junior forward Aaron Henry, who scored a career-high 27 points in the win at Nebraska, is averaging 13.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.6 blocks and 1.6 steals per game ... He is one of only three players in Division I averaging at least 13.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 blocks per game.
- Redshirt junior forward Joey Hauser is second on the team with 11.9 points and leads the team with 8.1 rebounds ... Hauser scored a career-high 27 points against Wisconsin on Dec. 25, has four double-doubles this year, seven games in double figure scoring, two games with at least 20 points, and five games with at least 10 boards, including a career-high 16 against Notre Dame.
- Sophomore guard Rocket Watts has scored in double figures five times this season, including back-to-back games with 20+ points against Duke and Detroit Mercy ... He is third on the team with 9.7 points per game and is second on the team with 3.4 assists.
- Junior forward Gabe Brown is averaging 7.5 points and 1.7 rebounds.
- Graduate guard Joshua Langford, who has scored in double figures the last three games and needs 55 points to reach the 1,000-point mark for his career, adds 8.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
- Sophomore forward Malik Hall, who had his first career double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) at Duke, is averaging 5.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists.
- Junior guard Foster Loyer is averaging 5.2 points and 2.5 assists and sophomore forward Julius Marble is averaging 4.1 points and 1.6 rebounds in 6.9 minutes.
- Michigan State and Rutgers meet for only the 12th time in program history.
- The Spartans lead the head-to-head series, 11-0, and have won all 10 meetings since Rutgers joined the Big Ten.
- The Spartans won the first meeting this year, 68-45, on Jan. 5.
- After winning the first four meetings against Rutgers by at least 20 points when the Scarlet Knights joined the Big Ten, the last five games in the series have been decided by 9.6 points, including an MSU overtime win during the 2017-18 season.
- The Scarlet Knights enter Thursday's game with an 8-6 overall record and a 4-6 mark in the Big Ten following a 74-70 win at Indiana on Sunday, ending a five-game losing streak.
- RU lost at home to Iowa (77-75) on Jan. 2 and then at Michigan State (68-45) on Jan. 5 before dropping games to Ohio State and Wisconsin and then at Penn State.
- The Scarlet Knights have three players scoring in double figures, led by junior Ron Harper Jr., who is fourth in the Big Ten in scoring with 18.3 points per game.
- Senior guard Jacob Young is second on the team with 14.6 points and leads the team with 2.9 assists, while junior guard Montez Mathis is averaging 11.3 ppg.
- Rutgers in 10th in the league in scoring offense (73.4 ppg) and eighth in the conference in scoring defense (71.1 ppg).
Players Mentioned
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