No. 23 Michigan State Hosts Purdue on Friday Night

East Lansing, Mich. – The No. 23-ranked Michigan State men's basketball hosts Purdue on Friday, Jan. 8 (FS1, 7 p.m.). After playing three of its first four Big Ten games away from home, the Spartans are in the midst of playing four of their next five games at home.

MSU has won its last two games, including a 68-45 win over No. 15 Rutgers at home on Tuesday night. The game against Rutgers was the fifth in 11 games against teams that are nationally ranked.

The game will air live on FS1, with Tim Brando and Donny Marshall 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, XM and Internet 83.

Records
Michigan State enters the game with an 8-3 overall record and a 2-3 mark in the Big Ten, while Purdue enters with a 7-5 overall record and a 2-3 mark in league play.

About the Spartans

The Spartans have featured a balanced attack early in the season, with two players scoring in double figures, five players scoring at least 8.0 points, seven with at least 6.0 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 14.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.6 steals per game.
Redshirt junior forward Joey Hauser is second on the team with 12.0 points and leads the team with 8.5 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 9.9 points per game and is second on the team with 3.6 assists.
Junior forward Gabe Brown is averaging 8.2 points and 1.8 rebounds, graduate guard Joshua Langford adds 8.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists.
Sophomore forward Malik Hall, who had his first career double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) at Duke, is averaging 6.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists, junior guard Foster Loyer is averaging 5.6 points and 2.5 assists and sophomore forward Julius Marble is averaging 4.1 points and 1.7 rebounds in 6.8 minutes.

About Purdue

Purdue enters the game on Friday night with a 7-5 overall record and a 2-3 mark in the Big Ten Conference.
The Boilermakers opened conference play with a win over Ohio State (67-60), but have lost their last two games, both on the road, at Rutgers (81-76) and Illinois (66-58).
Junior forward Trevion Williams leads the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 14.1 points and 9.6 rebounds per game.
Led by Sasha Stefanovic (50.7% 3FGs) and Brandon Newman (20 3-pointers), the Boilermakers are sixth in the Big Ten in 3-pointers made per game (6.2).
Purdue is 14th in the league in scoring offense (71.6 ppg) and fifth in the league in scoring defense (67.3 ppg).

Series History

When Michigan State and Purdue play on Friday, Jan. 8, it will be the 126th meeting in program history.
Purdue leads the all-time series with Michigan State, 70-55, including a 71-42 win last year at Mackey Arena
The Spartans have a 33-26 advantage in games played at home.
Michigan State has won 10 of the meetings, but Purdue has captured four of the last seven games.
Tom Izzo is 26-18 in his career against Purdue.

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Players Mentioned

Gabe Brown

Malik Hall

Joey Hauser

Aaron Henry

Joshua Langford

Foster Loyer

Rocket Watts