No. 4 Michigan State Hosts Southern Indiana on Thursday

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State's men's basketball team plays its second game of the season on Thursday, Nov. 9, hosting Southern Indiana at the Breslin Center (7 p.m., BTN).

The game will air live on BTN, with Kevin Kugler and Stephen Bardo calling all of the action. The Spartan Media Network radio call can be heard state-wide and on the web at MSUSpartans.com, with Will Tieman handling the play-by-play and Matt Steigenga serving as the color analyst and Blake Froling is the studio host. The game can also be heard on channels 119 or 196 on SiriusXM and on the SiriusXM app.

About the Spartans

The Spartans opened the season on Monday night with a 79-76 overtime loss at home to James Madison ... Graduate guard Tyson Walker led the Spartans with 35 points, the most he has scored in his career at Michigan State and one point shy of his career high.
Michigan State entered the 2023-24 season ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 poll and the ESPN Coaches Poll … It is the highest the team has been ranked entering a season in the AP poll since being No. 1 prior to the 2019-20 season.
The Spartans return four starters and 11 letterwinners and welcome in a recruiting class that has been rated among the top-five in the country to a team that went 21-13 last year and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
This year, the Spartans return 74.9 percent of the team's scoring (1,805 of 2,411 points), 66.9 percent of the team's rebounds (606 of 906), 85.1 percent of the team's assists (423 of 497) and 75.9 percent of the team's minutes played (5,234 of 6,900).
The Spartans expected starting lineup – Walker, A.J. Hoggard and Jaden Akins and forwards Malik Hall and Mady Sissoko – have combined to start 494 games (253 starts) in their college careers ... Walker leads the way with 121 games played (111 starts), while Hall has played in 119 games.
The Spartans expect to be led by a backcourt that could rank among the best in the country.
Walker and Hoggard were selected to the Preseason All-Big Ten Team.
Walker, who was named to the Watch List for Division I Player of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, led the team in scoring (14.8 ppg), ranked No. 11 in the Big Ten in scoring and field goal percentage (45.9%) and 10th in minutes played (34.0).
Hoggard was third on the team in scoring (12.9 ppg) and led the team, ranked third in the Big Ten and No. 9 nationally, with 5.9 assists per game.
Junior Jaden Akins was fourth on the team in scoring (9.8 ppg) while adding 4.0 rebounds, 1.2 assists and shooting 42.2 percent from 3-point land.
Graduate forward Malik Hall returns for his fifth year at MSU and was fifth on the team last year with 8.9 ppg and third on the team with 4.3 rpg despite missing 11 games with an injury.
Senior forward Mady Sissoko moved into the starting lineup last year and responded with 5.1 ppg and 6.1 rpg while blocking 28 shots.

About Southern Indiana

Southern Indiana opened the season on Monday night with a 75-63 loss at Saint Louis, with junior guard Jordan Tillmon scoring 15 points and grabbing eight rebounds to lead the way.
The Screaming Eagles were picked to place ninth place in the Ohio Valley Conference by the league's coaches and fifth by Blue Ribbon Yearbook ... In its first year in the league last year, USI finished in a tie for sixth place and was the seventh seed in the Ohio Valley Championship.
Southern Indiana has seven new players on its roster and is replacing 68.3 points per game from last year's roster.
USI Head Coach Stan Gouard is in his fourth season at USI after 12 years at the University of Indianapolis ... Gouard led the Eagles to an appearance in the CBI last year in the program's first season in the OVC ... USI was a long-time Division II member, winning the 1995 NCAA title and had 28 NCAA Tournament berths.
USI's nickname, interestingly, used to be the Spartans until a vote of the student population in 1970 changed the mascot to the Screaming Eagles in honor of the 101st Airborne unit, housed at nearby Ft. Campbell.

Against Southern Indiana

The game against Southern Indiana will be the first-ever meeting between the teams.
The last time USI played a Big Ten team in the regular season was in 1991, when the Eagles beat Wisconsin, 78-66, on the road.

Against the Ohio Valley Conference

Southern Indiana joined the Ohio Valley Conference last year and the Screaming Eagles will be the sixth school from the Ohio Valley to match up against Michigan State ... The Spartans have a 10-0 all-time record against teams from the Ohio Valley
Michigan State has played games against UALR (2-0), Eastern Illinois (1-0), Morehead State (1-0), Tennessee Tech (4-0) and Western Illinois (1-0).
MSU's last win against a team from the OVC was a 101-33 win over Tennessee Tech on Nov. 18, 2018.

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Players Mentioned

Jaden Akins

Malik Hall

A.J. Hoggard

Mady Sissoko

Tyson Walker