The #12 Michigan State Spartans and #18 Minnesota Golden Gophers have the only game tonight between ranked teams in NCAA men's basketball. Catch the Big Ten contest at 7 pm EST on the Big Ten Network.
The Spartans Radio broadcast is streaming live here. The Minnesota side of the story will be told here.
The Spartans enter the game with an 18-4 overall record and a 7-2 mark in the Big Ten, with the latter being good enough for third place in the conference. Only first-ranked Indiana and third-ranked Michigan have better records in-conference. Two of Michigan State's losses came against top-ten teams, each time in a conference match. On New Year's Eve, the Golden Gophers won 76-63 at home, and in the other defeat, the Spartans fell to the aforementioned Hooisers squad 75-70 late last month.
Keith Appling is Sparty's leader in points per game with 14 and assists per game with 4.2. Adreian Payne pulls down 6.9 rebounds over average and Branden Dawson is at 6.8 in that department. Payne leads the team in shooting percentage at .605 and also three-point shooting percentage at .636.
Michigan State held off Illinois 80-75 on January 31, which was the last contest for tonight's higher-ranked team. Appling notched 24 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, and Dawson had nine boards. The Spartans overcame a ten-point halftime deficit with a 53-point second half.
The Golden Gophers are three places behind the Spartans in the Big Ten Standings with a 5-4 conference record. Four of the team's five losses all season came in a row, but Minnesota has won a pair of games since. The first two of the defeats were both against the fifth-ranked team at the time: now-first Indiana on January 12 and now-third Michigan five days later.
Andre Hollins is the team's leading scorer, averaging 14.2 points per game and 3.7 assists per game. Trevor Mbakwe has a team-high 8.5 boards per game average, while Joe Coleman (.503) and Rodney Williams (.502) have each hit more than half of their shots this season.
Minnesota defeated Iowa 62-59 on Sunday, with four of the five starters notching double digit points and five-plus rebounds. Hollins had eight assists and Elliott Eliason had the best day off of the bench with six rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Every single Gophers point was scored by the starting lineup.
The Golden Gophers were ranked ninth in the country at the time of the last game between these teams. Michigan State was 18th. Hollins led all scorers with 22 points and six assists in the game and Mbakwe had a game-high 12 rebounds. Minnesota shot 56.6 percent for the game and the Spartans made just two of ten free throws.
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