Michigan State Men’s Basketball Season Opener Announced

Michigan State and Tom Izzo will look to finish next season with a much better NCAA Tournament seed, but have had to trade away and add in several new players. However, it remains the ever-steady Coach Izzo who will soon begin another journey toward an NCAA Tournament appearance and, if Coach Izzo gets his way, another NCAA Tournament victory.

Michigan State’s first step down that path was recently announced. According to the program, the Spartans will open their season with a nonconference game against Niagra, scheduled for Nov. 7 at the Breslin Center. Last season, the Spartans opened their season with the program’s first appearance against James Madison, a game the Spartans would lose.

Michigan State and coach Izzo will be hoping for a different result next season as Michigan State plays a school in its first home game for the second consecutive year.

Izzo and Michigan State are still in the process of learning more about their schedule for next season. So far, few details have been released about the team’s schedule. Earlier this offseason, it was announced that Michigan State and Oakland will play their annual game against each other on December 17th at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. In addition, Michigan State has committed to participating in the Champions Classic this season.

Many details likely still need to be worked out, as adding new teams to the Big Ten brings new logistical requirements. Not only has the conference added several new schools, but many schools are on opposite sides of the country, requiring further scheduling. The Big Ten has grown to 18 teams, but will maintain its 20-game conference schedule.

Michigan State will play Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan at home and once away next season. Michigan State will play only USC, UCLA, Maryland, Iowa, Northwestern, Ohio State and Rutgers, and will play each of those teams on the road. Michigan State will also play Indiana, Penn State, Purdue, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington once each, with all of those games taking place in East Lansing.

Michigan State lost solid contributors as AJ Hoggard, Tyson Walker, Malik Hall and Mady Sissoko all moved on. However, Izzo and the Spartans were also able to add some talented players to their roster by adding transfers Frankie Fidler and Szymon Zapala. Izzo was also able to sign three talented freshmen: Kur Teng, Jase Richardson and Jesse McCulloch.

“It’s important to me that I have the rest of my core back, and now these guys have to get better, and that’s going to be interesting,” Izzo said at the Detroit Economic Club in early June. “Looking around our conference alone, we have schools with 10, 11 new guys. Other people have done it differently. There’s a lot of ways to skin a cat, as they say. We’ll see how it works out. But I’m excited. So we have everybody back. I love the chemistry. When we start practicing more with them, I’ll tell you if I like the production.”

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