In an unpredictable tournament, we have a surprising matchup for Thursday evening in the Big Apple. A spot in the Elite Eight will be up for grabs as Michigan State, and Kansas State meet at Madison Square Garden.#7 Michigan State vs. #3 Kansas State Game Information
- Location: Madison Square Garden – New York, NY
- Time: 6:30 p.m. ET | TV: TBS
Tom Izzo has done it again. The man of March has brought his record-breaking 15th team to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in his career and has done so as a seven-seed.
He holds the record for most appearances in the Sweet 16 as a five-seed or lower, breaking a tie with former Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim. Izzo is the only coach remaining in the field with a national championship, winning it all back in 2000 with the Spartans.
On the flip side, Kansas State continues to defy expectations. First-year head coach Jerome Tang has been awarded National Coach of the Year and is looking to lead the Wildcats to their first Final Four since 1963. If able to do so, it would be undeniably one of the best debut coaching seasons we have ever seen, up there with North Carolina’s Hubert Davis a season ago.
This Michigan State team has gotten here through incredible defensive efforts. The Spartans kicked off the tournament by holding USC to just 62 points and followed it up by limiting a high-powered Marquette attack to just 60 in their upset victory on Sunday.
Their backcourt will face their biggest test against Kansas State’s tandem of Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson.
Nowell and Johnson have been nothing short of clutch shotmakers thus far in the Big Dance, and for Nowell, Thursday will be a homecoming of sorts. The NYC native will have a chance to put his talents on display in his birth city as he continues to shine through his first-ever NCAA Tournament.
There are headlines galore in this matchup, and it’s quite the dichotomy in experience on the sidelines. Will it be the experienced Spartans or the feisty Wildcats? No matter who wins, there will be quite the headline out of New York City on Friday morning.
