Michigan State opens as the NCAA Tournament late show with no designs on going home early.
The Spartans (27-6) won the Big Ten regular-season title and extended the program’s streak to 27 consecutive appearances in the tournament. They were given the No. 2 seed in the South Region in Cleveland. The reward is a Friday night matchup with America East champion Bryant (23-11) scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. ET to close out two days of first-round games.
A delayed bedtime aside, head coach Tom Izzo promises to bring a high-alert Michigan State squad to town before what likely is to be a partisan, traveling “Izzone” crowd. For relative comparison, the Big Ten tournament title teams — Wisconsin and champion Michigan — have Thursday games at altitude in Denver.
“I’m ecstatic about where we are. We played awfully good ball, I don’t know if we have ever had a stretch where we played that many high powered teams in critical situations, on the road, short prep time,” Izzo said. “I think we’re prepared for the tournament.”
Bryant has run up against only a few NCAA Tournament teams this season. The Bulldogs lost to St. John’s (99-77) and Grand Canyon (112-66) in December during a four-game losing streak, then went 17-2 after the calendar flipped to 2025.
Head coach Phil Martelli Jr. said Izzo called him Saturday, before knowing they were opponents in the first round, to congratulate him on winning the conference tournament. Phil Martelli Sr. retired from coaching after successful runs at Michigan and St. Joseph’s and also talked to Izzo last week.
“(Izzo) talked to my dad and said, ‘You know, one of these predictions had us playing Bryant.’ And he said to my dad, ‘You know, that really (stinks) for you,'” Martelli Jr. said. “And (Martelli Sr.) goes, ‘Why?’ And (Izzo) goes, ‘You have to root against your son.'”
The Bulldogs are led by a power tandem in Miami and Memphis transfer Earl Timberlake, the America East Player of the Year who averaged 15.5 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.8 blocks per game. Another senior guard, Rafael Pinzon, is Bryant’s leading scorer with 18.5 points per game.
Bryant was eliminated in the First Four in 2022 in the program’s first NCAA Tournament. Martelli Jr. became head coach in 2023, moving from assistant coach to interim to the full-time replacement for Jared Grasso.
Michigan State strolls into the tournament highly tested. Seven of the Spartans’ final eight games were against Top 25 teams. They went 7-1, dropping the Big Ten tournament semifinal to Wisconsin, 77-74.
Being a No. 2 seed isn’t new for Izzo. In 2016, the Spartans lost in the first round to Middle Tennessee State. In 2019, they mowed their way to the Final Four.
The usual Izzo tenets apply to this bunch of Spartans: win the rebounding battle, run with a numbers advantage, and get downhill on offense. If MSU has a glaring weakness, it would be shooting, with no singular perimeter threat and a woeful 325th ranking in 3-point percentage (30.8).
Freshman Jase Richardson has become vital to Michigan State’s success as a multi-level scorer playing next to senior Jaden Akins, who has helped spread Izzo’s message that tournament games are won “in the meeting room, in the locker room, or in the hotel” by the team that is best prepared.
“The game will be won before it’s played 90 percent of the time,” Izzo said. “I think that’s your leaders, your seniors that have to get that through to guys, and then Jaden being one of our key guys he’s got to play his best, too.”
Richardson entered the starting lineup in February and has since averaged 17.3 points per game. The son of Jason Richardson, who was on the Spartans’ 2000 national championship team and a second Final Four squad the following year, Jase Richardson seems as if he might’ve been bred for the moment, Izzo said.
“He’s beyond his years in youth. He’s not a freshman. Pressure does not seem to bother him,” Izzo said.
–Field Level Media
