Spartans Men’s Basketball Returns Home Saturday to Host Eastern Michigan

Men’s Basketball Returns Home Saturday to Host Eastern Michigan

Credit Source; Michigan State University Athletics

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State men’s basketball team is set to welcome in-state foe Eastern Michigan to the Breslin Center on Saturday, Nov. 20 for the Spartans’ final home game in November (5 p.m. ET, B1G+).

The game will air live on B1G+, with Ian Gilmour, Brendan Schlabath and Regan Holgate on the call. The TCF Bank Spartan Media Network radio call can be heard on one of 38 affiliates and on the web at MSUSpartans.com, with Will Tieman handling the play-by-play and Matt Steigenga serving as the color analyst. The game can also be heard on channel 992 on the SiriusXM app.

About the Spartans

• The Spartans are coming off a 73-52 victory at Butler Wednesday night in the Gavitt Tipoff Games, as MSU held the Bulldogs to 28.6 percent shooting from the floor in a packed Hinkle Fieldhouse.
• Senior forward and co-captain Gabe Brown (Ypsilanti, Mich./Belleville) led the way at Butler with 19 points (6-for-13), falling one short of his career high, and shared the team lead with six rebounds.
• Freshman guard Max Christie (Arlington Heights, Ill./Rolling Meadows) added a career-high 18 points, while senior forward Marcus Bingham Jr. (Grand Rapid, Mich./GR Catholic Central) had a career-best six blocks to go with 10 points and six boards.
• The win over Butler marked head coach Tom Izzo’s 900th career game and his first game coaching at Hinkle.
• The Spartans play five of their first seven games away from home, including three upcoming games at the Battle 4 Atlantis … Michigan State already had one home win on the season, grabbing a resounding 90-46 win over Western Michigan on Nov. 12.
• Brown is pacing the team with 15.3 points per game, scoring double figures in each of MSU’s first three contests, while redshirt senior forward Joey Hauser (Stevens Point, Wis./Steven Point/Marquette) has the team lead at 8.3 rebounds, including a 12-rebound, 12-point double-double against Western Michigan.
• Bingham is putting together noteworthy start to the campaign, averaging 10.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.3 blocks and 1.7 steals while playing 20.3 minutes per game.
• The Spartans return nine letterwinners from last year’s team that finished 15-13 overall and 9-11 in the Big Ten and reached the NCAA Tournament for the 23rd-straight season, the second-longest active streak in Division I.

About Eastern Michigan

• The Eagles are 1-2 to start the season, but all three games have been within six points. After a 68-62 season-opening loss to Indiana, EMU responded with a 103-98 double-overtime win over Illinois State and are coming off a 74-73 defeat at Northern Kentucky Thursday night.
• First-year head coach and EMU alumnus Stan Heath has a familiar face to MSU fans on his bench, as former Spartan video coordinator Drew Denisco is an assistant coach on Heath’s staff.
• Heath added 11 newcomers to his roster, including five transfers, and the Eagles were picked 11th in the MAC preseason coaches’ poll.
• Stepbrothers and transfer guards Noah Farrakhan and Monty Scott are tied for the team lead with 18.3 points per game. The pair each posted 21 points in the loss to Northern Kentucky, going a combined 18-for-33 from the field.
• Scott also posted a career-high 28 points in the double-overtime win at home over Illinois State.
• Mo Njie has a team-best 6.5 rebounds, while Scott paces EMU with 2.7 assists and 2.0 steals.
• Freshman guard Andrew Wells is an East Lansing native and appeared in seven games for the Eagles last season

Last Meeting

• The Spartans opened their 2020-21 season with an 83-67 victory over Eastern Michigan, as guard Foster Loyer dropped a career-best 20 points on Nov. 25, 2020 in the Breslin Center.
• After EMU took a 19-17 lead with 8:50 to play in the opening half, MSU rattled off a 13-0 run to jump out in front by double-digits.
• Forward Joey Hauser added 15 points and pulled down nine boards in the win, going 6-for-9 from the field.
• Forward Gabe Brown came off the bench to post 12 points in 17 minutes.
• Michigan State handed out 27 assists on 30 field goals, including 15 of 16 in the first half.

Series History

• Michigan State holds a 32-3 advantage in the all-time series with Eastern Michigan.
• The Spartans are 22-1 against EMU in East Lansing, with the lone Eagles win (35-23) on the MSU campus coming back on Jan. 30, 1926.
• MSU is 7-0 in contests against EMU in the Breslin Center.
• Tom Izzo is 8-0 against Eastern Michigan, including six wins at Breslin.
• The last EMU victory over the Spartans came on Dec. 12, 1987 in Ypsilanti, as the Eagles pulled out an 84-80 overtime win. MSU has won the next 10 meetings.