NCAA Basketball: Key early-season tournament games for 2021-22 season

Michigan State versus Loyola Chicago

It will be a classic tale of two colleges when the Spartans and Ramblers meet up on Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021. Such a classic tale that ESPN will be airing the match-up when it tips at 12pm as the underachieving Michigan State squad from last year who have experienced a number of changes faces Loyola Chicago who overachieved last season and – for the most part- has remained the same.

Last season the Spartans had great uncertainty at point guard as Rocket Watts was inconsistent when starting, Foster Loyer at times looked as if he could not be effective and freshman AJ Hoggard, well, was a freshman playing for Tom Izzo and averaged slightly over 13 minutes per game. This season the Spartans have Northeastern transfer Tyson Walker (18.8 ppg, 4.8 apg) initiating the offense and will match up very nicely versus returning point guard Braden Norris (8.5 ppg, 3.2apg).

Norris will not be the sole returnee for head coach Drew Valentine as seven of the Ramblers’ top eight scorers are back, with just leading scorer – and fan-favorite – Cameron Krutwig (15 ppg, 7rpg) not doing so. Those same fans, however, will appreciate incoming transfers Chris Knight who averaged 13.6 points with Dartmouth and Princeton transfer Ryan Schwieger who averaged just shy of 11 points while connecting on over 37 percent of his three-pointers.

The Spartans had three starting positions to fill as Rocket Watts transferred, Joshua Langford graduated and Aaron Henry elected to stay in the NBA Draft. In turn, Gabe Brown and Joey Hauser will move into permanent starting roles as Marcus Bingham Jr and second-year player Mady Sissoko look to solve the issues in the middle that plagued the Spartans last season.  Michigan State is a team that still features six former top-100 recruits.