Michigan State vs Kansas State: 2023 NCAA Tournament game preview, TV schedule, prediction
Michigan State takes on Kansas State in a great contrast of head coaches in the NCAA Tournament. Can Jerome Tang defeat Tom Izzo in the Sweet 16?
TV schedule: Thursday, March 23rd, 6:30 pm ET. TBS
Arena: Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York
Once again, it’s been a rough NCAA Tournament for the entire Big Ten. They entered the event with eight programs and all but one had vanished, including 1 seed Purdue, who lost to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson. The lone program in the conference left is Michigan State (21-12), which makes yet another Sweet 16 appearance under Hall of Fame head coach, Tom Izzo.
The Spartans‘ path to the Sweet 16 was against two teams with quality backcourts in USC and Marquette. In the recent upset victory over the Golden Eagles, Tyson Walker led all scorers with 23 points in the team’s 69-60 win. Joey Hauser also played big in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament and as the saying goes, always trust Coach Izzo at this time on the calendar.
His coaching counterpart is someone that’s new as a head coach in Jerome Tang, a former national-title-winning assistant at Baylor. He’s been the most impressive first-year head coach in college basketball this season, leading a Kansas State (25-9)squad that was picked to finish last in the Big 12 to one of the final 16 teams left playing.
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The Wildcats took care of 14-seed Montana State in the first round. They then took on Kentucky, which had last season’s National Player of the Year (Oscar Tshiebwe) on its roster. But in the end, the star of the game was Markquis Nowell, who dropped 27 points and nine assists in the team’s 75-69 win. He made several key shots in the second half to keep Kansas State in the game.
That’s who the Spartans’ defense will have to key in on. If Nowell and leading scorer Keyontae Johnson (17.5 ppg and 7.0 rpg) go off, Kansas State has a great chance to win this. But as USC’s Boogie Ellis and Marquette’s Tyler Kolek have found out so far this NCAA Tournament, Coach Izzo is one of the best at game-planning an opposing star player out of the game.
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Coach Tange clearly has a bright future and this is likely not his only Sweet 16 appearance with the Wildcats. But it’s hard to go against Izzo and the Spartans right now, who once again have proven to be the Big Ten’s best hope of making noise in the Big Dance.
Prediction: Michigan State 68, Kansas State 61