No. 4 UConn heads to East Lansing on Tuesday night for another preseason meeting with No. 6 Michigan State, with tipoff at 7 p.m. from the Breslin Center.
The matchup will stream exclusively on B1G+, with Jacob Maurer, Jack Vohwinkle and Lyric Sloan on the broadcast. Fans without a subscription can still buy the game on a one-time pay-per-view basis for $8.99 at bigtenplus.com/uconn-vs-msu-ppv.
This is the second leg of a home-and-home preseason series that started a year ago in Hartford, when the Huskies won 77-69. The teams also crossed paths later in the NCAA Tournament, with UConn taking a 67-63 Sweet 16 win in Washington, D.C.
Tuesday’s game won’t count in the all-time series, but the history between these programs still runs deep. UConn is 5-4 against Michigan State since the first meeting in 1998, a win for the Huskies on Dec. 5 of that year.
That season ended with UConn capturing its first national title. The Huskies later made their only trip to East Lansing in the 1999-2000 season and lost on Feb. 5, 2000 to the eventual national champion Spartans.
After that, the next six matchups came on neutral courts before the preseason series resumed last year.
UConn enters after opening preseason play with a 72-52 win over Syracuse on Oct. 13 at Mohegan Sun. Na’jai Hines paced the Huskies with 17 points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 20 minutes.
Nik Khamenia added 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. Silas Demary Jr., the BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year, finished with 13 points, five rebounds and two steals.
Freshmen Junior County and Colben Landrew also made an impact, with County scoring nine points and grabbing seven rebounds and Landrew adding eight points and two steals.
Michigan State opened its preseason on Oct. 2 with an 89-59 win over Incarnate Word. Jeremy Fears Jr. delivered a 10-point, 13-assist double-double and added six steals, while Jesse McCulloch led the Spartans with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting.
The Spartans are slated to begin the season at No. 6 in the AP poll, and major metrics project them as a top-10 team.
In Other News...
UConn Is Again A Title Contender But One Test Looms Fast
UConn enters the season with the kind of respect that comes from repeated success, landing No. 4 in the AP preseason top 25 behind Florida, Duke and Illinois. Dan Hurleys team kept three starters, added transfers and freshmen, and once again looks built to spend the winter in the title conversation, even as the Big East showed only one other ranked team in St. Johns at No. 13.
The first real measuring stick arrives quickly, and it is a harsh one for a roster still blending returning pieces with newcomers. UConns nonconference slate is loaded with ranked opponents, and the Huskies will not have much time to ease into things before finding out how this version stacks up against the national elite. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Just Added A New Wrinkle To UConn's Toughest Test
Kansas gave UConn a little more to think about with the addition of Trey Kaufman-Renn, a veteran big man who spent four seasons at Purdue before deciding to return to college basketball. The move comes just before the start of the season, and it gives the Jayhawks another experienced piece as they shape a roster built to handle one of the sports most demanding schedules.
His arrival also fits into a wider NCAA landscape that has gotten murkier, not clearer, as eligibility rules continue to shift. The new five-years-to-play-five-seasons framework has changed how teams and players view roster-building, while disputes over extra eligibility for certain seniors keep adding twists for programs trying to plan ahead. For UConn, it means a matchup that was already going to be a test now carries one more layer of uncertainty. [Read more 🡒]
UConn Gets An Early Reality Check With Michigan State Coming Up
UConns next tune-up comes with a little more edge than the usual preseason exhibition. The Huskies are set to meet Michigan State in the second half of a home-and-home series, giving them an early test against a program that rarely treats October basketball as anything less than serious business. Tom Izzo is back for his 34th season guiding the Spartans, and Michigan State will bring back familiar pieces in Jeremy Fears Jr. and Coen Carr.
For UConn, it is the kind of matchup that can reveal a lot before the games start counting. The timing alone adds some intrigue, and the fact that this one is being carried exclusively on B1G+ means it will be tucked away from the broader college hoops audience rather than played out in the usual national spotlight. There is also some uncertainty around the Huskies lineup heading into it, which only adds to the sense that this exhibition may say a little more than a typical preseason scrimmage. [Read more 🡒]