WATCH: Michigan State's Tom Izzo Talks Tuesday's Meeting With No. 1 Kansas
EAST LANSING, MIch. -- Michigan State men's basketball is just a day away from taking on the No. 1 team in the nation, Kansas.
It will be quite the test for the Spartans, who have only faced much inferior opponents like Monmouth and Niagara, but they are ready for the challenge.
Tuesday's game, which will be held at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia as part of the 2024 State Farm Champions Classic, will be telling of where Michigan State currently stands.
It will be a showdown Spartans coach Tom Izzo is quite familiar with, as he has often had to face a top-ranked team early in the season throughout his previous 14 years coaching in the Champions Classic.
Izzo addressed the media on Monday to discuss the upcoming matchup.
You can watch below:
Below is a partial transcript from Izzo's opening statement from his postgame press conference that followed Michigan State's win over Niagara last week:
Izzo: "I thought we were really average the first couple of minutes. Give them credit, they made those three 3s right in a row. And then, it was a strange first half. We missed five dead-nut layups. Jeremy [Fears Jr.], Frankie [Fidler] missed two ... Carson [Cooper] missed one and Jase [Richardson] missed one. And I mean, layup layups. And you look at that, you say, 'Big deal,' but that's 10 points, and, really, probably would have given us a bigger lead at halftime. I was impressed with them early. I thought they were better than the team we played the other day as far as matchups for us. We had to play Book [Xavier Booker] and a little bit [of] Jaxon [Kohler] on their 4-man, who was a 6-5, 6-4 guard that could take it to the rack. So, that was good practice for what's coming up next, and I thought that was good. We didn't turn the ball over much. We had two late in the game. Got to the free-throw line. I think another big stat was 16 offensive rebounds, but getting 21 points off those rebounds. Fast break is getting better and better. Shooting was -- still missed some good shots, but it's starting to creep forward. And 20 assists out of 35 baskets isn't as many, but we had a lot of driving things and layups that you don't get an assist on. We rebounded pretty well, the second half, I thought we played pretty well."
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