Purdue Basketball Gets Second Chance Against Michigan State in Big Ten Tournament Semifinal
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Coach Tom Izzo and the Michigan State basketball team has won more Big Ten Tournament championships than any other program in the conference.
The Spartans are a benchmark of sustained success in the league. They have six conference tournament titles, 10 Final Four appearances and two national championship victories — including one under Izzo.
Purdue has been crowned Big Ten champions a conference-leading 24 times in program history, but its still looking to reach new heights. And now it gets a rematch with Michigan State on a neutral floor.
The two teams tip off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse for a semifinal matchup in the Big Ten Tournament. The winner moves on to play either Indiana or Iowa.
"From our perspective, they're the ones that went to the Final Fours and we haven't, so they're the flagship program of our conference," Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. "That's how we've always looked at it. If you want to be that team, you want to win our league, you want to advance in the NCAA Tournament, you've got to be able to compete with them and be able to beat them.
"And obviously this year we didn't beat them. They were one possession better than us, and now we get a chance to go back and compete again with them."
The Boilermakers traveled to East Lansing, Michigan, to face the Spartans back on Feb. 26, falling short in the final moments 68-65. The loss contributed to the team falling out of Big Ten regular-season title contention.
It was a matchup that featured a season-high 17 turnovers by Purdue, despite a career-high 25 points from sophomore center Zach Edey.
Despite losing five of its last seven games, Michigan State catapulted into the postseason to win back-to-back contests. The team narrowly escaped a late comeback attempt by Maryland in the second round of the Big Ten Tourhament, winning 76-73 after leading by as many as 20 points in the second half.
It set up a matchup with co-champion Wisconsin, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, during the quarterfinals Friday afternoon. Senior center Marcus Bingham Jr. led the way for the Spartans, tying a career-high with 19 points while adding 11 rebounds in a 69-63 win.
"One thing about Marcus that my staff, we always say, he could have left three times and wouldn't have blamed him," Izzo said of Bingham after the game. "But he just kept coming back for more, and I sure would like to see him end his career on a serious, positive note."
The team held Big Ten Player of the Year Johnny Davis to just 11 points on 3 of 19 shooting. The Badgers got 23 points and five fouls out of senior guard Brad Davison, but they couldn't overcome shooting a collective 36.7% from the floor for the contest.
On Friday, Purdue was the only team that earned a double-bye to advance to the semifinals, taking down Penn State 69-61, and now it gets another shot at Michigan State as a result.
The Boilermakers are 0-4 all-time against the Spartans in the Big Ten Tournament, including a 66-62 loss in the championship game in 2016. Michigan State boasts a 35-17 record since the event's inception in 1998, the most of any conference program.
"They're blue-collar, there's nothing cute about it," Painter said. "They're going to come at you, they're going to defend, they're going to play the right way. They have depth, (Izzo) always has depth, and you've got to be hooked up or they'll embarrass you.
"So it will be a good Big Ten matchup, but we've got to play better. We played really good in spurts. We got to be more consistent. We weren't very consistent when we played them the first time, and a lot of that had to do with them."
Stories Related to Purdue Basketball
- JUST STAY READY: Brandon Newman didn't know when his time would come or when his name would be called. But when he checked into the game for Purdue on Friday night against Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament, he didn't let the opportunity go to waste, scoring 12 points in a 69-61 win. CLICK HERE
- NEWMAN FUELS PURDUE VICTORY OVER PENN STATE: Purdue was the only top seed to avoid an upset in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday, beating Penn State 69-61 to advance to a revenge match with Michigan State in the semifinals. They got a huge boost from Brandon Newman, who scored 12 points. CLICK HERE
- PHOTO GALLERY: Purdue defeats Penn State 69-61 in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals on Friday, and there are 30 pictures to show for it. Take a peek inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse at the close-up action. CLICK HERE
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D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.