Michigan State Basketball: Preview for Iowa Matchup

As Michigan State basketball goes through their warmup sessions before Tuesday’s basketball game against Iowa, all eyes are on the Breslin Center tonight after a football-heavy day with new football coach Pat Fitzgerald’s press conference.

Although the Spartans enter tonight’s contest against Iowa on a seven game win streak, the Hawkeyes are a heavily underrated team that can shoot the roof off of a gym. As a program, Iowa is shooting 38% thus far into the season, from three-point range, and 53% from the field.

Senior Iowa guard Bennett Stirtz is leading the Hawkeyes with 18.6 points per game, 5.4 assists per game and almost two steals every time he steps on the court. First-year head coach Ben McCollum brought Stirtz over from Drake in the offseason, and has continued to show the nation that his Drake team was not a fluke. Remember, the Hawkeyes moved on from longtime coach Fran McCaffery this offseason.

There are multiple rumors that freshman standout Cam Ward may be out tonight for the Spartans due to a wrist injury, but reports are saying the latest Ward would be back is against Duke on Saturday. That means more minutes for redshirt freshman Jesse McCulloch, and fellow freshman Jordan Scott in the frontcourt.

Besides Stirtz, the Spartans will have a huge advantage on the boards as Iowa’s top rebounder is junior Alvaro Fulguerias, who averages almost five rebounds a game, compared to Jaxon Kohler, who leads the green and white with 9.7 rebounds per game.

Izzo’s team will have another big time test tonight against Iowa. If Michigan State can control the tempo of the game and play it according to the Spartans style, you will probably see a similar result that State has showed us all recently.  MSU must stop Stirtz though, and play fast defensively, especially against Iowa’s dangerous pick-and-roll game, which allows Stirtz to play to his dynamic most of the time.

Tip off is at 7pm.