Michigan State basketball: Series history vs. Rutgers

Michigan State basketball and Rutgers haven’t had a ton of matchups, but the series has been dominated by the Scarlet Knights recently.

Michigan State basketball returns home for a noon game against Rutgers on Sunday. The two-game road trip wasn’t kind to the Spartans and ended with a 71-68 defeat to Illinois.

Michigan State has a good chance to get its season back on track against Rutgers, a team that has been struggling this season.

Before the game tips off, let’s take a look at the series history between these two programs.

MSU leads the short series

With Rutgers joining the Big Ten in 2014, you can imagine these teams haven’t played very much. The Spartans and Scarlet Knights have played 15 times in their history, with MSU holding a 12-3 edge in those matchups. This includes an 11-3 record in the 14 games they’ve played as conference foes.

Michigan State was dominant in this matchup when Rutgers first joined the Big Ten, winning the first 10 matchups as Big Ten opponents. When you add the one time they met as non-conference opponents, MSU started this series 11-0.

That’s changed fast in recent years as Rutgers has won three of the last four meetings. This includes the last matchup when Rutgers beat MSU at Madison Square Garden 61-55. Michigan State did win the first matchup last season at home 70-57. This game was the “Jaxon Kohler game” that saw him record his first career double-double against a ranked Rutgers team. Could we see something similar from him this time?

Rutgers season update

The Scarlet Knights haven’t been having a great season so far this year. They come into this game with a 9-6 (1-3) record. Their lone Big Ten win came against an average Indiana team at home, 66-57. The Knights have also not been very strong away from home this season either. They are 1-5 in games away from home including a 1-3 record in true road games.

Michigan State needs this one badly. Their NCAA Tournament streak will be in jeopardy if the Spartans don’t beat the Knights, so this game has more meaning than it typically would in years past. If the Spartans play the way we know they can, they should be pretty happy on Sunday afternoon.