Once upon a time<\/em>, Michigan State basketball<\/a> and Indiana State played for a national title.
That was March 26, 1979, in Salt Lake City, where the Spartans, led by Magic Johnson and Greg Kelser, topped the Sycamores, led by Larry Bird, by 11 points in the NCAA tournament final \u2014a game that\u2019s generally credited as one of the epic matchups<\/a> that created what we now know as \u201cMarch Madness.\u201d
Since then? Well, you\u2019re reading this via the Freep, so you probably know that the Spartans, under head coach Jud Heathcote, and then Tom Izzo, went on to become a perennial Final Four contender. The Sycamores, meanwhile, have made just three NCAA tournaments since, losing in the first round in 2000 and the second round in 2001 and 2011.
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But this year might be the year for another NCAA revival; the Sycamores are 11-1, with the one loss coming to Alabama back on Nov. 10. It\u2019s not an especially dignified NCAA resume so far: two conference wins, plus three wins over MAC squads (by two points over Toledo, 23 points over NIU and nine points over Ball State), but hey, you can only beat who\u2019s on the schedule.
And just like that magical 1978-79 season, the Sycamores have a star gaining attention as much for his skills as his, er, appearance. Robbie Avila is no Larry Bird \u2026 but he\u2019s a center whose rec specs and loose haircut might make you mistake him for the team manager \u2014 if he wasn\u2019t 6 feet 10 and 240 pounds. As a freshman last season, he averaged 10.7 points, 4 rebounds and 1.6 assists; this season, he\u2019s at 16.5 points, 6.6 boards and 4.2 assists.
The \u201cCollege Jokic,\u201d as he has been called this year<\/a> \u2014 referencing the two-time NBA MVP who finally won a title this summer \u2014 takes it all in stride as he fuels one of the nation\u2019s top offenses. Indiana State is No. 27 in the NCAA\u2019s NET rankings, with a pair of Quad 2 wins, and No. 59 in Ken Pomeroy\u2019s rankings \u2014 the Sycamores have an offense that ranks 34^{th<\/sup> and a defense that ranks 101st<\/sup>. It\u2019s a mix that\u2019s not far from the up-and-down Spartans, who come in at No. 21 according to KenPom \u2014 an offense that\u2019s No. 37 and a defense that\u2019s No. 12.
In short, while Magic and Larry Legend aren\u2019t hitting the Breslin Center court today, this could be a matchup as tough for the Spartans as their season opener against James Madison was. Y\u2019know \u2026 once upon a time<\/em>.
Matchup:<\/strong>\u00a0Spartans (7-5) vs. Indiana State (11-1).
Date:<\/strong>\u00a0Saturday, Dec. 30.
Time:<\/strong>\u00a02 p.m. ET.
Where:<\/strong>\u00a0Breslin Center in East Lansing.
Spread:<\/strong>\u00a0Spartans by 8\u00bd.
\u2022\u00a0}Box score<\/a>
TV channel:<\/strong>\u00a0FS1.
Stream:<\/strong>\u00a0FoxSports app and\u00a0Fubo (free trial)<\/a>.
Radio:\u00a0<\/strong>WJR-AM (760) (Spartans\u00a0radio affiliates<\/a>).
Find Michigan State’s entire\u00a02023-24 schedule<\/a>.<\/em>
Contact Ryan Ford at<\/em>rford@freepress.com<\/em><\/a>. Follow him on X (which used to be Twitter, y\u2019know?)<\/em>@theford<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>
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Once upon a time, Michigan State basketball and Indiana State played for a national title.That was March 26, 1979, in Salt Lake City, where the Spartans, led by Magic Johnson and Greg Kelser, topped the Sycamores, led by Larry Bird, by 11 points in the NCAA tournament final \u2014a game that\u2019s generally credited as one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n