Michigan State basketball’s March Madness opponent is Mississippi State in NCAA tournament
Tom Izzo and Michigan State basketball’s NCAA tournament streak lives on.
The Spartans will be the No. 9 seed in the West Region and face No. 8 seed Mississippi State in the first round Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
It is the 26th straight March Madness berth for Izzo, a Division I record, in his 29th season as MSU’s head coach. He missed the 1996 and 1997 tournaments, and the 2020 event was canceled due to the pandemic.
MSU (19-14) closed the regular season by dropping four of five games, then split its two games at the Big Ten tournament in Minneapolis. The Spartans defeated Minnesota on Thursday, 77-67, then fell to No. 3 Purdue in Friday’s quarterfinals, 67-62.
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Izzo last season broke a tie with Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (24 in a row from 1996-2019) for the longest streak of NCAA appearances by a head coach at one school. MSU has been in every tournament since going to the Sweet 16 in 1998, Izzo’s first NCAA tournament berth in his third season after replacing Jud Heathcote. Only Kansas at 34 straight has a longer active NCAA tournament streak than the Spartans, but their 2018 appearance was vacated, meaning the NCAA recognizes MSU as the current longest streak holder.
It is MSU's 37th all-time NCAA appearance. The Spartans have a 72-35 overall record with two national championships and 10 Final Four berths. Their .673 winning percentage is eight-best in Division I history. MSU last season reached the Sweet 16 for the 15th time under Izzo, who is 55-24 (.696) in his 25 previous NCAA appearances.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State's March Madness opponent is Mississippi State in NCAAs
