EAST LANSING – Tom Izzo and his coaching staff have prepared to play 26 different opponents in Michigan State basketball’s first 26 games, including 15 different Big Ten foes.
Two more one-time preps remain, as Izzo and Co. get ready to host Ohio State on Sunday, Feb. 22. Tipoff is 1 p.m. at Breslin Center (CBS).
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After that, the Spartans (21-5, 11-4 Big Ten) travel to No. 7 Purdue, where they will try to win at Mackey Arena for the first time since 2014. MSU’s final three games – at Indiana next Sunday, March 1, at home against Rutgers on March 5 and at No. 1 Michigan to close the regular season March 8 – are the only three repeat matchups before heading into the postseason.
“That’s one of the things that’s more challenging that people probably would not understand,” Izzo said after practice Friday. “But it is more challenging, and it is for everybody. We have a unique thing that our last three games are our only (second-game) preps.”
The Big Ten altered its frequency in playing each other when it added the four former Pac-12 teams last season. It’s a far cry from the days of the 10-team league and 18-game schedule where you faced each team twice. That symmetry ended when Penn State joined the conference for the 1992-93 season, and it became more uneven with the addition of Nebraska in 2011-12 and Rutgers and Maryland in 2014-15. The Big Ten schedule expanded to 20 games in 2017-18.
“I don’t like it,” senior Jaxon Kohler deadpanned after practice Friday before laughing. “You know, it’s interesting, because as someone who’s right in the middle of so much change … it’s crazy to go two years a certain way and then the other two years only playing the majority of our conference one time.”
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MSU on Saturday was a No. 4 seed in the West Region in the initial and official NCAA Tournament bracket projection, the 14th of the 16 seeds revealed. Here’s a look at what to watch for Sunday as the Spartans try to build their résumé and further bolster their bracket positioning.
MORE MSU BASKETBALL: Rating Big Ten, Izzo-Fears award chases
Can Jaxon Kohler get right?
Michigan State’s Jaxon Kohler, right, makes a 3-pointer against UCLA’s Xavier Booker during the first half on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
Kohler had a bounce-back game in Tuesday’s 82-59 blowout of UCLA. The 6-foot-9 forward scored nine points, including his seventh straight game with a 3-pointer, and grabbed 10 rebounds with two assists. He was 4-for-9 overall, flashing some midrange game with turnarounds and fadeaways in the paint.
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“I’m taking all my makes as a win,” Kohler said. “I kind of went through a slump, and it just kind of didn’t seem to end for a while. But honestly, I’m in the gym getting the shots up, and I’m doing nothing different. I’m focusing more on recovery, too, to make sure I have the legs and the energy to get off the floor when I shoot.
“But I’m not losing any faith in my shot. Even though it’s not going in, I know my shot is gonna find its way in the hoop when it needs to. And I feel like that can be any day now.”
Kohler’s cold spell started with MSU’s two-game trip to Washington and Oregon in mid-January, when he went 0-for-7 on 3s. Over the past nine games, including that trip, he’s shooting just 23.8% from deep after going 1-for-3 against the Bruins. In MSU’s first 17 games, Kohler was making 51.6% from 3-point range and averaging 14.4 points and 10.1 rebounds.
It’s a step, Kohler understands. But he also recognizes that defenses have started guarding him far differently since his hot start.
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“The reality is that they respect me as a shooter so much that they have to make sure I don’t find my shot anytime soon. And this is where it gets fun,” Kohler said. “I have to find ways to develop and expand more to my game.”
Denham Wojcik injury update
Michigan State’s Denham Wojcik moves the ball against UCLA during the first half on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
Izzo said after the rout of UCLA that backup point guard Denham Wojcik had suffered a shoulder tweak and sat out the second half.
By Friday, the Harvard transfer and son of assistant coach Doug Wojcik was back practicing in full for the Spartans. Izzo said Denham Wojcik took one practice off to mend, and his health is important as the primary option behind Jeremy Fears Jr. to run the offense.
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“Every day, Denham comes in and he comes to work, do his job. He can spend extra time,” Fears said. “Just to have that piece, a strong, physical guard that can make basketball plays, he’s solid. He knows his role, his job. We all talk to him, coach talks to him. He knows he’s coming in to get guys shots, play defense and do what he needs to do and just be solid.”
Wojcik is averaging 5.7 minutes in his 22 appearances and has just 11 points. The 6-3, 195-pound fifth-year senior also has 28 assists to 11 turnovers with eight steals and five rebounds. But Wojcik’s importance has multiplied with the loss of combo guard Divine Ugochukwu, who was Fears’ primary backup before suffering a season-ending broken foot against Minnesota on Feb. 4.
On Wednesday against the Bruins, Izzo gave Jordan Scott a one-minute trial run at point guard with a little more than 3 minutes left in the blowout win. However, that is more of a long-term project than a potential short-term option in case of injuries or foul trouble, Izzo said Friday.
“It’s not in my game plan right now. Down the road? You never know in the years to come or whatever,” Izzo said of Scott, who began the year on the wing before shifting to shooting guard and taking over as the starter there the past four games. “We’re playing him a lot of minutes now for what he has to do. And I just gotta keep that rotation, and I think we got a pretty good one. … If we just get (Wojcik) two or three minutes here and there and keep everybody knowing what they’re doing, the positions that they’re in, I just think it’s better for us.”
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Ohio State update
Ohio State Buckeyes guard Bruce Thornton (2) dribbles the ball against the Michigan State Spartans in the first half at Value City Arena on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025 in Columbus, Ohio.
This will be just the third meeting between MSU and OSU the past three seasons. The Buckeyes (17-9, 9-6) won the last time at Breslin on Feb. 25, 2024, 60-57, and the Spartans took last year’s matchup, 69-62, on Jan. 3, 2025, in Columbus. Ohio State has won two of the last three meetings, knocking MSU out of the 2023 Big Ten Tournament after the Spartans swept the two regular-season meetings.
The Buckeyes have been up and down all season but are coming off a big 86-69 home win over No. 25 Wisconsin on Tuesday night that followed a four-point neutral court loss to No. 14 Virginia on Feb. 14 in Nashville.
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Coach Jake Diebler, in his second full season after taking over midyear in February 2024, finds his team fighting for its NCAA Tournament life and has yet to pick up a Quad 1 victory in eight tries and ranks 38th in the NET Rankings. Ohio State is 4-4 on the road this season while 12-3 at home.
Senior Bruce Thornton continues to lead the Buckeyes at 19.9 points with 5.4 rebound and 3.9 assists, and Izzo called the 6-2, 215-pound point guard “a bull in a China shop” with his rugged style of play. In five career games against MSU, Thornton averages 14.2 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists making 26 of 63 shots overall (41.3%) but just 7-for-26 on 3-point tries (26.9%).
Devin Royal, a 6-6 junior swingman, averages 14.0 points and a team-best 5.6 rebounds, while 7-foot senior transfer Christoph Tilly is posting 11.4 poinds and 4.7 boards. Guard John Mobley, who has missed the past two games with a hand injury, is second in scoring at 15.1 points with a team-best 70 3-pointers. The 6-2 sophomore is questionable for Sunday.
OSU ranks 11th in the nation in free-throw shooting (78.3%) and 28th in field goal percentage (49.0%) while sitting 73rd in scoring offense (81.2 points). The Buckeyes are giving up 73.4 points, which ranks 162nd.
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Prediction
The Spartans continue to enjoy the benefits of playing at Breslin. Fears puts the defensive clamps on Thornton, while freshman Jordan Scott continues his stellar two-way play and both Kohler and Cooper again deliver big performances on the block. The pick: MSU 84, Ohio State 70.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What MSU basketball must do to bolster NCAA Tournament bracket résumé
