Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET the Indiana Hoosiers (12-6, 2-3 Big Ten) will try to accomplish a daunting challenge, knocking off the No. 3 Michigan State Spartans (17-1, 6-0 Big Ten) in their building after six consecutive conference victories. Watch the game on ESPN or live stream it free by clicking this link. Indiana fans can follow the action on the radio by turning their dials to 97.1 HANK FM, while Spartans fans can find the broadcast on Detroit 950 AM.
These squads met already this year earlier this month, with Michigan State hammering the Hoosiers 73-56 in Indiana's building. Michigan State's Gary Harris bludgeoned them to the tune of 26 points four rebounds and two assists. He also contributed five steals, outplaying Indiana's Yogi Ferrell.
The Spartans have been playing without star big man Adreian Payne, who has a sprained foot, but they're confident in their ability to make do. "We learned to play without (Payne)," said Harris. "Some other guys stepped up. We're building a deeper team." Payne didn't give them much in the win over Indiana either, so the Hoosiers know their depth firsthand.
As the season moves along, Michigan State's defense has gotten better and better. "We're getting there," coach Tom Izzo said. "We're gutting things out. We're better defensively than we were a month ago. We're better rebounding than we were a month ago."
Indiana is certainly a live underdog, having pulled off a major upset of Wisconsin recently. However, they followed that up with an embarrassing loss to Illinois in which they shot 25 percent from the field.
"We have a long way to go, and I can't just put it on youth because obviously some of the younger guys didn't play up to their capabilities," coach Tom Crean said. "We didn't have some of the older guys playing as well. As a team we did not have the hunger that you need to play with on a daily basis be where it needed to be. Northwestern did."
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