Tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET on ESPN, two top-five teams in the Big Ten will clash in a battle for early conference supremacy when the undefeated No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes (15-0, 2-0) travel to East Lansing where the No. 5 Michigan State Spartans (13-1, 2-0) await. Live stream the game free by clicking this link. Ohio State fans can listen to the action on Sports Radio 97.1 The Fan, while Spartans fans may do the same on Detroit 950 AM.
Spartans coach Tom Izzo did not feed the media platitudes about the energy level he expects from his players for this clash of college titans.
"It better not become another game," Izzo said Monday. "Otherwise, that's disappointing. And yet again, you don't want it to be where it's the biggest game of the year because you do have to learn in this program you're going to have a lot of big games."
They shouldn't be fazed by the magnitude of the pairing, as they've already stared down the Kentucky Wildcats, then ranked No. 1 in the nation, and emerged victorious over John Calipari's fine collection of freshmen.
Part of Michigan State's win over Kentucky was their veteran leadership taking over; part of that leadership comes from point guard Keith Appling. Izzo has cautioned his ultra-competitive point man not to try and go mano-a-mano with Ohio State's Aaron Craft though.
"Sometimes Keith will do that," Izzo said. "It gets to be where those two get talked about and that's not good for Keith. He's got to just play his game. They're two different kinds of players, both very good defensively. But Keith can do some other things -- scoring the ball -- that I think Craft can't do. And Craft can do some things that Keith doesn't do as well. "
Ohio State coach Thad Matta admitted that stopping Appling will be crucial. "You know he's going to make great plays," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "It's trying to disrupt his rhythm, if that's possible."
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