Michigan State’s basketball season is about to get serious.

The No. 11-ranked Spartans (3-1) will face No. 17 UCLA at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving night in the semifinals of the Las Vegas Invitational, at the Orleans Arena. The game will air on FS1.

The winner will face North Carolina or Texas on Friday, at either 4 p.m. or 6:30 p.m.

UCLA is 4-0, having beaten Presbyterian (80-65), Long Beach State (91-80), St. Francis (95-58) and Purdue/Fort Wayne (96-71).

“These teams we’re playing now are huge,” head coach Tom Izzo said. “(UCLA and North Carolina) are two of the biggest teams we’ll play. And Texas has some size too. They are athletic, quick and press.

“All three of them have more size than us and two of them have enormous size. My biggest concern is size, and a little bit foul trouble.”

* UCLA center Moses Brown, a 7-foot-1 freshman, has impressed Izzo on film. Brown is second on the team in scoring at 17.3 points per game, and leads the team with 12.0 rebounds and 3.3 blocked shots per game.

Brown, of Queens, NY, was ranked the No. 28 high school player in the nation last year by Rivals.com.

“Brown is 7-1 and he’s good,” Izzo said. “He can do some things. He’s playing a lot of minutes for them right now so we’re going to have to wear him down too.

“They play three or four that are 7-foot-1, 6-foot-10, 6-foot-9, they have three other 6-8 guys. Carolina has eight of them, 6-8 and bigger. So size is an issue, but they have to cover us too.”

* Sophomore guard Kris Wilkes is leading UCLA in scoring at 17.5 points per game. He is one of four Bruins averaging double-figures. Wilkes was ranked the No. 20 player in the nation, coming out of Indianapolis North Central in 2017.

“They’ve got good guards,” Izzo said. “Some of them are young. The Wilkes kid, who we recruited a little bit, is probably the most talented kit.

“They run pretty good like we do, so turnovers will be important. They go eight, nine deep, but they can go 10, 11 if they want to throw some guys at Nick (Ward).”

* Izzo has been eager to take on the challenges of the next 20 days, which includes six games against major conference opponents, including two Big Ten games. But he’s also concerned.

“This is going to be arguably one of the toughest six-game stretches that I’ve ever had,” he said. “I mean there’s no game in between, there’s only one home game.”

After the Las Vegas games, Michigan State will play at Louisville as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Tuesday.

Then Big Ten play begins with games at Rutgers (Nov. 30) and Iowa (Dec. 3), then a game at Florida on Dec. 8.

“We’re trying to look at it one game at a time but we also want to be aware that we have a lot of games coming up and they’re all tough,” Izzo said. “I’m hoping that’s why they (MSU’s players) came here. One in awhile you bit off more than you can chew.”

The Spartans have won three straight since losing to then-No. 1 Kansas in the Champions Classic on Nov. 6.

Michigan State has beaten Florida Gulf Coast (106-82), Louisiana Monroe (80-59) and Tennessee Tech (101-33) since Nov. 11.

“We’ve got an opportunity to really find out where we are, win or lose,” Izzo said. “I think it’s going to be a challenge for the young guys. That is difficult for us right now. We are trying to figure out which guys can play. We figure we’ve got seven or eight men in the playing group and then some of those freshmen are going to have to play.”

The starting lineup of Cassius Winston, Matt McQuaid and Josh Langford in the backcourt, combined with Nick Ward at center and Kenny Goins at power forward will be supported by post player Xavier Tillman, wing Aaron Henry and wing Kyle Ahrens off the bench.

After those eight, Izzo is trying to find trustworthy pieces from a pool of players that includes freshman post player Marcus Bingham, freshman wing Gabe Brown, freshman post player Thomas Kithier, freshman point guard Foster Loyer.

“There are times when I want to play a guy like Marcus, and there’s time that I think because of the body and the weight that it’s going to be harder to play him. So then do you put Kithier in there? Do you put Foster in? Do you put McQuaid at the point.

“You have to learn how to win championships if you’re going to be a champion and that’s what I’m looking at right now. But also: What can we do in the future? That’s the juggling act.”