The Michigan State men’s basketball team once again earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the 25th consecutive year. The Spartans received a No. 7-seed in the East Region and will face No. 10-seed USC in the NCAA Tournament Round of 64.

The 2023 bid marks a record-setting achievement for Spartan head coach Tom Izzo. It is the 25th-straight appearance by a team coached by Izzo, the most consecutive appearances by a single coach in tournament history. Previously, Izzo was tied at 24 with former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, but he now takes sole possession of the distinction with a 25th-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. You can catch Bill Raftery's tribute video to Izzo's achievement here.

The game is scheduled to be played on Friday, March 17 in Columbus, Ohio at Nationwide Arena. Tipoff is set for 12:15 p.m. Eastern Time and the game will be broadcast on CBS. Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas, and Jamie Erdahl will be on the call.

Michigan State enters the matchup with a 19-12 overall record and finished Big Ten regular season play with an 11-8 record. MSU most recently took a 68-58 loss to Ohio State in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday. The Spartans hold a 3-4 mark in contests on a neutral court this season.

USC has an overall record of 22-10 overall and went 14-6 in the Pac-12. The Trojans most recently lost to Arizona State in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament on Thursday.

The Spartans and Trojans, soon to be conference foes beginning in the fall of 2024, have faced one another just once in tournament history. Then No. 2-seed MSU defeated No. 10-seed USC 74-69 in the second round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament.

The winner of the Michigan State/USC contest will play the winner of the No. 2-seed Marquette versus No. 15-seed Vermont matchup in the Round of 32.

It marks the fifth time in program history that MSU has earned a No. 7-seed in the NCAA Tournament, and a second-straight year. Tom Izzo is 8-4 all-time in his teams' four appearances in the NCAA Tournament as a seven-seed, and has advanced to the Elite Eight (2003) and Final Four (2015) on two of those occasions.

The No. 1-seed in the East Region went to the Purdue Boilermakers, the fourth-time in school history Purdue has earned the No. 1-seed.

The full East Region bracket is as follows:
-No. 1 Purdue vs. No. 16 Texas Southern/Fairleigh Dickinson
-No. 8 Memphis vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic
-No. 5 Duke vs. No. 12 Oral Roberts
-No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 13 Louisiana
-No. 6 Kentucky vs. No. 11 Providence
-No. 3 Kansas State vs. No. 14 Montana State
-No. 7 Michigan State vs. No. 10 USC
-No. 2 Marquette vs. No. 15 Vermont

For the complete tournament bracket, visit ncaa.com.

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