The wait is finally over. No. 4 Michigan State men's basketball returns to the hardwood tonight to take on James Madison in its 2023-2024 season opener. Start time is set for 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time with the game being broadcast on the Big Ten Network. Streaming is available via the FOX Sports App.
On the call for BTN will be Kevin Kugler and Stephen Bardo. while the Spartan Media Network radio call will feature Will Tieman on the play-by-play and Matt Steigenga as the color analyst.
Read more MSU hoops coverage at Spartans Illustrated here:
- MSU's Tom Izzo, Tyson Walker preview opener vs. a 'good' James Madison team
- Michigan State Men's Basketball 2023-2024 Season Overview
The Dukes of JMU are led by fourth-year head coach Mark Byington. He led the team last season to its first 20-win campaign since 2016, going 21-11 and reaching the Sun Belt's semifinal round of the conference tournament in its first year as a member.
Byington holds a 50-32 mark at the helm of JMU and an overall career record of 188-133 in head coaching career dating back to 2011-2012 as interim head coach at the College of Charleston. He was hired on at Georgia Southern two seasons later and spent seven seasons with the Eagles. This year's squad enters the season as the preseason favorite for the Sun Belt.
That is thanks in part to guard Terrence Edwards who returns as the leading scorer and rebounder last season. Named to second team All-Sun Belt honors and the league's Sixth Man of the Year, the redshirt junior from Atlanta, Georgia average 13.3 points and 5.1 rebounds in just 23.6 minutes per contest last year. Scoring double figures in all but three league games, Edwards shot 52.9% from the field and 45.8% from 3-point range, the fourth-best shooting season from deep in JMU history.
Three transfers, Bryant Randleman (8.7 ppg at High Point), Michael Green III (9.7 ppg, 3.8 apg at Robert Morris, 2020-21 Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year), and T.J. Bickerstaff (5.2 ppg, 5.6 rpg at Boston College) will also likely see immediate action playing for the Dukes this season as well.
On the Spartans' side, it will mark Tom Izzo's 29th season as head coach at MSU. He holds a 21-7 mark in season openers, while MSU overall is 96-28 in home openers, winning 39 of its last 46.
The Spartans are also 150-42 in games played in November, including 96-3 at home. The last loss by MSU in a November home game was to Navy. A David Robinson led Midshipmen squad defeated MSU in overtime, 91-90, on Nov. 29, 1986.
Izzo will be seeing a familiar face on the Dukes' bench tonight. His nephew, Matt Bucklin, is in his second season as an assistant coach for James Madison. The son of Izzo's sister Mary, Bucklin was a walk-on at Georgia from 2009-2012, eventually earning a scholarship with the Bulldogs in his final two seasons in Athens. He became a graduate assistant and later operations coordinator for UGA to start his coaching career. Bucklin went on to spend four years at Clemson as director of operations before joining the staff at JMU.
Tonight's game will mark the second time Izzo has coached against his nephew. The other was when MSU played a charity exhibition game against Georgia in 2017.
As for the matchup against James Madison, it will mark the first meeting between JMU and MSU all time but the 12th meeting against a team from the state of Virginia. Home to more U.S. presidents by birth than any other state in the country, including four of the first five, Virginia holds the distinction of eight presidents calling the state their birthplace. Those include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson.
The Spartans hold a 8-3 mark against teams from the Mother of Presidents state, though. MSU is 2-1 versus George Mason, 0-1 versus Virginia Commonwealth University, 1-1 against Virginia Tech, and 5-0 versus Virginia.
The last outing against a team from the Old Dominion state was a loss to the Hokies of Virginia Tech in the 2019 Maui Invitational. The Spartans fell 71-66 in the tournament opener on Nov. 25, 2019.
As for JMU, the school was renamed after America's fourth President, James Madison, in 1938. Thus it is perhaps a fitting tribute right now in the sports world to reflect on the teachings of one of America's founding fathers.
In Federalist 51, Madison wrote of the challenges in structuring a government to control both the governed, and itself. At present, the Big Ten Conference is struggling with exercising such control of its own in using the paper structure established to govern the league to determine its authority to discipline the alleged wrongdoings of a member institution in another sport.
“It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices [checks and balances] should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions."
As for the hardwood, the game is set to start in just a few hours from time of publication.
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