The stakes are pretty simple for the Michigan State men's basketball program against Iowa on Thursday. With a win, the Spartans will have their first conference title in five years.
“Honestly, I didn’t bring that up,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said on Tuesday about if he’s been talking to the team about potentially winning a title lately. “I’ll tell you why I didn’t bring it up, because I want to put ourselves in a position where the goal is to win the games. And we think we need to win the games, yes, to win the league. We think we need to win the games to better our chances at seeds (in the NCAA Tournament). We think we need to win the games to better ourselves (and) getting better, especially offensively.
They have two chances to do it, and could even clinch a share before that if second-place Michigan loses to Maryland on Wednesday night. But, regardless of what the Wolverines do, this will be an opportunity to not leave it up to chance during the rivalry matchup on Sunday.
“I said once we beat Maryland (that) we needed no help from anybody,” Izzo also said. “If we get some, great, but we didn’t need any help from anybody. I almost like that mentality: take care of your own business. Don’t hope somebody loses, do enough that you win and that’s the position we’re in.”
Iowa has had a rough season, sitting at 15-14 overall, and 6-12 in conference play, and it is fighting to just make the Big Ten Tournament. That doesn't mean clinching the title will be easy.
“Even games they’ve lost, guys, they’ve been right there," Izzo said about the Hawkeyes. "I don’t make teams better than they are; I don’t make them worse than they are. This is a dangerous basketball team and very, very well-coached.”
Michigan State junior center Carson Cooper explained the team is focused on Iowa.
“For us right now, the attention to detail is at an all-time high,” Cooper said. “Especially Iowa, you can’t look past them, even though they’re not playing great basketball right now, because of what they’ve been able to do to us the last couple of years. It really makes it personal for us, I think. None of us are really looking past that.”
Cooper also said that there has been a running countdown in the team group chat about how many wins the team has to go to win a title. The counter is now at one.
No one on Michigan State’s roster has been in a position like this before. The only player on the roster to win a conference championship of any kind is Szymon Zapala, who won the Big South Tournament last year at Longwood, despite being the No. 5-seed and having a 6-10 conference record.
With respect to Zapala’s accomplishments, one could speculate that a Big Ten trophy will be considered the better of the two.
It’s just been a while, especially for the guys who have to go out and get it.
“It’s exciting to be in the position,” Izzo said. “I’m not making it a bigger deal or a smaller deal, I’m making it, ‘This is why you came here. This is what you do here.’ We don’t hang (banners) of records, we hang (banners) of championships.”
While the Spartans have taken things one game at a time this season, senior guard Jaden Akins noted that winning a championship has been a motivating factor for him since before the 2024-2025 campaign even began.
“I definitely felt an obligation (to go for a title),” Akins said about what he felt before the season. “Coming in, you always see the winning culture here and you just want to continue that forward. I’m just trying to win as many games as possible before my time is done.”
Cooper shared a similar sentiment, noting that while being in the running for a conference title as the season winds down is a good feeling, the team still hasn't actually earned the championship yet.
“It’s pretty cool to be in this position,” Cooper said. “Obviously, there’s not many teams that get to experience that and not many players that get to experience this in their four-year tenure at their school. And I think it’s really cool, but obviously we’re not done yet.”
Making things more challenging for the Spartans is the added emotional charge for the Hawkeyes. Thursday’s matchup will be Iowa’s senior night and rumors have circulated that this could potentially be head coach Fran McCaffery’s final season in Iowa City, something he has denied.
Izzo says this is something MSU is somewhat used to.
“Every time we go somewhere — whether we like it or not, whether I like it or not — the brand we’ve created for us has been pretty special, as evident by not being picked this high and yet being (on) critical TV games and having your last two games on major networks,” Izzo said. “I think every time we go somewhere, people want to take their shot at Michigan State because we’ve taken our shot at them a lot and won a lot of games, so that’s number one.”
Regardless of the environments Michigan State has gone into, though, senior night is always just a little bit tougher, even against an Iowa squad that has struggled this season.
“Number two, senior night is always special,” Izzo said. “Doesn’t matter if it’s here, at Michigan, at Iowa or at Indiana — it doesn’t matter where it is, it’s always special. And those special nights affect everybody differently, but when I can sneak past one or two years — haven’t had to go to a senior night — I always go, ‘Phew, that’s nice.’”
There’s also a bit of a personal score for Michigan State to settle. The Spartans’ last trip to Iowa City was the 2023 team’s catastrophic 112-106 overtime loss, when MSU had an 11-point lead with 60 seconds to go in regulation.
“Right after Wisconsin, I sent the screenshot of the final score (of that loss to Iowa) to the group chat for the new guys and some of the younger guys to really understand the impact this game has and how personal it is, because I still remember we were trying to get (walk-ons) Steven (Izzo) and Davis (Smith) and Nick (Sanders) in at the end of that game,” Cooper said. “There was a minute left and I think we were up 11 or 12, and the next thing I know we’re up by three or something like that.
“That one hurt, especially the after-effect with that’s probably one of the worst losses Coach (Izzo) has ever had since he’s been here and one of the worst collapses that we’ve had. That just brings our intensity up and the personal level even more.”
Izzo facetiously commented on the stunning loss to Iowa in 2023.
“I’ve changed,” Izzo said jokingly about if MSU is in the same spot again. “I can’t yell at players, don’t get upset with them too much, and definitely I’m looking at the glass usually half-full now. You know me, and the glass is half-full. If we get an 11-point lead (with a minute left), I think we have a good chance to win it this time from the experience I had from the other time.”
Despite all that, even if the Spartans do win on Thursday and clinch a share of the title or win it outright, don’t expect too big of a celebration.
“There will be no celebrating for us in Iowa,” Izzo said. “We’ve got a little, tiny locker room there, we’ll go give each other a hug if we find a way to win.
“First of all, I would never do that on somebody else’s court ever. And second of all, (I have) too much respect for coaches, players and fans. And third of all, we have bigger goals than just winning it.
“Winning it, winning it outright, there’s other goals we have: playing better all the time so we get more prepared for the tournaments that are coming up when it’s one bad day, one bad half and then you’re out.”
But before that, it’s about winning the Big Ten. Michigan State-Iowa is set to start at 8 p.m. Eastern Time or 7 p.m. Central Time on Thursday, and the game will be televised on FS1.
“I’m just trying to end (my time at MSU) the right way,” Akins said.
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