The No. 21/22 Michigan State Spartans travel to Ann Arbor Saturday to take on No. 24/RV Michigan in the annual rivalry series. For the first time in history, both programs are ranked at the time of meeting for the first of two meetings this season. MSU and UM are both riding a four-game win streak entering the game, and the Spartans bested the Wolverines both times last season.
The game will start at Noon Eastern Time at and be broadcast on the Big Ten Network for a not often enough linear television appearance by MSU.
Michigan State
The Spartans are riding a 6-2 start to Big Ten play, their best since 2015-2016 when the team improved to 8-2 before dropping three of the next four and finished 13-4 in league play that season. Overall, MSU is 16-3 on the season. The team sits in a three-way tie for fourth place with Maryland and Nebraska, both teams MSU has fallen to on the road this season. MSU enters Saturday coming off an 83-61 win over Penn State at the Breslin Center Wednesday night.
Currently MSU sits at No. 18 in the NET rankings and No. 21 in the T-Rankings. UM, by comparison, sit at No. 24 in the NET and No. 18 in the T-rankings.
Michigan State currently ranks No. 13 in scoring offense in the country and No. 2 in the Big Ten, averaging 82.5 points per game. The team gets there via selfless play, sitting at No. 11 in assists per game nationally and second in the league, averaging 18.8. Similar to the men's team, the Spartans also see big contributions from the full roster as the bench averages 27.7 ppg, good for No. 13 in the NCAA.
At the individual player level, graduate guard Julia Ayrault is averaging 16.2 ppg and 7.7 rebounds per game on the season, good for 11th and 14th best in the Big Ten at time of publishing. She now sits with 1,202 career points, good for 16th-most in program history. Ayrault also sits at No. 17 in career rebounds at MSU with 665 and is four away from the No. 16 spot help by Kelli Roehrig (2003-07). Ayrault is also four treys away from the No. 16 spot for career 3-pointers, currently held by Taylor Alton (2008-12) who scored 116.
Not far behind Ayrault in the standings is junior forward Grace VanSlooten with 13.9 ppg (21st in B1G) and 6.9 rpg (T-18th in B1G).
In the backcourt, junior guard Theyrn Hallock is posting 13.2 ppg (28th in B1G) and 2.9 assists per game (T-23rd in B1G) while graduate guard Jaddan Simmons averages 3.2 helpers (T-19th in B1G) and 2.2 steals per game (5th in B1G). Graduate forward Jocelyn Tate is averaging 2.1 spg (T-6th in B1G) while graduate guard Nyla Hampton is averaging 1.9 (T-8th in B1G).
Michigan
Michigan enters the rivalry game at 14-5 overall and sits at 5-3 in Big Ten play. UM is tied with Minnesota and Oregon for seventh place in the league standings. The most recent game for the Wolverines was a 70-65 victory over the Golden Gophers in Minneapolis on Wednesday night.
Long-time head coach Kim Barnes Arico is in her 13th season at the helm in Ann Arbor. She boasts a 275-138 record in Ann Arbor and overall posts a 545-344 record over 29 seasons that include stops at FDU-Fordham, St. Johns, Adelphi, and NJIT.
The Wolverines are led in scoring by freshman guard Olivia Olson, who averages 16.0 ppg, good for 13th in the Big Ten. Fellow freshman guard Syla Swords is second on the team in scoring with 15.8 ppg. She also is seventh in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage (.364).
Senior guard Jordan Hobbs (12.9 ppg) and freshman guard Mila Holloway (10.5 ppg) round out scorers in double figures for UM.
As a team, Michigan is sixth in scoring offense in the Big Ten, averaging 80.8 ppg, and eighth best in defensive scoring, holding opponents to just 62.4 ppg. The Wolverines are also second in the B1G in 3-point field goals made (7.8) and percentage (.357).
Series History
Michigan State got the sweep over Michigan last season and boasts a commanding 75-25 record in the all-time series. The rivalry has been more competitive of late with the Spartans sweep last season being their first since 2018-2019. The Wolverines had also won the three meetings prior to that.
MSU leads the series in all three settings, holding a 29-16 advantage in Ann Arbor, a 37-9 record in East Lansing, and a perfect 9-0 record on neutral courts.
The most recent matchup between the bitter rivals was in Ann Arbor last season. MSU saw graduate guard/forward Tory Ozment lead the Spartans with 16 points off the bench. Junior guard DeeDee Hagemann added 14 points and three assists, while Ayrault chipped in a strong second half to finish with 13 points for scorers in double figures.
UM's Laila Phelia led all scorers with 23 points.
The teams will meet again in just two short weeks, the only repeat opponent on each team's schedule in the new expanded Big Ten with just 18-league games. MSU will host UM at the Breslin Center on Feb. 9 at 2 p.m. Eastern time with the game being broadcast on FS1.
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