Men’s Basketball's Final Road Trip is To No. 8/8 Michigan State

Thursday, March 5

East Lansing, Mich.

8 PM

Rutgers University

Michigan State

Photo by: Dakota Moyer

Men’s Basketball's Final Road Trip is To No. 8/8 Michigan State

Mar 02 | Men's Basketball

Watch Live Live Stats

Thursday Game is at 8 pm on FS1

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball will take flight on the rugged road of the Big Ten once more in the regular season. The Scarlet Knights travel to No. 8/8 Michigan State for the team's final regular season road game. The contest will air on FS1 on Thursday night at 8 pm. Connor Onion and Steve Smith will call the action from the Breslin Center.

About Rutgers

Rutgers will hold a 12-17 overall and 5-13 record in league play when the ball is tipped against the Spartans. The Scarlet Knights have won three of their past five games entering the contest, taking down Maryland twice and also earning a win over Penn State. Two of those wins have come away from home, with RU 2-1 in their last three road games prior to the trip to the Breslin Center.

Rutgers is coming off a 69-65 win over Maryland at the XFINITY Center in its last time in action. RU held a 19-point margin at halftime after forcing 14 Maryland turnovers in the first stanza, and withstood the second half charge from the home Terps to hold on for the victory. Tariq Francis led RU with 19 points in the game, including a 10-of-10 mark at the free throw line that was the best performance at the charity stripe for RU in a Big Ten game since Ron Harper Jr. also went 10-of-10 in a contest against Nebraska in January of 2022. Versus the Terps, Darren Buchanan Jr. was clutch with 14 points and seven rebounds, while Jamichael Davis added 12 points and six boards.

Francis leads the team this season in scoring (16.6 points per game), with a six-point lead on second place. He also paces the squad with 80 assists and 154 field goals. He is at 481 points for the year, 19 shy of 500 and 53 points from a top-20 scoring season in RU history.

Checking the Record Books

Most Free Throws Made in A Single Season at Rutgers
4. Bob Lloyd (1965-66) 161
5. John Somogyi (1971-72) 150
6. Quincy Douby (2005-06) 149
Phil Sellers (1974-75) 149
8. Phil Sellers (1975-76) 148
Phil Sellers (1973-74) 148
10. Larry Gordon (1953-54) 146
11. Keith Hughes (1990-91) 144
12. Tariq Francis (2025-26) 136

Best Single Season Free Throw Percentage at Rutgers
1. Steve Kaplan (1969-70) .927
2. Bob Lloyd (1966-67) .921
3. Tariq Francis (2025-26) .910
4. Geoff Billet (1995-96) .900

About Michigan State

Michigan State enters the week ranked eighth in the AP and Coaches Poll, ninth per KenPom, 11^th in the NCAA NET rankings and 11^th per Bart Torvik. The Spartans, under Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo, have 26 straight NCAA Tournament appearances in the 31 years with him at the helm of the program, including over 760 career wins and 370 Big Ten wins.

This is the second straight season that Michigan State has won 18 of its first 20 games, with Michigan State currently on a four-game winning streak after righting a three-of-four slide that followed the team's previous game against Rutgers. MSU is 24-5 overall and 14-4 in the Big Ten.

As a team, the Spartans are top-ten nationally in offensive rebounding percentage on both ends of the court. MSU's rebounding margin of 12.0 is third best nationally and the team also leads the Big Ten in fastbreak points (16.17) and is second in the league in both offensive and defensive rebounding.

Jeremy Fears is one of the nation's top point guards, with an assist rate of 52.8% that leads the nation, topping the country with 9.1 assists per game and 264 dimes overall. He has a 4.26 assist/turnover ratio that is fourth nationally, while leading the team at 15.1 points per game.

Jaxon Kohler is the team's top rebounder, second in the league at 9.2 boards per contest. Kohler is second on the team in scoring on a balanced group that also includes Coen Carr (11.4) and Carson Cooper (10.3). Those four team captains combine for over 60% of the team's scoring and over 50% of the team's rebounding and assists.

About the Series

Rutgers and Michigan State will match up for the 18^th time, and the Scarlet Knights have won three of the last seven meetings after dropping the first 11 games in the series. Rutgers also claimed victories by 21 and 30 points over MSU in past five seasons.

Last time out, Rutgers had a tremendous effort at home in an upset bid of the Spartans. RU led for nearly 36 minutes of game time before faltering late in an 88-79 overtime win in MSU's first visit to Jersey Mike's Arena since February 5, 2022. Tariq Francis led RU with 23 points, one of five RU players to reach double-figure scoring. RU led 19-8 in points off turnovers, forcing 15 MSU miscues. The Spartans used a 38-22 advantage in the paint and outrebounded RU 45-22. Rutgers led by 12 in the second half, but MSU cut the deficit, making a three-pointer with 11 seconds left to force an extra session, and put RU away with a 15-6 margin in overtime.

With A Win

First ranked win of the season
Second ranked win over MSU
Highest ever ranked win over MSU
- Second top-15 win over Michigan State (previously defeated No. 13 Spartans on Feb. 5, 2022).
Sixth top-10 win under Steve Pikiell and first since defeating No. 9 Wisconsin on Feb. 10, 2024
The season's highest win over a team in the Big Ten standings. Michigan State enters the week tied for second (with Nebraska, who play Tuesday). Rutgers' previous Big Ten wins this season came against Northwestern, Maryland (twice), Oregon and Penn State, which entered the week 14^th or below in the league standings.

Up Next

Rutgers will return home and have a short turnaround for the final regular season game. RU will host Penn State on Sunday at Jersey Mike's Arena. That game will be a noon tipoff on BTN. Following that will be the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago. Pending final standings, RU will start action at the Big Ten Tournament on either Tuesday or Wednesday.